Pray to God my wife doesn't read this...but this gator was found right where I take my warm-water lunch breaks! I'm pretty sure I could wrastle that sucker in w/ the Fenwick.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/855786_Man-finds-alligator-along-Conestoga-River-near-Talmage.html
Friday, May 31, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Returning to first loves
Memorial Day weekend is always a weekend where I go back to my "first loves", the local streams that turned me onto small stream fishing. It's always a balancing act for me. It's a family weekend, so while the tendency is to take 3 full days and go fishing from sun-up to sun-down, a man's gotta be a good man and be with his wife and children. That, in and of itself, is better than fishing. This blog, however, is not a blog on family life, but on fishing life, so I have no guilt about putting aside my family affairs and writing solely about the fishing.
Saturday afternoon was cold and windy. I debated all day if I wanted to go fishing. I stayed in all day, cleaning the house, playing with the girls, but during their nap time I couldn't take it any more. I decided that despite the high winds and the dramatically cooler temps, I would go out for a little bit. I headed to Walnut Run in Lancaster County. Walnut was the very first small stream I ever fly fished in Lancaster Co. It's a tributary to Hammer Creek and took a big blow in the back to back floods of 2010. The fish are finally starting to come back though, and fishing has been solid this year.
I never caught a brownie in Walnut before, but we knew they were there because on my first trip there, my friend Brian caught a wild tiger trout. Saturday, I finally cracked the brown code.
Generally, I don't like to see wild browns moving into native brook trout streams, but this was within the first few hundred yards of the stream entering into Hammer, and out of half a dozen trips up this stream this year, this is the only brownie I found in the stream.
I still find that I spook a lot of fish on this stream. The lower half is very flat, the banks are overgrown, so it's difficult to avoid wading. Whether I'm catching the fish or spooking them, its encouraging to me to see fish in this stream.
Yesterday I decided to hit Hammer Creek itself. This, in my opinion, is the best stream in Lancaster County. It has great hatches, lots of native brookies and wild brownies, a few stocked bows, it's spring fed so it's fishable year 'round, the only thing it lacks is structure. The stream could benefit from a little stream bank restoration and special regs like catch and release fly fishing only, but it's Lancaster County's most popular approved trout water, so the state is happy to pump trout into it in the spring, let the slobs have at it, and then ignore the stream the rest of the year. Apparently our local "cold water conservation" group is just as happy to let things go the way they are as well. Fortunately, despite the neglect and the ever-widening banks (which I suspect the state likes because it keeps the surface water area larger-since they deem a stream's rating based on surface water to biomass of fish. If the surface water is larger it keeps the stream rating lower. If they would have to classify it as Class A, they'd have to stop stocking it.), the fish continue to thrive.
The first hole I fished, I saw something hanging from the trees. I thought, "someone must have been fishing up here because there's a green weenie hanging from that tree!" I found this odd since the stretch I was fishing is a stretch that most people never fish. As I got closer, I realized it was actually a green inch worm hanging down from a thread of silk! I saw these inch worms hanging down on just about every tree, and the brookies were taking advantage of this situation!
There was also a strong march brown hatch and a sulphur hatch going on. My original fly (a peacock caddis) wasn't doing much. I switched to a royal wulff and picked up a few, but still, I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I switched to a yellow sally (the biggest yellow fly I had-the sulphers were definitely bigger than I had in my box!) and that did the trick. The trout couldn't stay off the thing, and they were nailing it hard.
The stretch I fished took about 2 hours to fish from bottom to top, and I picked up close to 20 trout in that stretch. A great evening on the stream, and a perfect end to the Memorial Day weekend!
PS-my camera is cheap and will not focus on micro-mode. Suck.
A nice brownie
Hammer Creek in full springtime bloom
Saturday afternoon was cold and windy. I debated all day if I wanted to go fishing. I stayed in all day, cleaning the house, playing with the girls, but during their nap time I couldn't take it any more. I decided that despite the high winds and the dramatically cooler temps, I would go out for a little bit. I headed to Walnut Run in Lancaster County. Walnut was the very first small stream I ever fly fished in Lancaster Co. It's a tributary to Hammer Creek and took a big blow in the back to back floods of 2010. The fish are finally starting to come back though, and fishing has been solid this year.
I never caught a brownie in Walnut before, but we knew they were there because on my first trip there, my friend Brian caught a wild tiger trout. Saturday, I finally cracked the brown code.
I still find that I spook a lot of fish on this stream. The lower half is very flat, the banks are overgrown, so it's difficult to avoid wading. Whether I'm catching the fish or spooking them, its encouraging to me to see fish in this stream.
Yesterday I decided to hit Hammer Creek itself. This, in my opinion, is the best stream in Lancaster County. It has great hatches, lots of native brookies and wild brownies, a few stocked bows, it's spring fed so it's fishable year 'round, the only thing it lacks is structure. The stream could benefit from a little stream bank restoration and special regs like catch and release fly fishing only, but it's Lancaster County's most popular approved trout water, so the state is happy to pump trout into it in the spring, let the slobs have at it, and then ignore the stream the rest of the year. Apparently our local "cold water conservation" group is just as happy to let things go the way they are as well. Fortunately, despite the neglect and the ever-widening banks (which I suspect the state likes because it keeps the surface water area larger-since they deem a stream's rating based on surface water to biomass of fish. If the surface water is larger it keeps the stream rating lower. If they would have to classify it as Class A, they'd have to stop stocking it.), the fish continue to thrive.
The first hole I fished, I saw something hanging from the trees. I thought, "someone must have been fishing up here because there's a green weenie hanging from that tree!" I found this odd since the stretch I was fishing is a stretch that most people never fish. As I got closer, I realized it was actually a green inch worm hanging down from a thread of silk! I saw these inch worms hanging down on just about every tree, and the brookies were taking advantage of this situation!
There was also a strong march brown hatch and a sulphur hatch going on. My original fly (a peacock caddis) wasn't doing much. I switched to a royal wulff and picked up a few, but still, I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I switched to a yellow sally (the biggest yellow fly I had-the sulphers were definitely bigger than I had in my box!) and that did the trick. The trout couldn't stay off the thing, and they were nailing it hard.
The stretch I fished took about 2 hours to fish from bottom to top, and I picked up close to 20 trout in that stretch. A great evening on the stream, and a perfect end to the Memorial Day weekend!
PS-my camera is cheap and will not focus on micro-mode. Suck.
Most of the brookies I caught were in this range
A nice brownie
Hammer Creek in full springtime bloom
As I got back to my car, I realized what a mess
a fisherman's trunk can be! Look at all that glass!
a fisherman's trunk can be! Look at all that glass!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Lunch Time Slabs
I love long lunches on hot, sunny days! Got me some lunch time slabs, including a nice rocky.
In other news, I had a big ol' smallie following my fly. I'll go back tomorrow for him....
In other news, I had a big ol' smallie following my fly. I'll go back tomorrow for him....
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Epic
It happened last night. I was fishing the same stream, the same stretch even, as we fished in the video I posted last week. Fishing was good the whole way through, and water that Brian and I found to be "dead" when we fished it last time seemed to be holding trout this time. I caught a lot of fish.
The numbers weren't what made it epic, though. I came out to the meadow-the meadow I showed in my video where I said you could really see the spring creek influence of the stream-and that's where the epicness began. I had very little light left, as it was going on 8:30pm by this point. The meadow was alive with bugs though. Midges, sulphurs, caddis, and the water was popping. It was a full on "boil". Trout everywhere, pounding whatever came near them. I stood for a few minutes and watched. This is Lancaster County? I've seen things like this before, but never on my home waters. I grew up 20 minutes from this stream, and spent most of my early fly fishing days chasing the big pellet head stockers on Lititz Run. How did I overlook this stream for so long? I always knew it was there and I always heard the rumors of wild fish, but I admit, my priorities were on size back in those days, not on quality. I sat in that meadow last night and thought, "this is how God designed it." Native fish eating native bugs, no trucks, no buckets, no pellets involved. This is the essence of fly fishing. Finally I started making my casts. I started at the back end of the meadow and worked my way upstream. Every cast brought a trout to hand. They were fighting hard and putting on a good show, jumping out of the water, thrashing around, it was beautiful. In the 10 minutes I fished that stretch, I brought more than a dozen brook trout to hand.
The oncoming night forced me to leave the stretch. I cut across the meadow and out to the dirt road. As I walked the mile or so back to my car, my mind still reflected on what I just witnessed. It's not that what I saw was particularly rare, but when it happens on your home water, especially when you live in an area of the state not known for its wild trout waters, its something special.
The dirt road cuts through the forest, and I felt like I wasn't in Lancaster. My mind focused on the Creator who, by His own design, created all of this. I thanked the Lord for His creation and allowing me to enjoy it. I wondered at His imagination and thought how grand of a mind it must be to create out of nothing this world, to imagine and create streams and mayflies and springs and caddis and brook trout who rise. I thought how foolish we are to take it for granted, to see it all day in and day out and not be stunned by it all. Worse yet, I thought about how when we do stop to wonder at it, we turn the creation into an idol and worship the creation rather than the Creator.
I got home last night just in time to help put my daughters to bed. I asked my oldest daughter, who will be four years old next month, to lead us in prayer. She asked me, "what are you thankful for, dada?" I told her I was thankful for my children, for my wife, etc., and she kept asking me, "What else are you thankful for?"I told her how I was thankful for the creation and how I was thankful that I was able to enjoy it tonight by seeing the flies and the trout, the stream and the woods. As she prayed, she said, "...and we thank you Father, for your beautiful creation and for the trout." Amen.
The numbers weren't what made it epic, though. I came out to the meadow-the meadow I showed in my video where I said you could really see the spring creek influence of the stream-and that's where the epicness began. I had very little light left, as it was going on 8:30pm by this point. The meadow was alive with bugs though. Midges, sulphurs, caddis, and the water was popping. It was a full on "boil". Trout everywhere, pounding whatever came near them. I stood for a few minutes and watched. This is Lancaster County? I've seen things like this before, but never on my home waters. I grew up 20 minutes from this stream, and spent most of my early fly fishing days chasing the big pellet head stockers on Lititz Run. How did I overlook this stream for so long? I always knew it was there and I always heard the rumors of wild fish, but I admit, my priorities were on size back in those days, not on quality. I sat in that meadow last night and thought, "this is how God designed it." Native fish eating native bugs, no trucks, no buckets, no pellets involved. This is the essence of fly fishing. Finally I started making my casts. I started at the back end of the meadow and worked my way upstream. Every cast brought a trout to hand. They were fighting hard and putting on a good show, jumping out of the water, thrashing around, it was beautiful. In the 10 minutes I fished that stretch, I brought more than a dozen brook trout to hand.
The oncoming night forced me to leave the stretch. I cut across the meadow and out to the dirt road. As I walked the mile or so back to my car, my mind still reflected on what I just witnessed. It's not that what I saw was particularly rare, but when it happens on your home water, especially when you live in an area of the state not known for its wild trout waters, its something special.
The dirt road cuts through the forest, and I felt like I wasn't in Lancaster. My mind focused on the Creator who, by His own design, created all of this. I thanked the Lord for His creation and allowing me to enjoy it. I wondered at His imagination and thought how grand of a mind it must be to create out of nothing this world, to imagine and create streams and mayflies and springs and caddis and brook trout who rise. I thought how foolish we are to take it for granted, to see it all day in and day out and not be stunned by it all. Worse yet, I thought about how when we do stop to wonder at it, we turn the creation into an idol and worship the creation rather than the Creator.
I got home last night just in time to help put my daughters to bed. I asked my oldest daughter, who will be four years old next month, to lead us in prayer. She asked me, "what are you thankful for, dada?" I told her I was thankful for my children, for my wife, etc., and she kept asking me, "What else are you thankful for?"I told her how I was thankful for the creation and how I was thankful that I was able to enjoy it tonight by seeing the flies and the trout, the stream and the woods. As she prayed, she said, "...and we thank you Father, for your beautiful creation and for the trout." Amen.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Frustrated Land Owner
I was out at a small, tight brookie stream after work yesterday. Its on private land, but the sign indicates that the land owner has an agreement with the game commission to allow people to use his land for hiking, hunting, etc. Its actually a nature preserve. It's absolutely beautiful back there. There are a few remains of old cabins (stone chimneys still standing), a walking path, and a tiny, tiny stream that eventually flows into a reservoir. I never see any trash back there, which is wonderful.
On my walk out, I ran into the land owner. He was younger than my dad. Probably in his upper 40s. The land has been in his family for a long, long time. He stopped and thanked me for "just being a normal guy". I laughed and told him some people would question the normality of a guy who tromps through poison ivy and thorns to catch 5"-8" brookies. He said he has been having such a problem w/ teens back on his property partying all night. He said, "I told them I'm cool w/ them doing it, hell I did it when I was their age, but at least clean up after yourself and put your fire out when you're done!" I could see from the fire pit behind him that some of the logs still had hot embers. This is what really pissed him off. he said in the past week he put out 3 different smoking fire sites that weren't put out correctly. He seems at his wits end.
I thanked him for allowing us on his land, and tried to sympathize w/ his plight. I said that as a fly fisherman, I see more and more private land being posted because of these kinds of problems. I said I'd hate lose access to his property, but I'd fully understand if he posted it. It's a shame. Why can't people just respect others' property? Talking to land owners, many of them want people to enjoy their property but get frustrated at this crap and, eventually, post their land. When we talk about jerk land owners, I can't help but wonder if they really are jerks, or if circumstances simply have made them cynical over the years.
On the upside, I mentioned how his stream is just littered with brookies. He said when he was a kid, it wasn't that way. He said the brookies were almost completely gone from the stream, and he has been able to watch over the years as they've come back to a strong, healthy population. That's a great testimony to the fish and to caring land owners!
On my walk out, I ran into the land owner. He was younger than my dad. Probably in his upper 40s. The land has been in his family for a long, long time. He stopped and thanked me for "just being a normal guy". I laughed and told him some people would question the normality of a guy who tromps through poison ivy and thorns to catch 5"-8" brookies. He said he has been having such a problem w/ teens back on his property partying all night. He said, "I told them I'm cool w/ them doing it, hell I did it when I was their age, but at least clean up after yourself and put your fire out when you're done!" I could see from the fire pit behind him that some of the logs still had hot embers. This is what really pissed him off. he said in the past week he put out 3 different smoking fire sites that weren't put out correctly. He seems at his wits end.
I thanked him for allowing us on his land, and tried to sympathize w/ his plight. I said that as a fly fisherman, I see more and more private land being posted because of these kinds of problems. I said I'd hate lose access to his property, but I'd fully understand if he posted it. It's a shame. Why can't people just respect others' property? Talking to land owners, many of them want people to enjoy their property but get frustrated at this crap and, eventually, post their land. When we talk about jerk land owners, I can't help but wonder if they really are jerks, or if circumstances simply have made them cynical over the years.
On the upside, I mentioned how his stream is just littered with brookies. He said when he was a kid, it wasn't that way. He said the brookies were almost completely gone from the stream, and he has been able to watch over the years as they've come back to a strong, healthy population. That's a great testimony to the fish and to caring land owners!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Feelin' the Heat
I was chatting with a friend online last night about the video I made. He enjoyed the video and had a good laugh. Good. That was the point! I wanted to show a rare gem of a stream, some beautiful fish, and do it all with a good sense of goofiness and humor. I'll never do an "instructional" video or anything like that. I'm not a good enough fisherman, and there's a million wanna-bes out there doing that crap already. My short videos will always be about good times and the fun of fly fishing. Even still, my friend was pointing out that by putting a fly fishing video up on the interwebs, I'm opening myself up to all sorts of ridiculous ridicule. He said for himself, it got to the point where one person was actually criticizing the color shirt he was wearing. He noted that no matter how carefully we handle the fish, someone will tell us we were abusive. No matter how secretive we are about our location, someone will accuse us of spot burning.
Fine. Bring it on. If you can't watch a 5 minute video clip of a couple of loafs having a good time and catching beautiful fish and enjoy yourself, laugh along, then that says more about you than it does about those of us who dare to share our love of fly fishing. I welcome the ridiculous comments. If anything, it gives me fodder for the commentary in my next episode.
Speaking of which, there are at least three more episodes planned for this year. One will be of my trip up to North Central PA in June, one will be a warm water video once the cicada hatch happens, and I plan on doing one of my trip to the Smokies in October.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Warm Water Lunch
I was fortunate enough to have a long lunch on this beautiful day. I was even more fortunate to have my waders and my Fenwick with me in the car. I am most fortunate to be 3 minutes from the Conestoga River.
I headed down to the stream, threw my waders on, tied on a bugger, and hit the water. I'm glad I brought the waders because the pockets and pools that I could reach from the shoreline were dead. I crossed the stream and started fishing some of the downed trees and stuff, and that's when the fun began. I landed about 12 sunnies and rock bass in about 45 minutes. The excitement really bubbled when I started seeing the carp cruise around, but alas, my lunch break was over and it was time for me to head back to work.
Any time spent away from the office and on the water is good times.
I headed down to the stream, threw my waders on, tied on a bugger, and hit the water. I'm glad I brought the waders because the pockets and pools that I could reach from the shoreline were dead. I crossed the stream and started fishing some of the downed trees and stuff, and that's when the fun began. I landed about 12 sunnies and rock bass in about 45 minutes. The excitement really bubbled when I started seeing the carp cruise around, but alas, my lunch break was over and it was time for me to head back to work.
Any time spent away from the office and on the water is good times.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Special access
I'm excited. This Saturday I'll be given special access to posted land in Northern Lancaster. Our local freestoner runs through some seriously posted land in its upper reaches, and a friend of mine is friends with the land owner. We will be scouting the water. I may take a video camera to capture the action. Stay tuned.
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