Saturday, April 30, 2011

Unofficial Guide Day

Had my good friend Dyson from back home come up today with his dad Mr. Carter to do a little spring trout fishing. The original plan was to fish the Tulpehocken Creek, however with the amount of rain we have been getting the flow was just a little to high (900cfs) to take them out. We decided early this morning to make the hike to Valley Creek outside of Philly.

Having a few other anglers to work around we had little action in the morning but ended up with one nice fish on a streamer. Around lunch time we went further into the park and found that most anglers had left for the day. The sun came out and the caddis started flying. 

Dyson and Mr. C ready for some spring rises

Nice Brown took a swung streamer

Dyson's first trout on a dry fly

Nice brown took a CDC Caddis

Just a neat picture

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Featured Fly - Z Wing Caddis

The Z Wing caddis is a very effective pattern this time of year with caddis starting to emerge. Hanging this fly off of a caddis dry is one of my favorite ways to fish it when there are selective fish feeding. One other variation of this pattern is tied with a bead head to add a little weight.


 Z Wing Caddis

Materials:
Hook: TMC 2457 sz. 14 -20
Abdomen: Yellow Tan East Coast Dudding
Rib: Copper Ultra Wire (sized to match hook)
Back: 3 or 4 Peacock Herls
Wing: Lemon Wood Duck feather
Wing 2: White or Gray Antron yarn
Collar: Yellow Tan East Coast Dubbing
Head: Peacock Herls
Z Wing Caddis Pupae

Start off by making a thread base; tie in the ultra wire (copper) to match the size of the hook

Tying back to the hook bend add 3 or 4 Peacock herls.

Dub the abdomen. Green dubbing can be substituted for Tan

Fold the Peacock forward and tie off, keeping the herls close together to form a nice back strap. Wrap the wire forming a rib and tie off with peacock.

Select 3 Lemon Barred Wood Duck fibers, tie in  about 1.5 times the length of the hook. Select a short length of Antron and tie it in the center pointing it back on each side of the hook. Cut Antron to about half the hooks length.

Make 2 or 3 wraps of Tan dubbing in front of the Anton to make a collar. Finally take the 3 or 4 peacock herls and make 2 or 3 wraps to form a head then tie off. Whip finish and head to the river!



 
Nice healthy brown on Valley Creek.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Salmon River NY April 11

Got a chance to get up to the Salmon River one last time before they start heading back to the lake. I met up with my good friend Joe and we set off looking for drop backs. Sunday night the water jumped from 750cfs to 1200cfs. Finding fish was a little tricky, but we had a few spots in mind and with a little walking and searching we found a few in the morning.

Around 3 Joe and I put the boat in the water and headed down river. Having a boat makes covering a lot of water in a little time pretty easy; it wasn't long before we got into a few nice fish.

All in all its been a great season up north and if I'm lucky I may get one more trip in before my mind gets back into trout mode!
Joe with a nice drop back hen.

Me with a double-banded  drop back buck. 

Buck

The perfect hen to end the season with! 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Thumpin Jack Flash Stonefly

This is a pattern that I came up with this past winter for Steelhead and Brown Trout in the Great Lakes. So far this season it has been very successful fool all 4 species in the lakes including Atlantic Salmon and even King Salmon.


Materials
Hook: TMC 2457 Sz. 6 – 8
Thread: Uni-Thread 6/0
Body Weight: Lead Wire .025
Tails and Legs: Black Goose Biots
Dubbing: SLF Kaufmann Black Stone
Back: Scud Back Black
Rib: Mono .006
Flash: Estaz (Blue, Orange, Fl. Chart, Fl. Pink) 
Back Strip: Twisted Crystal Flash (to match estaz)
Wing Case: Thin Skin Mottled Oak Black



This Atlantic was taken on Oak Orchard in November
 

The Thumpin Jack Flash




Here are the 4 colors that have worked well this year.