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....

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.

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!

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.

Fishin with Squatch Episode 1

It's shaky, its goofy, but hopefully its entertaining!

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.

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.