I am one of the worlds worst bloggers...I started this blog and then fail to maintain it with stories of my successes, failures, or lessons learned.  Oh I have plenty of excuses but they are the same tired ones given by everyone else...too busy, not inspired, etc.  But the truth is closer to the fact that it probably just boils down to being too lazy!

Last year was a very interesting year for me as I metamorphosed from a fisherman to a fly fisherman.  I think I only picked up my spinning rod a half dozen times last year and that was because it was too windy to even think about casting a fly and the one night I went out to try to catch some catfish for my Mom.

In fishing terms it was really not a very successful year.  I had some early success in the spring but the summer was hot and the fish tough to find out at the lake.  This resulted in some great finds though.  I found that some portions of my local creek actually were productive in rock bass and sunnies and also a new fish to me the fallfish. 

These became one of my favorite fish to target in these hotter months as they gave a great fight and would attack the fly when almost everything else was playing it cool.

The fall/early winter also provided some nice fishing with sunnies and fallfish biting out at the lake well into December.

This winter I also took the next step in my development as a fly fisherman and took class in fly tying that met every Saturday for a couple of months.  I learned a lot in the class and met a bunch of great people.  I decided to join Trout Unlimited as a result of the local chapter sponsoring this class.

Now it's spring again and the weather has not been nearly as welcoming as last year.  Still it has been a lifesaver to get out there and try to tease the fish to take my fly and I look forward to the coming summer with great anticipation.

Tight Lines!

Mooring day

Mooring Day

May 1^st is the first day that my local state park (just 10 minutes away) officially allows boats to moor up to their berthing spots.  Last year, it was the latter half of May before even close to half of the boats had found their way out to the lake.  This year’s exceptionally mild spring meant that many anglers were ready to have their boats out the middle of March.  I was no exception.  Although I have a sit-on-top kayak, having a car to transport meant it is not very convenient to transport my kayak every fishing day.  

So this was my 2^nd year of purchasing a shoreline mooring spot.   I had been out in my kayak several times already but I was really looking forward to being out on the water every day off.  I have to admit, I was anticipating this like a kid anticipating a trip to the zoo!  I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before yet I was wide awake and full plans for the day.

I have the only kayak next to a varied lot of plastic and aluminum skiffs, most pretty small.  The larger boats have floating docks on the side opposite the boat launch and there is also a kayak tree for (lighter) kayaks and canoes.  Having a spot on the beach is great; I can be in the water in less than 10 minutes.  If I was more organized it would take less than 5 minutes.  This includes unlocking and removing the heavy cabling that I use to secure my kayak, installing the seat, situating my gear where I like it, and stowing my gear bag in the front hatch.

Of course, there are disadvantages too!  Like the time a huge toad jumped out from under my kayak when I turned it over.  Since it was still dark it about scared the..well you know what out of me.  This happened a couple of mornings in a row.  Even worse,  one morning I reached down to turn my kayak over and there was a dark shape huddled under it (I started looking before turning after the toad).  It being dark again (I like to paddle to my first fishing spot before dawn breaks to get that early bite) I couldn’t make out what it was.  I got out my flashlight and to my dismay it was a raccoon.  A couple of proddings with the blade of my paddle and I determined it was dead.  This really creeped me out…I mean all I could think of was that perhaps it had rabies and crawled underneath to die.  I called the park rangers later that morning and they apparently came and picked it up because it was gone when I got back.  An additional call a couple of weeks later and I found out that did not have rabies but they did not know what it died of.

Most of the time there was no scary things popping out and I was out on the water paddling with anticipation of another great day.  The cool things I see definitely outweigh the creepy.  Bald Eagles swooping down and gliding back up with a large fish in it’s claws, beavers on shore and in the water, loons calling, deer at the lake edge, and porcupines just to name some.  Needless to say, there is also the numerous bluegill ‘kisses’ at the water surface, the carp jumping in their spawning dance, and the occasional explosion at the water surface as a bass pounces on its prey.

So now it has been three weekends since mooring day and I have been out fishing five times since.  The only day I missed out in the kayak was because I was sick.  I anticipate another sleepless night next May!

The unseasonably warm spring has been nothing but welcome by me at least.  Last years cold spring meant no excitement fishing until almost May.  I've had better fishing in the last nine days than I did through June of last year.  But I'm digressing from the main gist of this article.

My brother has really challenged me to improve my fly fishing skills especially since I want to try for some trout this year.  With that in mind, last Saturday I headed out to the lake with only my fly rod and an assortment of flies including some I had tied myself.

I hadn't made but a couple of casts when I was joined on the bank by another fisherman who turned out to be a gunny sergeant home on leave.  He mentioned that he had been fishing the previous day and caught a number of good sized (20"+) pike over by the causeway and that they were in spawn. Boy how exciting would it be to catch one of those.  I was hoping that there were some over on this side of the lake too.

I was pretty happy with the way my poppers were casting but not really getting any bites yet.  A family of three had been fishing off to my right but had decided to leave and I decided to try where they were fishing as a culvert fed some water into the lake at that point.  At this time I had tied on a small fly with a propeller spinner on it.  I was really concentrating on keeping my elbow down and not rushing my casting strokes and was actually getting some decent casts in.  About my 5th or 6th cast, I was stripping it in when I got a really good hit-whoaa, whatever it was it was fighting like crazy!  My heart was pumping like crazy and I was really stressing that I would lose the fish while trying to get my net where I needed it when the fish was in close enough.

I finally got it in close enough to get a good look at it and it was Chain Pickerel.  I kept stripping in line and finally had it in close enough to grab my net and scoop her up.  Geez,  she was really chunky for a Pickerel and just over 22".  The gunny sergeant came over and took some pictures for me before I released her to hopefully have a nice successful spawning season.  My thanks Gunny for being such a great sport about taking time out of your day to take the pictures for me.

I have to admit, catching this Chain Pickerel was more exciting than any amusement park ride and the thrill of catching it on the fly was really terrific.

If you look closely, you'll see that something tried to take a bite out of her but fortunately only gave her a small cut a few inches in front of her tail.

No Fish, No Problem

How many of you out there have gone out for a day of fishing and not had a single bite all day.  Every cast seems to either get snagged in a tree overhead, caught on underwater structure or the reel gets snaggled (my own word for the various messes that happen with my reel).  For all intents and purposes it should mean a miserable day of fishing.  For me that is almost never the case; this weekend was a great case in point.

This past weekend I invited my nephew to come fishing with me.  As it was a good 30 minute hike I invited him to bring is Australian Shepherd with him knowing he would enjoy the chance to take his dog with him.  Since he was off work Friday as well as Saturday this worked perfectly for him. 

The weather couldn’t have cooperated any better for the middle of February.  We arrived at the parking spot around 9:30 and the temperature was probably in the mid 30’s with a bright sunny sky.  Unlike the warmer months of the year we didn’t worry about getting out to the water at dawn to catch the early bite and we had a nice relaxed hike to the creek side.  Along the way we had an eye out for any game in the woods or fields and watching Kota the Australian Shepherd running hither and thither.  My nephew being essentially a city boy, enjoyed being shown the different game tracks of which we saw plenty – deer, raccoon, and turkey.

It was just cold enough that the trail was crunchy instead of muddy and warm enough to unzip the coat.  The last couple of hundred yards is a pretty steep downhill and I was able to fully appreciate my nephews 5’11” height as he lent me his shoulder to help me with my balance (I have had a bum knee the last few weeks) going down the steeper rockier sections.

The actual fishing was an exercise in frustration as my 8.5’ fly rod was virtually useless with the overhanging trees and brush…next time I go to the creek it will be with an ultralight spinning set-up unless it’s warm enough to wade.  Still, with a little over a week until trout season closes for stocking, we got to walk a good bit of the shoreline and scope out some areas that should hold some fish.

We decided to finish up earlier than we planned and walk back in a leisurely fashion…well, as leisurely as it can be when the first couple of hundred yards is a straight up, lung busting, thigh burning hill.  At this time a few leisurely snowflakes were occasionally falling.  Once we made it to the top of the hill, Kota flushed out some huge turkeys.  One of the turkeys flew up into the tree tops above the trail and Kota was running around trying to find a way to get to it.  It finally flew off and we set off for the car.  We didn’t see any more wildlife but we still had plenty of laughs at Kota’s antics.

Once we arrived down at the car an old man who lives down the lane stopped to ask if we had any luck to which we had to admit no we hadn’t.  I asked him what he liked to use down there and if there were any particular places he could suggest we try.  He was really great with sharing his knowledge and he also shared some stories of his younger days when he would fish the whole section down to the next parking area which would be about 5-6 miles.  With the beauty of the stream and the woods I can easily imagine spending all day fishing this area.

When we finally arrived home for a late lunch we had zero fish but a passel of great pictures and even more importantly memories of a great day spent with together.

Fishing's 'Off-Season'

Winter has finally marked itself upon the Pennsylvania countryside with more than half a foot of snow last night on top of several inches from the previous night.  I had entertained thoughts of going down to the creek and practicing my fly-casting and perhaps fooling one of the trout remaining in the creek into trying out one of my San Juan worms or midges.  A morning of shoveling followed by a trip to the vet for one of my dogs (he's developed painful arthritis in his rear hips) has made the idea of standing creek-side in calf deep snow unappealing.  Instead I made a stock pot full of chili on to cook and settled down to read one of my Austen spin-offs (as in Jane Austen).  In the background the TV is on to the World Fishing Network and I look up from time to time when they discuss particularly interesting tactics/patterns for bass or walleye fishing.  I wonder what kind of fishing Jane would prefer?

It might seem at first to be somewhat incongruous that a Janeite (an admirer of Jane Austen and her literature) also loves to fish but only to those unfamiliar with the universal appeal of Austen's Books.  Austen's books are currently thought by many to be the province of women, but historically that is not the case at all...in fact there Kipling wrote of a group of soldiers during the Great War (WW I) who considered themselves Janeites.  Regardless, like Jane I take my daily pleasures where I can and while with Jane a walk about the countryside was one of her chief pleasures, with me it is fishing.

Life is not all fishing though and it is a joy to have the chance to catch up on my reading...especially my favorite Austen works.  Here's hoping that you use fishing's off-season as a balance for the rest of the year.

Hooke's Law and Fly Fishing guest post by Zedd

In order to serve a broad range of expertise and skill levels, I'll be inviting guest posts from time to time.  Here's the first by Zedd:

Whilst out fly-fishing this weekend I got to thinking (a dangerous thing, wrought with mischief to be sure) that maybe we should take lessons from the largemouth bass. Unlike the vaunted trout, a fish known for becoming dogmatic in its eating, the largemouth doesn’t really care about its chow. If it moves, makes noise, and generally appears to be an organism big enough to digest, the largemouth will hit your lure. This got me to thinking about fly-fishing in general.  What does it mean to ‘fly fish’?

I define ‘fly fishing’ as use tools (fly rod, fly line, leader, tippet, fly reel, etc…) which allow you to use lures too light for typical momentum casting such as with spinning or bait-casting equipment. This definition helps me to think of the fly-fishing equipment as a whole as opposed to a series of individual ‘categorical casts’. For example, fly-fishing has literally dozens of types of casts; back casts, forward casts, side-arm casts, bow cast, vertical casts, false-casts, roll casts, curve casts, S-casts, ad infinitum. I think it’s best to do away with naming the cast, and learn what  happens when I apply different techniques during the cast. A wholistic  approach if you will.

First, what ‘happens’ during a fly-cast?  Instead of the weight of the lure pulling the line off the reel, the weight of the line is pulling the fly along for the ride. The most basic means of this happening is sometimes called the bow cast, where the fly is carefully pinched between two fingers, pulled back against the fly rod-causing it to bow, and then released. The action of pulling the fly back causes the fly rod to flex. In reality, the fly rod is a material that exhibits both rigidity and elasticity, a spring:

In mathematical terms (Hooke’s Law):     F=-kx

During the compression phase (pulling the fly back) the rod stores mechanical energy and a force is generated in proportion to the length of the pull (X). Upon release, the rod de-flex’s and releases its force in a torque like manner; that is it rotates in an elliptical movement, increasing speed, and imparting this rotational torque into the fly line in the form of centripetal force, shooting the fly line and its rider, the fly. Fly Fisherman call this storing of mechanical energy into the fly rod as ‘powering up the rod’.

This may seem a little technical, but it is the rotational torque part that is important. Fly fisherman say by way of good fishing, ‘tight loops buddy [ma’am]’. This is a reference to the importance of learning the fly rod technique of casting with a tight loop. The ability to create tight loops is the first important skill a good fly fisherman needs learn. Remember the rod tip will de-flex in a curve? Centripetal force teaches that the rod tip will tend to want to impart energy into the line in a continuous and constant cycle throughout the energy release. The effect is that when the rod is held in a stationary manner, the loop will become large rather than tight. The trick with casting with a fly rod is to first learn how to move your rod tip as it releases its force in such a manner that the rod tip stays in a fairly straight line. The straighter the stroke of the casting rod tip, the tighter the line. To be sure, there are many times when you will want to make a broad round stroke, thus imparting a curve, or even multiple curves of different widths into the fly line. However, it is important to start off with the basic ability to cast a tight looped line, and this is only accomplished by casting in such a manner as to keep the rod tip in a constant straight line as it unleashes its force in a rotational manner.

This sound tricky and it is. Still, remember there are millions of fly-fisherman the world over who have mastered the technique. Once this stroke is learned, experimentation with manipulating the rod will teach you how to make the loops and casts needed for an infinite variety of presentations your favorite bay, lake, pond, river, or stream will offer you. The wholistic approach to understanding the what happens when will lead to a more instinctive cast without having to memorize and implement a variety of individual methods.

Not quite a novice, definitely not an expert (in other words: 2012 Goals)

With a skim of ice across all the area lakes and reservoirs, I've been going a bit stir crazy since Christmas.  I mean, from March until November of last year there were only 4 non-work days that I didn't fish!  Having responsibilities at home, it wasn't like I was out all day, but I was out before dawn and usually fished until shortly before noon - 5 or 6 hours per day of fishing. 


I loved fishing at this time; no crowds (except the impromptu bass tournaments once bass season started) and the lake is so peaceful at this time of day.  If you fished later on the day there was alot more recreational users of both the water and shoreline and while it's great to see people enjoying such a great resource I am surrounded by people the entire work-week and it's great to not have to feel the expectation of anyone other than myself for a short time.  The wildlife are much more active at this time as well and while I missed many photo shots, because I either forgot my camera or I couldn't get it out of the ziplock fast enough, I was able to get quite a bit on film as well.


So back to the point of this rambling:  what to do during this "off" season?  First off I decided I should set some goals for myself.  It seems kind of funny to say in this 'modern' age but many people (mostly other women) were amazed I went out by myself fishing.  This was especially true of my mother, who lives with me, despite the fact that at my age she had been expecting her first grandchild.  But it wasn't just her generation that was amazed.  Women of both a similar age and younger also alluded to the fact that they didn't think they would be comfortable going fishing and/or kayaking by themselves.


I have to admit, there where times when it was still pitch black outside and I'm walking down to the lake edge and it is a bit creepy.  This was especially true the pre-dawn morning I went to turn over my kayak (I have it moored at a nearby lake) and a huge toad hopped away.  Or a couple of weeks later when I discovered that a raccoon had crawled under it to die.  I don't know if that is any different from how a man would feel or not - and I found I grew in confidence as the summer went along.


The fact was though that I fished the whole year at one lake with the exception of a couple of days on the creek that runs through town.  I did this because it was comfortable.  This year I want to try new things and new places.  So, after a kind of long and convoluted path here are my goals:

• Fish at least 5 new places, 3 of which from the kayak
• Increase my skill and knowledge of fishing tactics, presentation and patterns.
• Take my Mom, Aunt, and Uncle out to the lake fishing

I've already started taking steps for the first goal by researching the internet and visiting potential fishing spots.  For the second goal I've received and watched Jeff Little's Smallmouth River Tactics - Summer and plan on purchasing the Spring one soon.  I also plan to go on a guided kayak fishing trip that covers tactics, lures, and presentation on the Juniata river.  I have some training that I will have to late spring or early summer so I'm not sure when.  For the third goal, I took my Mother to the one reservoir that I plan on fishing this coming spring as it is quite pretty and one I thought to take my Uncle (I think she would rather go someplace where the "amenities" are present and close by).


So there you are, just a few simple goals which I can take active steps right now to make the most of 2012.  Fortunately I have the knowledge and expertise of my brother for all matters fly fishing and a co-worker for \ fishing in this region. 


So Good Casting to you in 2012!