Hells Bay Video!

As a follow up to my last post I put together a video of my latest fishing trip into Hell's Bay. You'll notice some overlap in the photos, but I wanted to put together a clip which better showed the intricacy of the mangrove creeks that we navigated through. It is pretty awesome check it out. You will also be able to access it from our videos tab on the top of the page!

The music is "Limelight" by Rush, because it's awesome.

1 Day in Hells Bay

Bonefish Video

As promised here is the video of all the pictures and couple of short video clips of my trip to the flats the other day with Captain James Koch.

First Bonefish on the Fly

The Helios 2 is Coming!

Like most fly fishing junkies I get amped up on new gear. This was launched yesterday! The Helios 2 is finally making it's way into the foreground. I for one am pumped up on this rod. In my mind it's going to be hard to beat what they have out right now, but it seems like an upgrade on an already pretty awesome product. Read up. Let me know what you think. The promotional video is pretty sweet too. Made in the USA, can't beat it. 

H2 Promo

Patch Man Do Fishing Trip!

Recently, Danielle and I had the opportunity to go out and spend a day on the Patch Man Do together. Captain John had heard that maybe there were some Pompano running through the area and he wanted to check it out to see if we could find them. Of course who am I to turn down a day on the open water... Luckily, Danielle was off from work as well and I could finally get her on a boat! We had a blast out there catching all sorts of fish... unfortunately none of which were pompano. I also happened to land my first bonefish.. Who needs to be in the flats? 

Species the Patch Man Do found for us this trip included:

Bonefish
Hogfish
Black Groupe
Mangrove Snapper
Yellowtail
Lemon Shark
Porgy
Cubera Snapper
Blue Runner
White Grunt

If you want to see more check out this short video and some pictures from our trip on the patch man do!!

 Patch Man Do 
**There is some graphic material in this video


**It should be made clear that in the video Captain John removed the head of the shark to bleed the fish out. If you don't bleed the fish the urine that is in the blood stream will spoil the meat. So since we were keeping the animal for dinner it was essential we didn't allow the meat to spoil. 

Kirk's Heading Home

Unfortunately we didn't make our goal of landing a tarpon to add to the blog. My two days off work this week were completely rained/blown out. We had our chances at landing big fish but we just couldn't connect when the opportunity was presented. It brings me back to the first time I had an opportunity on that 2 foot 5 pound rainbow, I blew a golden opportunity then and I blew it this week with Kirk. That's okay though, it's the missed opportunities that make you try harder, it's the failures that teach you things. That being said, it would be nice to get a little positive reinforcement from time to time. But I am convinced those opportunities will come, I just need to put my time in. Next time Kirk comes to visit we will be well prepared to hammer some baby tarpon and whatever else South Florida has to offer.

For all of you missing your trout updates have no fear I'm sure Kirk will be back on Spring Creek in no time catching fish, flipping rocks, and name dropping. As for myself, it's back to the drawing board with techniques and patterns... I'm going super heavy jig style for the snook and peacocks of the canal fishery, and going brighter and medium weight for the tarpon. I want them to think I am dangling a nice wounded pilchard right in front of their face.

Florida Keys Extravaganza!

Sorry for the delay in posts but Kirk and I had an exciting day of fishing! We started it off by hitting the flats in a pair of Kayaks searching for tarpon, bonefish, or whatever else we could find! We ended up catching a bunch of barracuda and Kirk had 3 baby tarpon eat but couldn't stay connected... Then we went and hit up the canals for an evening of peacock bass fishing! Check out the video I put together and stay tuned for some more pictures and action as Kirk continues to fish his brains out! Enjoy!

"Treat" of the Week

This weeks treat was an inspiring story to me. Tim Welch was visiting Cusack's Alaska Lodge for the first time in 2010, he has since been back, and he fell seriously ill. He was having a great week of fishing when one morning he woke up and knew something wasn't right. Several hours later he was feeling worse and Bob flew him to the hospital in Iliamna, where there they decided to fly him to Anchorage. In Anchorage they diagnosed him with a severe arrhythmia. The cure for which was to stop his heart and shock it back into rhythm. Any normal person would just be thankful to be alive, but Tim wanted to finish his fishing trip!

He came back to the lodge that evening on the last flight from Anchorage and went fishing the next day! He caught a lot of big fish the next few days, but you could tell his appreciation for everything had changed. He is the one who took the picture of me that marks our "Treat" of the Week. Tim came back to the lodge in 2011 and had another amazing trip. It's just incredible to see his new outlook on life, knowing full well if he didn't get help that day he may not have made his second trip to the lodge. 

I hope you enjoy the compilation of pictures from Tim's 2 trips and one short video of Tim on the same day he got back from the hospital!

GoPro version 3.0 Spring Creek

GoPro Version 3.0

A few days ago I took my GoPro camera for an adventure that turned out to be a fun day on the stream.  The water was up but not discolored, and I anticipated the Sulphur's would be making their daily return to Spring Creek.  With the water being up, I decided to go to a nice eddy that would hold a bunch of fish where they could feed heavily without fighting the faster moving water.  

The feeding lanes were being established and I switched to a Sulphur comparadun that I tied using a mixture of yellow/orange dubbing.  I picked up several beautiful Spring Creek trout and then I turned to my right and I glanced downstream to notice a few fish surface that looked like larger trout sipping dry flies.  I took a few steps downstream and casted to the first fish and it took the comparadun on the first cast and it popped off and sent the fly right back to me.  Yes, it was a humbling experience because it felt like a good fish and it left me wondering how big it would've been.  Then I saw this beautiful rainbow trout take another Sulphur.  I casted a few times downstream and shook my rod left and right to pull out some more line and get the fly to move as a realistic fly would on the surface of the water.  The fish took the fly and the rest of the story can be seen on the link to the GoPro video.  It put up quite a fight and I appreciated every second of the catch until it was released back to the water.  I hope you enjoy the video!  Tight lines!       

Understanding Tarpon.

I have spent my entire life chasing trout, understanding trout, deciphering feeding patterns, learning the spawning cycles, the right fly patterns, how they react to certain climates and weather, and most importantly how to catch them. Now I feel like I'm standing on my head with one eye closed and no idea where to begin. 


I spent a lot of today chatting about Tarpon. About there feeding patterns and what they are looking for. The most important tip that I picked up today is that chances are the tarpon are not feeding. They are competitive eaters, they eat because they don't want their buddy swimming with them to get it before they do. 


Things I am thinking about when I am tying flies now. 


1. Color, what it appears to be in the water, the most important thing to think about is what the tarpon will perceive it as. I'm tying a variety of dark streamers right now, something similar to this EP tarpon streamer shown below.

2. Silhouette vs. Water depth. If you are fishing in the same water column depth as the tarpon throw a tall fly like an Enrico Puglesi Streamer. But, if you are fishing water where you are predominantly above or below the fish throw a crab pattern or something like it. The key is to get the fish's attention. 


Moral of the story, I have a lot to learn. I do however continue to watch videos like this to keep me pumped up about my next shot at a monster! 

Go Pro Version 2.0!

I was out fishing on Sunday and recorded some footage of a nice brown trout taking a chocolate dun on Spruce Creek!  The weather was beautiful and the stream was a bit discolored but this unsuspecting brown trout took my dry fly.

New GoPro Video!

Later on that day my dad and I went to Pine Creek and got to witness the amazing Brown Drake and Green Drake spinner fall.  We finished up fishing around 10:00PM and I took my light out to wade back across the stream and my shirt was covered in Brown Drakes.  Literally, I had to shake out my shirt because I had Brown Drakes crawling all over me after my light attracted the drakes.

I will not forget that night on the stream for some time to come and it was highlighted by my father hooking into a near 2-foot brown trout.  We didn't take any pictures of the fish because as we were about to net the fish, the fly popped out!  


Regardless, it's always fun to be able to listen to great fish taking huge mayflies and fish by using your ears.  If you get a chance, make the trip!  The flies were amazing to watch and it was even more humbling to cast at so many fish working on top.  You literally are required to present the perfect drag free drift to have a fish take your fly!  Incredibly challenging, but highly rewarding when you hook up!

Crane Flies, Cahill's and Sulphur's Galore!

The last two nights have offered great fishing on Spring Creek! I'm trying to make some time this weekend and head to either the Little Juniata or Penns Creek to see if the Sulphur fishing is as good there as it has been on Spring Creek.  A few Green Drakes have been spotted on Penns but there are not enough Drakes to stir the trout from feeding on them.    

Sulphur Spinners GoPro Video

Both nights I've caught fish on Light Cahill's, Crane Flies and the majority of the fish have been on either Sulphur Duns or Sulphur Spinners.  The amount of insects on the water have been impressive considering the amount of rain that we've received.  Either way the fish are getting enough protein to keep them healthy and ready to put up a fight!  

Friday and Saturday have been forecasted to be in the beautiful days!  Get your flies tied and gear up to catch some fish!