Successful Clients

I received a couple emails recently of some of their success on recent trips to the streams. The first pic is of Kevin Smith who was using the Chain Gang Copper John on his trip to Chile. It is a really beautiful brown with some nice size. He highly recommends this trip to anyone. The Andes mountains are gorgeous and the fishing was great.

The second photo is from Michael Byers who has been a client of mine since I started. He lives in MI and was enjoying time on his water when he hooked into a nice brown using an Opal Caddis dry fly I had tied for him. This brown was his first dry fly fish of this year.

Congrats to both these guys in successful times on the water.

Orders

I didn't have much time to do anything but fish lately.  There have been a few orders I have worked on.  A couple of fly shops have needed to restock and here are a few of those that went out in the mail.  Out the door goes a bunch of Zebra midges, some purple soft hackles, and a batch of Y2K's.

Contest Flies

I am not even sure anymore how I heard about a new fly tying contest but the deadline is March 15 to be post marked. So I put a package in the mail for the Baxter Bulletin fly tying contest.

There are seven categories. I am sending in flies for five of them. The categories I have flies for are trout nymph, trout soft hackle, trout streamer, small mouth bass, and bass. Any of the below patterns are available through MyFlies.com Custom Order. 

For the Bass category, this is a pattern that I had a lot of success with in the fall of 2011.  It is called "Movin & Groovin".  It got its name when my daughter came home from kindergarden and said she had fun at Movin & Groovin time at school.  Well, I found out it was the teacher's way of getting some of the excess energy out of these young energetic kids.  This pattern just made me think of the kids movin and dancin around the room.  The tail is made of bead chain and allows me to attach shorter materials to make a longer pattern.  The tail is made of artic fox and ostrich herl.  This pattern swings and dances in the water that the fish find irresistable!  It is always moving even when at rest.  When you strip it and then give a pause, the water just makes this thing pulsate. 

"Movin & Groovin"

 The second pattern I submitted was for the trout streamer group.  It is a newer concept but utilizes the same mechanics as the Movin & Groovin by using the bead chain to lengthen the body and have extreme motion. 

Sculpin 

The third pattern was for the small mouth group.  This is a new pattern too but has a lot of trigger points to it that should get the fish's attention.  A little bit of flash for the antenna, tons of movement with the marabou and the rabbit strip back, and lead dumbbell eyes placed close to the bend of the hook to allow this pattern to drop level, as most crayfish do.  I am currently fishing with this pattern in black, brown and olive. 

Crazy Craw

The fourth pattern is for the trout wetfly group.  This is a new idea as well.  I am using UV Chewee Skin on the body and pheasant tail feathers for the hackle.  The Chewee skin gives a nice reflective quality about the body and is a nice attractor.



Chewee Soft Hackle

The fifth and final pattern is similar to the soft hackle in that it is using the same body material, UV Chewee Skin.  I am tying this pattern in caddis green and tan, with or without a bead head. 

Chewee Caddis

March 11 fishing trip

I got to go do some fishing with a friend on his boat today. The temps were a little chilly in the morning but it warmed up in the afternoon. The skies were bright blue and it turned out to be an awesome day on the water.

We decided to try the Susquehanna river and also spent some time on the Juniata river. The Susquehanna was flowing a little high and was a touch cloudy. It wasn't awful even with all the rain that came through up north a couple days before. There were a ton of boats where the Juniata empties into the Susquehanna.

We spent considerable amount of time on the Susquehanna at some really decent spots but to no avail. So we decided to run up the Juniata and see what might happen up there. The water was crystal clear. At five or six feet deep you could still see the bottom.

We fished most of the afternoon and evening on this water. There were less boats which was nice. We had more of the water all to ourselves. Well, except for A few guests.

This first visitor we had, thought he was hidden or was going to be totally territorial if we got too close to his grass patch that he was enjoying. This muskrat was enjoying the sun as he nibbled the small green patch that he found. We found it quite comical the way he kept about his business as we floated over to check him out.

The other visitors we had were a little more annoying but it was fun to watch them flying around. The only problem with them was they ended up flying all over us at times. So we had them on our hats, clothing and on our hands. Here was some of the little black stoneflies that stopped by for a visit.

Unfortunately as fishing can go sometimes we had an awful day. We didn't bring one fish to hand and we didn't even long line release any. I don't know if it was the high pressure, the recent full moon, or what other excuses I could come up with but we just didn't have any luck. I was able to fish some of my new designs and with the clarity of the water was able to see how the swam in the water. I came away thinking that they are going to be worth another try. I was happy how they looked before I fished them and after. I just didn't get any fish approval. Sometime soon I will have to post some pics of the new designs. And till then I can show some fish that liked them too.

Donegal spring show

On Saturday march 10 I attended the Donegal spring outdoor show. This is a great event to attend. There are all kinds of vendors from fly tiers, material vendors, reptile rescue ( which seemed popular as they were holding the alligator and snakes out for people to touch and experience), guides, kayakers, rod makers, bowyers and more. This event supports the Donegal Fish and Conservation Association. They do some great work educating kids on conservation, stocking a stream for a kids fishing day, modifications to Donegal creek, and lots if other great things.

I was able to meet some great people at the show. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table!

Sculpin Swap

I signed up to do a sculpin swap with a bunch of other tiers.  So this weekend I sat down and tied up my group of sculpins.  This was a new pattern for me so I am anxious to fish them and have the others fish them to get their respons on how well they fish for everyone.