Reckless Outdoors: Row, row, row your boat...

After floating the Lehigh with Shane on Saturday, my Dad and I hopped into the car on Sunday afternoon and headed for Reading where we meet up with Jake and Steve, the most badass mailman around. Now my dad taught me much of what I know about fishing in general, but he is not a fly fisherman. On this trip, however, he agreed to give it a go. My only goal for the evening was to have my dad catch at least one smallmouth with a fly rod and thankfully it all worked out. About half way through the float, after some coaching on casting, stripping the fly and just getting used to having a 9 foot rod in his hands, my dad landed his first ever fish on a fly rod, a spunky little Schuylkill River smallie! Well done Pops. In other news, between Jake and myself we saw 4 muskies and had two follows in the short float we did on Sunday afternoon. Talk about exciting! Seeing a big gnarly tooth filled face eyeing up your streamer boat side is a huge adrenaline rush, and the fish didn't even eat the fly! I'll be back after those fish for sure.

My dad and I on the Skuk

The first of many on the fly rod

Monday morning found me on the road to meet up with Jake to float the Lehigh. We decided to do a longer float than Shane and I did on Saturday, and it paid off with some solid fishing. We arrived at Bowmanstown around 10:30 and put the boats in the water for a full day of fishing. We each floated alone in our own boats so we could pick up some friends later on during the day. The fishing was disappointingly slow again in the earlier part of the float just like it had been on Saturday with Shane, but we still had high hopes for the later part of the day.

Me hydrating in the brutal heat

A solid fish that was chasing bait on the bank and decided to rock my streamer

Close up

Jake pounding the water with some new streamer patterns

Jake was on a hot streak with these 3 nice fish in just about that many casts

The view downriver from my boat

It was a Litespeed and Scott rod party on my boat on Monday

Around 5 o'clock Jake and I rowed into Walnutport where we met up with my buddies Shane and Tom. Shane hoped into Jake's boat and Tom jumped into mine and we headed for Tom's house right on the river about 3 miles below us. The fishing was pretty good right off the bat with a bunch of smaller fish coming to hand right away, but the fishing was still far from great.

Tom working his magic

Shane and Jake floating along just downstream from us

Tom with his first respectable bass of the evening

Just upriver from Tom's house, it was like someone flipped a switch. Within minutes, it went from a fish every few hundred yards between the two boats to a fish every few casts for every angler. We had a blast and finally rowed into the takeout at Tom's in darkness. Overall, it was an awesome three days of fishing with some of my closest friends and family. Sometimes the fishing was good and sometimes it wasn't so good, but it was always fun. My arms and shoulders sure are feeling it after three days of rowing the new boat. I took a break today, so I might give it a go tomorrow. We shall see. Enjoy the pictures and get out there and fish! Smallmouth fishing is an absolute blast and it is a great way to get out even in the heat of Summer!

Tom with a super solid fish that killed a swung zuddler