Tulpehocken - 4/17/2013

 

 

I planned a morning of fishing with Bill M., a good friend of mine.  We met in Ephrata and traveled together to the Tulpehocken to fish the special regs area of this stream.  We got there a little after daylight and got suited up.  It was a couple weeks since I last hit the water and I was really looking forward to it.  The water level was just perfect.  We knew there were fish in the water because when we got there the Blue Herons were trying to take claim to certain spots along the water. 

 

The water temps were perfect at about 51 degrees.  The water flows were about 140 cfs which turned out to be an awesome level.  As soon as we were on the water, it didn't take long till I had my first fish of the day.  It was a nice rainbow that took a pink and white Y2K egg.  I have to admit, I am not the best fisherman around.  I am a better tier than I am a fisherman.  I would have had double the numbers brought to hand if I would have done better at giving good hook sets.  There were several flies that brought fish to hand for me today.  Anything from the Y2K (yellow/orange and pink/white), Chain Gang Pheasant Tail, Chain Gang Hares Ear, Double Duty, and even a #24 stripper midge.  The two that did the best were the stripper midge and the Y2K, and actually the stripper midge brought the biggest fish of the day for me. 

There were spent midges on the water everywhere.  And actually the fish were rising to them all over the place.  Although, I couldn't break off my rust and connect with any of the rises.  I did a great job of missing every rise that came to my small BWO Foam Biot Emerger, which happened to be the smallest dry fly I had with me.  I wasn't expecting any surface action today.  I used my ice magic and managed some short hookups but nothing to hand.  Like I had said earlier, there are some things I need to work on so that I can have more fish come to hand. 

Well, I hope everyone gets the chance to be out on the water soon.  It was a great morning for being outside and especially to be out fishing.

 

 

 

Replenishing fly boxes

Things have been crazy lately as spring time rolls around. There have been a lot of people thinking about what is empty in their fly boxes and so have either been ordering through MyFlies.Com or have been visiting their local shops. Fly shops have been contacting me for flies to replentish their supplies and clients have been trying to fill their empty slots in their fly boxes. Here are some of the most recent orders that have gone out the door.

Chain Gang Stonefly




Chain Gang Hares Ear



Loopty Loop




Chain Gang Pheasant Tails




Y2K & Tellico Nymphs




Yellow Stonefly dries





Spirit of Pittsford Mills





Brown Beacon And Loopty Loop

CRO Flies

When I was at the "Tie One On" event a couple weeks ago, I received an invite from the guys at CRO Flies to go fishing on the Tulpehocken. This is a stream I have fished somewhat but at limited locations and for short amounts of time. There is a section of this stream that is a couple miles long that is designated by the state of PA to be delayed harvest. This means that for most of the year it is a catch and release stream only. And for the month of March till the opening day of trout, special regulation streams are the only streams you are allowed to fish on for trout.

I was looking at my schedule and wanted to take my son out to test out his new waders. Well, I notified these guys that I was going to get on the water for the first time this year. They worked it out for their schedule to meet me on the water Sunday. Unfortunately for my son, he got a cold and had to miss out on this opportunity.

I found out from Luke where to meet along the stream. Even though he forgot what his brother drives, I was able to get to the correct parking lot and met these guys along the stream. They were at this one spot that was to be good. There wasn't too much action there so we hopped on over to another location.

At this next location there were a few other fishermen that had the same idea as us. But there was plenty of room for us all. These guys know this stream like the back of their hand. They might even have each rock and each hole named. They put me in a great spot but I have to say I am probably a better tier than I am a fisherman. These guys though, knew where to put their fly and get great drifts. I was excited to see both of them connecting with fish on both sides of me. I did pick up my first fish of the year out of this spot. I was using the Double Duty in brown with copper bead and copper ribbing. Josh got the big fish award for the day, when he picked up a real thick shouldered 17" or so, holdover rainbow.

We finished the rest of the evening out at one more great little spot. I rolled a couple fish and got into a good fighting sucker. All in all, it was a great day of fishing and a great time with some new friends. Thanks CRO Flies.

If you ever need a day on the water and want some cool dudes to guide you, I highly recommend you schedule a trip with the guys at CRO Flies. They know how to put you on fish. But you need to be able to set the hook and keep them on your line if you want to put them in your net. And maybe if you fish with them you will use a new pattern that I put them onto, even if Josh gets a good laugh at this crazy simple pattern! 

Tie One On

Today was the Tie On One event that was held at Woods Creek Grill. It was an awesome day of tying and listening to tying presentations.

The location was great. It was the first time I was ever at Woods Creek Grill. They have a unique menu. You can get anything from elk chili, to alligator, and even rattle snake. There was one guy that tried the rattle snake. They have a neat way of presenting this entree. I had a cup of the trouder(trout chowder). This was an item on their special menu for the day. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There were a lot of great instructions presented on how to tie a multitude of patterns. Anything from eggs, nymphs or streamers. There were a lot great pointers on how to make each pattern better.

It was nice of everyone to make me feel good about my presentation. I have never struggled through my pattern as much as I did today. I think I snapped my thread at least twice, I fumbled through my talking and I had to borrow a white shirt cause no one could see the fly against my dark shirt. Besides this I had fun doing this presentation for the first time. Hopefully I can become a better speaker if I can get rude of my nerves of public speaking.

I want thank Tyler Frantz and Josh Ott for hosting such a great event. It was a great time and I look forward to doing this again and meeting you guys along the stream sometime soon.

Fly Fishing Show - Lancaster

I was tying this weekend at the Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster PA. This was the first I did this for this show. I had a blast. I met some great people that stopped by my table and also talked with the other great tiers that worked the show. These shows have so much to offer. If you engage the people at the stands they always seem so willing to share some great info. You can learn a lot from them to enhance any aspect of your fishing needs, whether it be for casting, tying, and other things. If you get any chance to attend these shows I highly recommend it. Plus it gets you out of the house and thinking of spring!

I did a lot of tying my chain gang stonefly. There was a lot of questions about this pattern from how to fish them, how to tie the bead chain on, etc. I had a great time discussing these answers to these questions and hopefully those guys can enjoy this pattern as much as I have.

Boutonnière

I received a unique request this week. A lady asked if I would be willing to design a fly for her wedding. They want a fly to wear as the boutonnière for their wedding. She provided me with the colors of the tartan he will be wearing. He does a lot of muskie fishing, so I came up with a design using some green, blue and some gold flash. I thought it looked great. As well as she did.

Kids tying designs

I had some fun this weekend with some time with my kids as they wanted to do some tying. So I took my Ice Magic pattern and gave them their choice at any color they wanted. I thought they came up with some pretty cool color combinations.


My son chose red tail, orange body, grizzly hackle, multi colored wing and red shoulder.

My daughter chose blue tail and shoulder, purple body, orange hackle, and red wing.