Everglades Fishing Report: Backcountry Grand Slam!

I'll admit heading to the everglades and fly fishing the back country with 20-25mph winds didn't exactly excite me like it should have going into this trip. But, with wonderful advice: "you can sleep when you are dead," I set off for Flamingo at 6am. Surprisingly enough it seemed calm, excitement growing. 

When we arrived in at the boat launch it was like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Birds." There were vultures and seagulls everywhere and they were seemingly hovering right above our heads waiting for the right moment to peck out our eyes... (Apparently they are a problem there?) That thought quickly left my mind as we raced across whitewater bay and into some intricate interconnected mangrove channels. This place is a maze of epic proportions. When I was in Alaska I though the lakes and rivers were complicated but at least we could use elevation as a place marker or a guide that you are in the right place. Out here if you don't have a GPS you are screwed. Oh hey, that clump of mangroves looks like that patch we passed an our ago but it also looks exactly the same as... yes... every other patch of mangroves in this area! 

When we finally popped out somewhere in Hells Bay we were immediately on fish but it was sporadic. We would get a flurry of 5 or 6 snook and then nothing. For just about long enough to lull you to sleep and then another one would try to rip the rod out of your hand. This went on for most of the day until we hit this stretch where there must have been hundreds of snook just lining this cut, because it was all I could do to release one and get my fly back in the water. It was literally two straight hours of catching 14-24 inch snook, all on the same fly, all in the same 300 yards of water. It was insane, it was BY FAR the most action I've seen on a fly rod since I've moved down here. To top that off in the midst of the chaos I landed my biggest red fish to date on a fly rod. As well as two mangrove snapper, and a lady fish. All in all I'm sure I landed 25 snook and that is a modest estimate... 

On our way back to the ramp to end our day my luck found a way to have another positive twist! Tarpon started boiling everywhere on glass minnows. Holy shit! Several casts later I had the silver king doing a tail walk across the water right in front of me. Granted it was only a 4 pounder instead of a 104 pounder, but I'll take it! A couple more tarpon in the boat made me one happy fella. After all it's not every day I get to go out and land the backcountry grand slam... Tarpon, Snook, and a Red Fish. 

First Tarpon on the Fly!

The smallest tarpon I landed... haha awesome. 

The only fly I used ALL day. It caught everyone of my fish. It's a little worse off then it started but boy was it productive.

Big snook of the day!

The Red Fish that completed my Grand Slam!

Alpine Fishing: Slate Creek

As some of you may know by now I was away in Colorado for the past week and a half chasing elk around the Eagles Nest Wilderness of Summit County. While the elk hunting wasn't a complete success it did allow me to spend some time chasing another illusive species that I had been craving, wild mountain trout. The watershed we fished was approximately 8,500- 9,000 feet above sea level. A small difference from the 16 feet of elevation I currently live at.. Slate Creek gets legs from Upper Slate Lake (12,000 Feet above sea level) and flows through the Slate Creek Valley, which happened to be within walking distance (3 miles) from our hunting camp. 

We decided after one of our longer, more excruciating excursions into the wilderness that it was time for a break and to see if we couldn't catch a couple fish. It was exactly what we needed, the fishing was excellent the weather broke, and you couldn't imagine a more pristine backdrop. The three mile hike in seems like nothing when I finally was able to break my troutless streak. 

Lucky for the photographs the Brooke Trout were beginning their spawning cycle and boy were the colors vibrant. Bright sunrise orange bellies with dark black mouths brought me back to Alaska and their cousins Dolly Varden. It truly was a trip to remember and this little fishing trip in the middle of it was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Big Centre County Rainbow

This photo submission comes to us from Bryan Doyle. Another member of our following introduced by the intern, Harry Tomlin. This is a great picture of a pretty huge rainbow from Central Pennsylvania. So thanks Bryan for sending this to us and thanks Harry for pointing him in our direction! 

Keep the pictures coming and we will keep posting them. I'm missing central PA trout fishing more and more every day... 

Here you go fella's, got this huge bow early this morning in central pa. I'd like to keep the location on the down low since its hard to find public waters that isn't regulated with fish like this swimming around, I like to call it my little honey hole. However, I caught this bow on a size 16 frenchie in about a mile of non stocked water while fishing for wild browns. I also released the fish after a few photos to catch again someday.

Bryan

Spring Creek (08/12/2012)

Spring Creek has continued to fish very well in the early morning hours between 6:00AM - 11:00AM.  I've been having a lot of success using Elk-Hair Ants, Inch Worms, Olive Scuds and a variety of other terrestrial patterns.  The key spots to fish have been shaded areas and deep cuts along riffles or a combination of the two.  Setting the hook has been extremely easy because the trout will go out of their way to destroy any of the patterns listed above.  

If you are going to go out, make sure to set the alarm early or find a fishing buddy and do some night fishing after dark!  I have a most wanted trout that I'm going after this morning (probably as you're reading this post)!  Hopefully it agrees again today as I had a mishap the first time I had it on the line, but that's another story for a later post!

Enjoy!

Patch Man Do Fishing Report

The next couple of pictures are documentation of a few fishing trips while working on the Patch Man Do. I got to give the Nomad Net a good workout hauling up a couple of large Red Grouper. It handled the test. The following pictures are of a small bonefish, a couple of porgy's, red grouper, and a pretty big barracuda. We caught lots of other fish, and some bigger fish, but when you are busy it's hard to get pictures taken of everything. Especially the spotted moray eel we caught... That thing was so ugly looking. 

Everglades Fishing Report! 8/7/12

I spent the morning working on Captain John Wambolt's Patch Man Do (Pictures to come), and when I got home Captain Chris White called me and asked if I wanted to go fishing... Silly question.

The conditions weren't ideal and I couldn't sling a fly rod (too much wind, and wind-blown grass) but I was just content to catch something because it had been a while since I had caught a sport fish and I was itching. 

The everglades is unlike anything I've ever seen. We got there on low tide right as it was starting to come in, weaving through channels and cuts in the mud flats we found ourselves in an area known as snake bight. Awesome name I know. 

We are out there and I'm awestruck. There are 7-8 foot sharks cruising around me while we're in like 2 feet of water. It was like freaking "Jaws" just dorsal fins and tails cruising by us. I kept imagining that scene where Roy Scheider is throwing chum off the back of the boat and that huge great white comes out of the water chasing his chum fix. Well I always try to photo document my catches for you all, but these photos were pretty rushed because I didn't want to come home one hand short of a pair... 

Anyway a couple hours later a half dozen red fish, a couple snook, a few sea trout, and a lady fish and we were back in the marina. I was exhausted but exhilarated, it was an amazing day. One I look forward to repeating.  

The Nomad handles a big Red.

Chris' biggest red of the day

Nice Sea Trout in the Nomad Net

Logan Branch Update (08/06/2012)

The Logan Branch is arguably one of my favorite challenging streams to fish during the dog days of the summer.  The fisherman must take a completely stealthy approach to this river.  The high grass along most of the stream allows you to sneak along the bank but the trout still find a way to see you.  I think that is what I like most about this stream, it doesn't even seem like you are fishing in Central Pennsylvania.  Certain points of the stream are no wider then a rods length and other times it "opens up" to about 12 - 15 feet.  The tight cover, and precise casts necessary makes it feel like you are fishing a mountain stream.      

Another thing that I love about the Logan Branch is that it receives fairly low fishing pressure but it is enough that the fish have become very intelligent.  The combination of the challenge and the chance of hooking into a good fish is what makes this stream so fun to visit.  Below are a few pictures that I took on my recent trip to this gorgeous Central PA stream.