Hi-Lite of the day..

Finally had some good rain, bringing the local salmon river up from a trickle to about 13.5cfs, which is a solid little flow but not "high" on this river.  Thankfully, it was high enough to get a few fish to start coming up from the reservoir below.  A few follows... and landed one about 20".

Lucky for me, a nice guy named John was working his way down stream and we were chatting just as this fish took.  He got a nice view of the fight - which included 4 solid leaps well into the air - and took a pic for me from the other side of the river.  If you ever see this - thanks John!

The fly of the day, and one I really love for this (or bass fishing, or trout fishing...) is Steve Culton's Hi-Liter.  You can see my version below.  I dont use a bead, I just wrap the underbody with some .20 non lead weight.  Rides great in the water, and with a loop knot, it dances seductively - especially when swung through the current and given the wet fly wiggle so to speak...

Here's my version of Steves great fly...  You can see his step by step, and a bit of his story regarding this fly's development here: http://currentseams.com/2015/09/22/the-hi-liter-soft-hackled-streamer/

I've been in the woods some with bow in hand... but thus far, the deer have evaded my attempts at bringing them home for super :).  On opening day a gorgeous, probably 3.5 year old buck came by only 10 steps out, but was, surprisingly given the 19th of October is early for rut action, totally trolling for does and would not stop - just kept trotting on nose to ground.  Since, I've seen a few does with no shots and had one deer of unknown gender come by in the dark prior to shooting light.  Enjoying some relaxation in the trees though... it's good for me!

That's where I thought I'd have a shot, two runs intersect there dead center (above pic) and though hard to see there are three scrapes.  Another week and this spot should produce a sighting or two.

This is the little swamp coming off the edge of a pond.  Often they come from over there, after bedding for the day behind some homes.

There are some white oaks behind me dropping like crazy - so good eats for the deer in this area.  The open spaces are this weird (and currently dry) canal that goes around a shruby blueberry covered island at the edge of a pond.  Deer often bed on this impenetrable tangle.

Some times I call that stand site the "Engine Block Stand", because, blocked by trees in the above pic, is an old truck's front end - I'm talking 30's or 40's truck.  It's all rusted out, and never will be useful again, but its cool to see in the woods, and makes you wonder what was going on and why it was left there...

Hope you all are enjoying some of the amazing sights, sounds, smells and adventures fall offers!

Will

Little fishing, little riding, lots of beauty...

This past weekend we did a little charity ride to help raise $ for a local family who's child is going through treatment for cancer.  You don't have to twist my arm to raise funds for such a cause.  After we were on the receiving end of such work, I can safely say it's a gift that is hugely helpful.  That said, this ride was made sweeter by including the trails I first started to ride.

When I was a kid, I'd fish constantly.  My dad likes to say he put the first 5k on his subaru wagon (about 30 years ago) by driving me to fishing spots - over one season!  So, as mountain bikes became more common, they decided it was cheaper to get me one for a birthday gift than it was to keep driving me around...

They bought me a bike, and at first, I rode every where to fish.  My good friend started to too.  And then we started riding to ride, then racing... and a second lifelong curiosity was born for me: preparation for and performance in endurance sports.  That lead to reading college sports science texts for fun in high school, and having been involved with endurance sports for over 25 years with about 20 of those as coach professionally.

It's been an amazing part of my life, but, over the last 10-15 years, I've been so busy professionally and then family wise, that I've had time to really train and enjoy sport myself as much.  I get to ride some or run some or hike or lift or whatever, but rare is a consistent patch of actual training or the chance to do a solid all day ride through the woods.  All fun things I enjoy... and hope to gradually get back to.

But, short term... What a day Saturday was.  2 river valleys, both containing wild fish, both that I've loved to fish pretty much my whole life.  Plus lots and lots of great ridges to climb and descend, awesome single track along rivers... Just great on all levels.  Do that on a perfect fall day - 60 degrees, nice breeze, great color... Ahhhhhh!

There is a bridge which no longer is passable by car over this river.  The trail goes up stream to the bridge, crosses the bridge/river and goes up stream on the other side.  This pic is looking south west, down stream with the river 30' below.  Had a day with a friend where we must have been fishing a few hours after the stocking truck, because we must have caught 30-40 rainbow's below this bridge each that night!

A locally famous trail that we call "the river trail" which was made by fishermen over the years, and maybe by native people's before hand.  I'm standing on the right side, but the trail is just left of that little tree left center and goes a bit diagonally from left to right to the center of the pic then straight away.  It's a trail with some technical points, but it's beauty next to the river is worth it!

Sitting on a rock jutting out into the river eating a cliff bar and enjoying a little break.  I've caught a lot of fish in this run...

Then today, I took lunch stream side.  Quick shot to a local wild trout water, and it was great.  Cooler still in the shade of the forest - the brightening leaves still offering shade.  The water temp was low, but the flow on the light side for this largely spring fed water.  And, the result was that, although I saw several fish, I only had 2 takes and both were missed on my part.  Not sure if they were brookies, browns or fall fish.  Regardless, it was really enjoyable to walk the stream and take in the sights.

Next to that log on the right, about 3/4 up, I caught a 13" brown earlier this year - giant on this stream.  I thought that the changing colors today were pretty and that this pic of the spot from late may or early June this year showed some neat changes - same spot... Greener and more water below.

The fall picture above this one was taken standing pretty much on that little rock pile.  

One of my favorite runs, today was quite still due to low flow.  That giant hemlock on the left, about half of that tree is undercut by the water and what a cavern it creates for the trout to hide.

I also saw something that could save this sport we all love.  A rare site today regrettably, and something that made me really feel good.  As I pulled in, I saw to creatures leaving the stream with rod's jammed into back packs - those creatures were kids of the 12-14 year old variety, pedaling away on their bikes.  I could see sneaker tracks working the edges of some pools as I fished, and it made me feel great.  I don't know if those kids caught anything.  I dont know if they were using bait or spinners.  But I know they looked like they had fun, and they were fishing in the outdoors.  Exploring the world on their terms and learning.  AWESOME!

Keep well
Will

As is often the case for a parent of little kids... Life's been busy.  But, grad school's going well, kids, wife and family are good, and it's fall in New England - AWESOME!

Today I shot out to prospect.  We had some rain last week, and I hoped that perhaps a few salmon had shot up a local river that gets a great run of landlocked salmon and big browns in the fall.  Big meaning, it's not uncommon to see a fish in the upper 20's and low 30's go by (inches)... They are not easy to catch, but it's fun to try given the river is only about 10-15 yards wide in most areas!

It's a little early, and things had been so dry, that I wondered if any fish had come in... but at least from what I could see, there were no salmon in.  Lot's of young pickerel hiding in the shallows in the lower sections, but no big fish yet... A little more cool, and a good rain event and we should be in business.  Usually it's the last 2 weeks of October and first 2 of November, sometimes even as late as early December... So I'm on the early edge.

That said, it was really nice to be out and enjoying a gorgeous fall day.  Now I'm settling in to some good work projects and school projects and figured I'd pop up a quick post as a "warm up" to work :)!

I've had a few trail cam's out as well.  I'm not getting to many buck pic's this year - well, mature bucks.  But lots of does and 1.5 year old bucks.  The big surprise after last winters epic snow, is the number of does with fawns I've had on cam.  Pretty cool to see.

Also cool, was getting a shot of this old bruiser for the 3rd year in a row.  I'm going to call him 5.5 or 6.5 years old based on the racks the last 3 years.  Actually seems to be starting to get smaller now.  His rack is cool.  It does not have a ton of tines, but, it's really neat the way his right is only a 3 point side and seems to reach out to the side more.  Given he lives in a public land area, and an area that gets pretty stout pressure during gun season, it's really cool to see him still going - perhaps the fact I've only seen him on cam at night is part of his success.  Regardless, on a few ideal day's in November Ill see if I can see him during the day with bow in hand... 

Have an awesome week!
Will

Relaxing and Bassin

After dinner last night I managed to get out for an hour of bass fishing. It's fun when you open the box arriving at the pond and there is lots of big, fluffy and ugly staring back!  It's been to long fluffy flies... it's been to long!

The pond of choice was a local one about 10' from home.  We run or walk the rail trail that passes the pond often.  It actually splits it.  The trail literally forms an isthmus between two parts of the same body of water.  the west side is weedier and shallower, and the east side is deeper and rockier.  

It's not super easy to fly fish given there is not much room for casting, so it feels sort of like fishing the salt - a quick double haul and let the line fly, or a fairly powerful roll cast are your only options. You are not allowed to wade or swim, either of which would make it a lot easier to fly fish... Of if I had a kayak instead of a float tube - the former is legal and the latter would not be on this pond, so... the shore it is.

The fishing was slow at first.  Had I grabbed some smaller flies and opted to pop for blue gill's / crappies etc I'd likely have caught a ton.  I'd often see the fly get pulled under by a panfish grabbing the bunny strip tail on my deer hair diver.

Shortly after it occurred on one cast, a bass of perhaps 3 pounds went air borne for the fly - tossing itself, the small blue gill that had been grabbing the tail and my fly air borne.  A guy who was dragging his kayak through the canal connecting the ponds halves saw it and we both got a good kick out of it.  About 10' later I got my first of the night, a spunky little 10 incher who managed to get the whole fly in his mouth. 

 The sun set was awesome.  Totally beautiful.  You can see ripples from about 5 kayaks that came from the other half of the pond to get over here and see the sun go down on the right edge of the pic.  Amazingly, there were no mosquito's.  Not sure if it was the dry weather we have had or what... But Ill take it :)!

The sun starting to go down, and needing to get home, I started to walk back to the truck, but stopped to fish the other side of the pond for a few minutes.  I missed a good one on the first cast.  He took mid strip and held for only a minute before tossing the fly.  About 5 casts later on the other side of the little point this little bass took the popper.  After this, I shot a few more casts to a downed tree to my north, and then headed home.

Very pleasant way to spend a warm evening for sure!
Will

A little time on the Swift

Played hooky last night.  Rosemary had taken the kids to the beach, so, looking at a mound of work for the next 3 months, and knowing this may be my last shot to get to the Swift, I took a shot and went out.

Opted to use my long rod.  The flow's are up on the river which sometimes lends itself to high sticking with a worm anchor and tiny nymph suspended above... So the 11ft 4 wt was my choice.  I can throw big dry's on this stick, and that's a major bonus given August/september is an awesome time to fish large terrestrials here.  It's a river known for #18-24 nymphs and #20-32 dry's.  Its a river, who's upper reaches are basically sand or a bit of moss.  It's BWO's, small ones... Midges and some caddis or other mayflies like sulfurs.  But August and September is the fisherman's revenge..  You can drop the 7-8X tippet, and tie on a Chernobyl ant on a #6 streamer hook and catch fish consistently.  Nothing like seeing an 18" rainbow that for months would only look up at a #28 puff of thread and cdc drifted perfectly... Now attacking a 2" long foam bug like a pike to a 2/0 deer hair slider :)!  FUN.

So, I set up with my midge / larva box at the ready, but with a beetle on a #10 as the first option.  Had a few attack it and I missed... So, time to go bigger, because these fish were looking up :)

I'd tied up these chernobyls recently (below).  Two were given to a friend, and two dropped in my bag... Some how, I'd forgotten my box full of them... so I had two on the day.  Probably caught 5, missed several others and had two break me off - which stunk.  one was a poor knot to the fly on my part, the other a poor knot to the micro ring I was trying rather than tying leader to leader.  Ugh.  Out of big dry's, I tried a few small nymphs and caught one.  then a small black hackled dry with a bright orange body that I learned about in a Brittish fly fishing mag last year.  That was just a totally random "what the heck lets try it" deal.  I finished up back to the beetle and caught a couple more and missed several by setting to soon.

The pic was taken with my phone, in a sandwich bag.  Considering that, it came out pretty good I think :)... This fish was about 18" long, he's flexed nicely in there.  The fish were fat and all in the 16-19" range I'd suspect.  Big, fat, and strong fighting in the low 50's degree water that flow's here.

 

On the way in, I'd noticed a car I suspected belonged to a local guide / fly fishing "celebrity" who's got a book and last year had a nice write up on her series of flies based on one created on the Swift she named the Jail Bird.  Her name is Marla Blair.  When I got back to the truck, she was packing up to go, so I grabbed a little bug that I've had luck with that's a hybrid of the Jail Bird and another larva I like.  I brought it over, introduced myself, thanked her for the great article in Fly Tyer last year and gave her a bug.  She was real appreciative and friendly, and I headed back to the truck to pack up.

Then I look up, and here comes Marla, and she graciously gave me a Jail Bird she tied.  Very cool to see it tied by the originator.  Thanks for the kind gesture Marla (if you ever bumble into this post :)), I really appreciated it!

One final point.  Matt Grobert always wraps up his great blog Caddis Chronicals (http://www.caddischronicles.com/) always signs of noting to sharpen your hooks.  Ill agree, but suggest checking your knots.  I thought i'd done well, but, clearly had not.  And it cost me some nice fish... So, tie good knots when you fish!

Keep well
Will

A little catching up...

Well, the last few months have been pretty much, um, all over the place.  A few days after my last fishing post, I was driving west to south eastern Ohio (and past a lot of good looking trout water) for an on campus part of my graduate program @ Ohio University.  I'd heard the campus was beautiful, and the trip did not disappoint.  Below is the upper entrance to the student center, and if I'd done a 180 and taken more pic's, you would see some beautiful brick dorm buildings the merge smoothly into the very quaint "college town" that is Athens Ohio.  It was a fun trip, with a lot of great learning more about things ranging from athlete monitoring, to coaching practice to sports psychology and several other related areas from some amazing presenters.   Intense, and really enjoyable!

We go visit Rosemary's family during the summer most years.  We thought we would do it around my Ohio trip to keep things smooth... but it got all funky.  We ended up with me renting a car to drive to Ohio, and Rosemary drove (with her mom who graciously flew out from MN to MA to help Rosemary on the drive with the kids) out with the aim of getting to Athens early afternoon Sunday after my final class had finished.  The timing worked out perfectly, and with a bit of a push, we made it to Moline Ill that night.  Now, if you think, Why go to Moline if you are going to north central MN... Because we have 4 year olds, and Moline is home to the John Deere Pavilion - which is awesome!

Here's a quick shot of Rosemary and Emily about to cross from the hotel in Moline over to the Pavilion.  The JD Pavilion is home to a bunch of awesome tractors and other neat JD equipment. While the timberwalker (a tree feller buncher that WALKS on 4 legs for steep terrain) is probably my favorite, the robot lawnmower that works like a "roomba" robotic vacuum is probably the one I'd consider owning the most.  That said, the kids are allowed to climb up and sit inside all kinds of equipment from front end loaders to combine harvesters and they can play with lots of cool toys as well.  If you have a kid who loves tractors, it's worth a trip!

Once in MN, we went right up to Gull Lake and stayed with Rosemary's mom at the cabin which Rosemary's great grampa built in the late 20's or early 30's.  It's a great spot, and a highlight is that every summer, each tuesday and on the fourth, the town (Nisswa) puts on a "turtle race".  It's awesome fun.  The kids had a total blast - Rosemary was helping Emily launch her turtle into orbit in the pic :)!

Last year I found this cool little trout stream just down the road from the cabin and flowing into the northern reaches of Gull.  It was a pleasure to fish.  This year, not so much.  I was tight on time, and fished it about 45' from about 9-9:45 PM one day (it's light a lot later there).  I was skunked, and the stream was flowing pretty low this year, but also hugely different due to a tornado (I assume) that went through the area late last summer I'd suspect.  The current directions were all different due to massive amounts of wood that had blown into the stream - by wood, I mean full on trees.  It was like an entirely different stream.  So outside a nice encounter with a doe deer, and a failed attempt at one rising trout in a really tricky skinny water area (I blew it - to clumsy on approach), it was just a nice walk in the woods.  Hopefully next year will be better... But a tornado that went through a week or so after we left may have caused even more damage based on the reports Rosemary's mom sent us!

The kids and I did use some poppers along the dock though to catch sunfish... and everyone spent a ton of time in the lake.  I think that's me floating with Will - pretty much how the kids spent every day while we were up there.  Grammy had bought a new dock this year and it was GREAT, with a nice bench and going out to about 4.5' deep water, the kids must have jumped off a thousand times :)!

The morning after we made it home from MN (driving) Rosemary had to work two 12 hr shifts Saturday and Sunday.  So I took the kids out to visit my mom and dad.  I grew up in a town called Petersham MA - which is, the greatest place on earth still.  I'm biased in this matter, and there is no changing my mind on that one :)!  After dry mopping Mia's floor, we walked the kids up to the country store where they could use their hard earned 25 cents to buy actual penny candy (that's what's in the bags).  But they were amazed at the excavators that were on the side of the road where the town was putting in some new drainage piping.  Really fun!

 

That Monday, we shot up to Maine for a few days with my folks and sister.  We had a blast at the amusement park, and playing on the beach.  But, the little chick's we'd ordered earlier in the year, with a delivery date of July 20, came a week early, thus one night I shot home,  set up the chicks with the heat lamp and thanked the neighbors hugely - they went to the post office for us to pick up the "girls".  It gave me a chance to go through emails for work so I was not crazy behind, and then drive back to York Me for another day and a half with the family.  A bummer, but, good to get the "girls" situated.

Since then, it's been about catching up on work, getting school work done, and when possible, hitting a local beach with the kids.  Amazing that, if I get there (or Rosemary does) before 10AM we have a few hours of the beach to ourselves.  It's awesome.  The kids have loved it, and have combined playing in the sand, in the water, and catching about a million sun fish over the trips there this year.

Will's been wanting a bow bad.  He think's it's fun to see me practice - watching he and Emily run to the target butt at my folks to help me pull arrows is awesome.  We'd got him on for his B-Day (July 4), but it really just didn't work great.  The long suction cup arrows were really hard to get on the string and shoot.  So a trip to the local Cabelas resulted in this cool bow that shoots little nerf darts, he LOVES it.  Emily went in wanting a bow to... but seeing the stuffed animals near the other toys, she was swayed to a stuffed, plush deer.  They had a blast.

Last week I had that Monday trip to the tail water.  I had a blast and caught a lot... but realized I was low on some flies... and wanted to give a few flies to a friend.  One I was low in was Chernobyl Ant's and the other was that I'd lost a few Chimera Caddis larva's that Monday so I needed more.  Tightlines productions vimeo page had a Chernobyl Ant video this week that showed me a way to tie that fly I'd not tried before and added motivation, so last night I had some vice time and tied up a bunch of Chernobyl's, Chimera's and then a green version of the Chimera that I've wanted to play with using wine colored thread for the underbody and head (that tail water fishes great with a little green and red fly called the Jail Bird, and this is simpler and probably a bit more durable, so I have wanted to try it)...   Here's a few pic's of the bugs...

Here are the Chimera's and Olive and wine pupa's.  These flies are tied using flexy floss which is colored, stretchy and sort of transparent.  So the chimeras have an orange thread base, over wrapped with yellow flexy floss and then finished with brown thread for the head.  The wine and olive ones are just wine underbody, olive flexi floss and wipped off.  These are all size 18's which has always worked best for me with the Chimera Caddis.

Ok, now I'm caught up here from the past 8 weeks...  Hopefully I can get into a better posting pattern again here soon.

Will

Time away, Time with trout, Time to get back to action.

I knew this year would be pretty darn crazy.  And it certainly has been that!  I hope to post a little about some adventures over the next week... But first, a little post about my first (ugh) fishing trip in about 6 weeks.

Last night, I decided I needed a "personal" day.  A short one, but, one none the less.  To do that, I worked until noon, then headed to a tailwater about an hour away.  There were fish all over the darn place, but I focused on two sections I really enjoy fishing.  One is a slow, deep glide with one side open and shrubby and the other covered in hemlocks.  Just below this a power line crosses the river and the water becomes much skinnier and with a bit of structure rather than a sand bottom.  It's not a riffle, the water slides through this area in 1-2 foot depths, and gin clear.

It's a fun spot, full of well educated fish, and with memories from my childhood and development as an angler.

It was a really valuable half a day.  I caught a number of fish on the Chimera Caddis in a #18... but never broke out the camera.  The day was about doing some de-stressing, and just being outside.  And, it was that.

Plus, I met a few real nice fellow anglers, which added to the day for sure.