Upper Delaware Fly Fishing - May 10th, 2013

Here's a little video I put together on the trip that I went on with my dad. We floated down the Upper Delaware. I wrote up a blog post about already but never got around to the video until now. Try to watch it in HD, and full screen if you can.

After-School Fishing - May 23, 2013

Earlier this week I decided I was going to go fishing to day. 7th period today in school, of course, thunder and lightning. It pours and pours but it blew through eventually. I ended up going fishing at around 5 at a local wild brown trout stream. This was the first time for me getting out fishing since the US Youth Fly fishing Clinic, which there will be a post about soon. Anyway, it was time for me to get a little practice in and try out some of the new stuff I learned for a couple hours. I ended up catching about two dozen fish. I lost and missed a bunch as well. 

Those were mostly dinks. I caught so many of those. Most of them ate a size 18 pheasant tail nymph. They helped me practice my hook setting and netting. It was so cool seeing all the different shades, colors, and spot patterns on the fish. I then started to catch some nicer fish.

Slightly darker than the others

This guy took a jig style fly

Decent Wild Brown

A little bit darker than the others

The medium sized browns were really fun to catch because they felt more rewarding than the really tiny guys and they put up a decent fight. It started getting late so I marched my way upstream towards where I was going to get picked up. I see this nice, long, slow run. I put a cast through it, nothing. I put another, and my sighter slows just a tad. So I set the hook, and the fight was on! The fish immediately took off upstream. I put some side pressure on the fish to control him and brought him back. I got him into some slower water but couldn't get the net to him. He then got into some faster water. Once again, a little side pressure and the fish came into some calmer water. I reeled up some more and scooped. Yes. In the net, and he was big! The fish was probably about 18.5". A great fish and a great way to end the day! 

Hefty Wild Brown Trout!

Upper Delaware River - May 10th, 2013

Last year I lost a fish on the Upper Delaware, a big fish. It was on a size 16 rusty spinner and the fish was over 20". However, I did not land the thing. This year, I was back to redeem myself. My father and I went on a guided float trip with Ben Turpin. He was phenomenal throughout the whole entire day and helped shape what was a wonderful trip.
        We got on the water and he started to set up or rigs. I practiced a different method of dry-fly fishing which helped out a lot later. We floated down to the first set of riffles. My dad got the lower part and myself the upper. I had on a two-fly indicator rig. Cast, mend, track. Cast, mend, track. Each time covering slightly different water. Cast, mend, mend again, SET! The indicator went under and I set the hook. I immediately felt life on the other end of the line. The battle lasted several minutes as I was very cautious when it came to landing this fish. I did it! It was a 17" wild brown trout, gorgeous as can be, on a pheasant tail nymph! We were able to snap multiple pictures and get it back swimming in a couple moments.

This picture really shows the gorgeous colors.

Me holding my brown. The sun bleached the color out of the fish

Image of the brown under water, being released.

       After that, things slowed a little. My dad ended up missing several fish but it was alright. It got cooler and ended up raining on us that day. During the trip, when it was still sunny, we came upon a pod of rising fish. They were very hungry! I ended up landing about 6 all on dry flies in that spot, as well as my dad landing a fish or two. We ended the day with fish in the boat, a little sunburn, and a great memory! The following are just some photos!

Upper Delaware Scenery 

Brown on a dry

Brown on a dry

Another Brown on a dry

Nymphing with Ben

Upper Delaware Scenery

Throwing dries at logs

Fish on!

Montana Bound

       

Most of you have not been around since the absolute start of this blog. So here is a little history, when this blog was first started, one of the very first posts was about a fly fishing camp in Montana. I had applied to it but later found out that I did not get accepted. That summer the camp was postponed to the next year either because of forest fires or flooding. So, I did not get the opportunity to apply the following year. That "following year" was last summer. I got an opportunity to apply to the camp for this summer. I decided that I should. I recently received an email saying that I got accepted. This camp is in Montana for about 4 days. I stay and fish on the Bighorn River with 11 other youth anglers. I am extremely excited and this is a wonderful opportunity. There will be a lot of pictures along with a video when I come back. 

        On this blog, I get emails asking for me to do reviews on gear, tying materials, tying tools, and other miscellaneous items. I always try to accept and review them for you guys as honestly as possible. So right now, I would like to present the opportunity that if anyone wants me to try out any products (tying or fishing) out in Montana and bring a review back as well as expose it to the other members at camp, feel free to contact me at flytyergf@gmail.com.

Little Lehigh, PA 3/2/13

Went fly fishing at the Little Lehigh in the Heritage section again. I went with my high school fly fishing club (I started the club, go here to read more about it). It was a somewhat chilly day but warmed up a little bit as the day went on. In 2012, I caught the majority of my fish on dry-dropper. Since the start of 2013, I have started to try Euro-Nymphing. I enjoy it and I am starting to get the hang of it. I caught 2 fish, both were smaller but wild brown trout. I had at least 4 other fish on, but they came off after a second or two. I missed even more strikes than I could count, so I realized I really need to work on my hook setting and timing. I caught one fish on a size 18 Bead Head Pheasant Tail (dropper position) and one on a size 12 Hare's Ear Nymph Jig (anchor position). Besides me, only one other person in the club landed a fish, Brandon. He caught two, a rainbow and a brown which you can read about here.

First Brown Trout of the Day

#18 BHPT

Second brown trout of the day.

#12 Hare's ear nymph jig.

FlyOnlyZone New Webstore

Some of you may have noticed, most of you probably have not. But, I recently added a functioning web-store. All you have to do is click "Fly Store" among the tabs at the top of this blog. It will take you to a page with different flies and materials. It will be updated as I stockpile more flies. Right now there is only one fly available for purchase but like I said, more will become available. The same goes for materials. Right now, I only have FlyOnlyZone BugYarn for sale. But, as I get more materials I will add them. You can pay using a PayPal account or a credit card. Go Check it Out!

Delaware Valley Fly Fishing Club

This year, at my school, I started a fly fishing club. It has been a little difficult; the school has given us 0 funding (this year). Hopefully next year that will change. We have been depending on the generosity and donations of others. We are always learning and always having fun. We have a total of 7 members while 5 is the most common number of people (absence due to sports on behalf of the other two). As a club, we go over knot tying, entomology, fly selection, gear, wading safety, fly tying and much more. In the club, we have a variety of skill levels going from basic to more advanced. We have gone on 1 fly fishing trip already (shown in the video below) and updates on the club's activities are posted at www.dvflyfishing.wordpress.com. Just thought I would let you guys know what I've been up to and what I have started. I'd also really like to thank everyone for their support!

Hook and Hackle Lightning Dub

When Ron from Hook and Hackle first told me about this dubbing I immediately though about ice dubbing. I figured that it would be very similar to ice dubbing but with a different name. However I was very surprised. I did some research on this dubbing and there are 12 different colors of Lightning Dub. At $2.65 a piece (which is an insane deal) you can get Cinnamon, Gray Dun, Olive, Pearl White, Yellow, Hot Orange, Rust, Shrimp Pink, Brown, Black, Peacock Olive and Fluorescent Chartreuse.      All the colors mentioned all have UV incorporated in them. In fact, the only two materials (that I know of) that are in this dubbing is Antron Fibers and UV fibers. This allows this dubbing to not only be used for nymphs, but for dry flies as well. However, since this dubbing is made up of coarse, synthetic fibers it is not the easiest to dub really tight. Here is a quick look (close-up) of the fibers themselves:

Lots of UV Goodness