Dog days.....

It is hot and fishing is slow, but now is the time to get ready for steelhead! This season I will be tying up lots of Czech nymphs for steelhead. Every year I fish this style more and more. For the great lakes steelhead angler, it is perfect. Simple, buggy, heavily weighted flies simply produce fish! Fly patterns I recommend include frenchies, the iron lotus, hot spot caddis nymphs. Get cranking on the vice because fall is almost here!
Tight lines

Coil leaders!

I got to fish a spring creek this weekend, and it was the perfect opportunity to fish a coil leader. I first heard of these from PA guide Lance Wilt, and then again from nymph guru George Daniels. These are constructed by winding a high viz leader material on a dowel rod, boiling it, then freezing it to set coils in the leader. To fish it, you attach the coil to the end of a leader, add tippet and then grease the coil. It rides high on the water, and detects strikes in slack water. When a fish strikes, the coil stretches out. It is best fished on suspended fish in slow water where a traditional indicator won't be sensitive enough. For more info, check out George's book Dynamic Nymphing. Just one more trick to have in the bag!

Time is coming to start getting ready for: Spring steelhead, saltwater season, trout and smallmouth! We have been busy! First up, we are headed to Casa Blanca to scout out a trip for 2013. My fish-sassin (I combined the words fish and assassin, how clever) fishing partner Matt G and I are headed out in the middle of March. In the meantime, it is time to start hitting Ohio for spring run steelies. Should be a good year, with plenty of water around to be sure! I love this time of year, we get to heal from the previous guide rush, and get ready for a whole new season. My goal is to wear the finish off of my vice jaws, and I think I might pull it off! Happy fishing to all and tight lines, we will keep you posted on the latest!

Time to stop being lazy! So here goes.... We are getting ready for steelhead already here. The spring was pretty lame, with high water, cold temps and then hot! The good news is that it has been giving us plenty of time to plan for trouble in the upcoming year. Together with Jim over at Yellow Dog, we are putting a trip together for the Yucatan at Grand Slam Lodge... Wicked pumped about this! In addition, we have added Hardy to the line up at the shop. Now I can finally start fishing all those reels I have been collecting for years. As far as current fishing, the Allegheny for trout or the lake for white bass are offering the best games around.... We promise to start posting a bit more, and can't wait to flood the site during steelhead season!

Snow has covered the ground here since about the second week of December, so we are all getting a little bit twitchy around here. We are looking forward to a good spring! The snowfall totals are not really all that impressive, but not horrible either. Many of us are paying attention to this, as water conditions were so low last year, and we really need to recharge the water tables. Many of us believe that this was the primary factor in a low fish return year. With any luck, we will get a couple of nice dumps here before the spring comes, and fishing will pick up! With that being said, we have fished a pretty good amount in 2011 already. Trips to Penns and the Keys have come and gone with mixed success. I will post again with trip details soon! In the meantime, back to the vice!

Above: Mark form CT. with another nice fish from Elk

Low water and tight spots!

Low Water and Tricky Fish....

With the extremely low water, the fish are finding tough spots to hole up in. I had the pleasure of being out with Matt G. this monday, a client who has graced this blog with smallmouth pictures this spring. We had a headlamp early start, and began hiking down river. We caught a few here and there when we came upon this area. We both saw this bucket, and knew that fish would be holding in it. But would it be worth even trying to hook one?
As you can see, the tree lays over the entire hole, which is about 3 and 1/2 feet deep. There is about 6 feet in front of the log, and other 8 or so behind it. The gap between the log and the rock below Matt is about 8 inches. This spot held maybe 6 fish in it, so it was awfully tempting. Matt threw several casts in it, and kept managing to get his line threaded through the mess in a half decent drift. It is some of the best fishing I have seen in years.... Below is a clip featuring a client from a couple of days ago releasing a fish, and Matt threading a fish through the trees!

Above is the SECOND fish Matt pulled out of that same hole... Unbelievable. Below was the first fish he pulled out of it... An amazing bit of angling. On a side note, Matt also rose a fish to a dry that same day.



I just love underwater cameras! A steelie waiting for the release in the net.

Can you say low water conditions?

Despite how tough it was this weekend, fish we still cooperative.

Well, now it is time to get back at the vice, and break out the rain dances!!

Beware of "Steelie Pumpkin"

This is the season, and we have had one filled with ups and downs! The water levels have been all over, from low and clear to up and raging. It seems the creeks can't make up their mind. From a guiding perspective, there is nothing more frustrating. It is not just low and clear water that makes it tough... at times it can be just finding fish. That said, most days we have been getting it done. Here is some fish porn from the past couple of weeks.

Note the clear water above... been pretty much the norm...

A nice buck taken in fast water

Wild baby steelhead anyone? There was tons of water last fall, spring and summer, allowing some rare natural reproduction... Don't get too excited, conditions don't allow for this often, but there is a limited amount.

And last but not least, a bit of shakey video!

This fish cut off at the last minute, but gave a nice tussel in between!!