Lititz Run 5/19/2013

On Sunday morning a friend and I decided to hit the little stream of Lititz Run to celebrate the day our kids were born :).  We decided to meet at 5am.  I was going to fish until 7:00.  This would give me enough time to get back to the house to feed horses and be ready for church.  The way the sun has been lighting up the morning, it would be a nice start to the morning.  Well, this day was different. 

 

When I got to the stream at 5, it was still pitch dark.  There was a lot of cloud cover and small showers that moved in and made it impossible to see your indicator at this time.  So we talked a little before we hit the stream.  I decided to work this stream using the Chain Gang Caddis as my point fly and putting a new design, scud missile, as a dropper off of this.  It turned out to be a winning combination for today for me. 

 

 

I was super happy with how the fish liked the scud missile!! 

 

 

 

 I also picked a couple up on the  Chain Gang Caddis. 

 

 

Today was not a day for large fish, but I had my best numbers day ever.  It was a fishing time filled with fiesty fighters though.  Most of the fish were rainbows but I also picked up a couple nice looking brookies. 

This is a stream that has had a lot of work done on it.  It is a spring creek that is one of the local success stories of what can happen to a creek when you put work and effort into it.  There was several occasions that killed all the bugs that could have lived in this water.  Now, there are several bugs returning to this stream.  While we were there, I was observing what looked like a pale morning dun hatch.  There were not any fish rising to these mayflies but it was absolutely thrilling to watch this hatch as it progressed.  It wasn't prolific but it was a thrill to see.

These last couple photos show some of the rainbows we were catching.  Oh wait, only one photo shows.  The other photo shows how fiesty they were as just before the pic was taken it figured a way to be released out of my hands before proof could be had of being caught.  :)  Well, I was having such a great morning that I lost track of time.  I didn't leave the stream until 7:30 and almost was late getting my chores done.  But it was an exceptional morning as I was enjoying God's creation and also got home to celebrate my son's 12th birthday.

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! 

Small flies

I get a kick out of tying some small flies. They are a lot of fun as I try to pay attention to the detail of the small patterns.

Just finished up some more flies for a fly shop. Here are some tellico nymphs, y2k eggs, zebra midges #20, and some stripper midges #24.