Wow, I Suck!

This blog has been so dead it's not even funny.  I keep saying I'm gonna keep it together and stay on top of it, but school, work and fishing keep getting in the way of it.  Anyway, let's try this one more time.  I floated the lower section of a local creek here in State College with my buddy Justin today looking for some big browns.  We had high water, big streamers, and a new trailer for my boat to break in so we had high hopes for the day.  Justin met me at my dorm around 1:15 and we were off.  After picking up the boat, we headed to the water.  We only had enough time to do a short float of about 4 miles, but that was enough.  We moved some really good fish, tested some new patterns and caught some nice fish so it was a successful day in my book.

Justin with a great Central PA streamer caught fish. 

As of today, I'm done with my classes until Monday the 11th, so I have some big plans for spring break.  Some of my friends are going to places like Florida or California to party, but for me, this weekend marks the start of a multi-state, multi-day fly fishing marathon.  The old Camry will have some serious miles put on her with the trailer in tow in the pursuit of big fish.  First stop on the list will be the Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster, PA on Saturday on my way home from school.  Sunday's stop will be the lower Lehigh River with my buddy Shane looking for some early season muskies.  Monday will find me floating down the Schuylkill with Jake and Casey from the Reading shop again searching for the big toothy SOBs.  On Tuesday, I'll be headed for the Catskills to float the Upper Delaware with Justin chucking some more big streamers around.  On Wednesday I'm planning to head down to Western Virginia for the day again searching for muskies.  Thursday I'll actually spend some time at home with my parents which I think they will appreciate, but Friday it's back to the Delaware with Justin and our other buddy Stephen.  Saturday and Sunday will find me out in Ohio with the two hander swinging some new water in search of fresh chrome and then back to school late Sunday night to be ready for class on Monday.  It's gonna be a rough week, but I can't wait!  See you all on the other side.  Spring and rising fish are right around the corner, so it's back to the vise for me... I have plenty of Hendricksons to get done tonight.  Be well folks.

The Brothers Brown

As some of you may have figured out, I am a streamer junkie.  I love throwing big flies for big fish.  Smallmouth, Brown Trout, Muskies... it doesn't really matter as long as I get to break out a big rod and toss big gnarly streamers at them.  Fly fishing film maker Robert Thompson is the creator of one of my favorite fish pornos, the HUGELY successful (and super, mega badass) film Musky Country: Zero 2 Hero.  Well RT is killing it yet again with his latest film, The Brothers Brown.  This new video follows the exploits of the Grajewski brothers from Michigan.  While relatively new to the spot light of the fly fishing world, these three brothers know their stuff.  They absolutely hammer both big browns and some of the largest muskies I have ever seen caught on a fly rod quite regularly.  The middle brother Matt is becoming quite well known for his creative articulated streamer patterns and for his collaboration with Nick Granato on the newly revamped Fly Obsession blog that is loaded with sick fish porn photos and some outstanding fly tutorials.  Both Nick and Matt are great tiers that are always working to push the envelope with new materials, techniques and styles of flies looking for that next big thing, so be sure to check them out.  While the elder and younger Grajewski brothers aren't blog famous as far as I know, they are both incredible fisherman as well and from what I have seen and heard, a blast to hang out with.  From the looks of this short trailer, RT has really stepped up his filming game and I absolutely can NOT wait to see this new movie!  Check out the clip below (and RT's vimeo page if you have some time and wanna have your mind blown with some super cool footage) and be sure to be on the lookout for the actual movie in the Fly Fishing Film Tour coming to an area near you.  Until then, stay thirsty my friends.



The Brothers Brown trailer from RT on Vimeo.

Spring Creek in the Snow

As I said in my last post, I had made plans to try and head West to big water, but even the best laid plans sometimes fall through and I ended up fishing locally over break.  I fished Valley a few times, and while it wasn't great, I enjoyed being out in my old stomping grounds.  Then on New Years Day, Jake, Casey and myself all hit the water and fished a small wild brown creek near Reading in the morning and then headed over to the Tully in the afternoon.  We had a good time together and caught some nice fish.  Jake should be putting up a post on that trip soon since he's got all the pictures, so be sure to check out his blog.  After a relaxing break with family and friends, some hunting ( finally connected this season!), and some fishing back home, I headed back to State College this past Saturday afternoon.  Bright and early Sunday morning, my good buddy Paul from school, Harry "The Big T" Tomlin, and myself headed over to Spring creek for the day.  Things started off pretty slow and stayed that way.  We all caught fish, but it was far from phenomenal.  This winter has been pretty slow for me in State College, but I'm loving just being out and catching at least a few every trip.  I can't wait until Spring rears her beautiful head and we have bugs here in State College!  Until then I'll keep grinding it out and dreaming of rising fish. (Or some high water... gotta love the big fly streamer bite!) Here are a few shots from the day.  Enjoy.

Paul with a gorgeous little Spring Creek fish on his 2nd cast of the day

Goofy picture 

Spunky little guy with Harry in the background

Busy at the Vise

Since I got home from school last Friday, I have been busy with working in the shop, the hectic mess that is Christmas time, but mostly with tying flies.  I picked up a new Cliff's Bugger Beast the other day and I have been tying like a mad man to fill it.  As of now, I'm at a little over 60 new articulated streamers (some with multiple articulation points) and I'm still working hard to get it filled.  There's something great about looking down into a jam packed streamer box full of big, gnarly flies ready to feed to some even bigger, gnarlier browns.  I'm trying to get out to Western PA with the boat this weekend and float a new river that supposedly holds some really, really large browns and a whole bunch of muskies in the same stretch of water... Sounds like paradise to me!  With a little luck, I might even be able to do one my favorite things ever: Strip huge streamers from a boat on big water in a snow storm.  (Yeah, it has to be that specific!) Here is a little sneak peek of what I've been tying.  Hopefully, I'll have some cool pictures from the float to post if I can make it work and get out there.  Hope everyone had a great holiday with family and friends and remember, it's never to cold to go fishing, so get out there and catch some fish!

For some perspective, the top left fly is about 6.5" long. 

The greatest articulated streamer hook ever designed.

Low and Slow Day on Penns

This past Saturday, my buddy Justin and I headed over to Penns creek to take advantage of the improving conditions after the small rain storm that passed through State College.  While we still had below average flows, we did receive some water and we decided to give it a go.  We fished for most of the day, and while the fishing was FAR from great, we still each managed to land a couple fish and just enjoy being out on the water.  Here are just a few pictures from the trip.

First fish of the day... and it was HARD earned

Nice view of Penns

Another stream shot

Another nice Penns fish

As much as it pained me to do it, the egg was killing them

Justin wayyyy up there working a nice riffle

High Water Float Trip

With the East Coast being pounded by Hurricane Sandy last week, every creek in the State College area was blown out.  Yesterday, however, Penns Creek dropped to around 700 CFS, so myself and my two new buddies from school, Stephen and Justin, decided to take our boats out and do a little high water streamer fishing on Penns and I'm certainly glad we did.  We had very consistent action all day long as we moved quite a few fish with streamers in the slower water and did very well with nymphs in almost every riffle we stopped at.  Overall it was a great day and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Stephen unhooking a fish 5 minutes into the float

Justin floating down to catch up with us

Stephen stripping a streamer

One of the many beautiful Penns Creek trout Stephen landed yesterday

Back in the Swing of Things

Well after a hectic first month of school and promising to get some new stuff up here, I finally got around to going fishing!  I got out of class around 10:30 this morning and headed over to Spring Creek for the afternoon.  Fall is here and the streamer bite is on.  While it was not quite as good as I was hoping, the browns of Spring Creek did not disappoint.  Enjoy.  

Breaking out the S4 for the first time in too long

Dinker 

Gorgeous Fall day

The walk to solitude

Best fish of the day... Smacked a white streamer swung through a deep run

Not a person in sight

Autumn Colors

Last Saturday was also the opening day of archery season here in PA.  I left State College and made the trek back East to hunt with my good friend Tom at his place in Northeast Pennsylvania.  The morning was pretty slow, but the evening was great.  I saw a ton of deer, but nothing that I was quite comfortable shooting.  I'm hoping to get back out there next week and hopefully put some meat in the freezer.  

The Bowtech ready to eat

My view in the afternoon to my right

And the view to the left