Creek Addict

Fished with a buddy of mine, Andy Rafter, over the weekend. With the cooler weather we’ve been experiencing, the water temps on the Catskill stream we fished were absolutely perfect. Although we managed to catch a good number of wild browns and brookies, the fishing was a little slower than it has been in the past.

Andy’s first wild brown out of this place.

All the browns we got were about the same size. Nothing to write home about, but fun, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, this was probably my best fish of the day. I’m still looking for that 20 incher out of this place.

These fish love glo bugs.

Carp.

Beer and BBQ. Wooooooooooooo.

Wednesday, I decided to get my carp on before work with my good buddy Aaron Jasper from Fly Fishing Evolution. We caught a few before it was time for me to get to work, but nothing crazy. The next day, Aaron decided to go back out to the pond and try his luck again. I got numerous envy inducing calls letting me know how veraciously the carp were feeding. I think he landed ten or more in a matter of hours. He told me every carp in that pond had their tail in the air and their face to the mud. Obviously, I had picked the wrong day to go carping before work. You can check out some of the pictures from the carp slaying at FlyFishingEvolution.com.
A little guy.

Aaron with a good size fish out of this pond. He got another pretty good one the second day he went. I think it’s safe to say another carp addict has been created.

The fishing wasn’t too bad, considering it’s late August. Nick and I fished a retarded stocker stream called Cedar Creek behind Dorney Park in Allentown. We fished there for about an hour and caught a few fat boys. The place is ridiculous. Every section of deep water (relatively speaking, by deep, I mean 3 foot) held about 50 fish. Some of which had to be about 25 inches and close to ten pounds. The retardedness only allowed us to stay for an hour. We got there super early, so we had the stream to ourselves. It didn’t take long though, and the guys with treble hooks, bait and weight started showing up. The fish are super pressured in this stream, and a bit tricky to get on a fly. When I heard about this place from Aaron Jasper over at Fly Fishing Evolution, I thought it would be a cinch. I only landed two in the hour we were there. That may sound decent, but if you saw the number of fish in there, you’d know why two in an hour is no where near good. Once the bait guys showed up, we packed up and headed out. Nick and I aren’t much for watching boners snag fish with treble hooks.

After going to stocker heaven, we hit up one of our favorite wild brown streams in that area. The fishing was ok, but far from what it was the last time we were there. This time was not so easy, we both had double digit numbers of fish but it wasn’t fast paced by any means. The water was gin clear, and cold as a polar bears toe nail. We Euro nymphed most of the day and caught them on 5x and size 10 nymphs while the other people we ran into struggled to catch a few on size 24 dries and 8x. Its funny what picky wild browns will eat if you don’t give them long to look at it. The fish were rising, however, and we decided to throw a few dries at the end of the day. That’s how our last hour was spent, and Nick and I both caught a few this way. I cheated and trailed a small midge behind my dry and got some with that as well. All and all, a good day fishing for trout considering what time of the year it is.

Nick got the best brown of the day. The colors on this fish were amazing!

Nick caught this fish in the retarded stocker stream with just his net. No fly, no nothing. He just walked up to it, and netted it. That just gives you an idea of how retarded that place is.

Ugly fat fish 1.

Ugly fat fish 2.

Got some more carping in with my good buddy Bill Henry over the weekend. Hooked 4, landed 2. I think my problem with snapping these things off is all coming form the hookset. I’m so used to fishing for trout that I’m holding the line down with my trigger finger as I set the hook. If you’ve caught a carp on the fly, you know as soon as they feel the hook, they are off like Usain Bolt. So I guess keeping the line pinned down for just that half second is all they need to snap me off. I’m now making a conscience effort to strip set on these brutes to minimize the break offs.

This is the bigger of the two fish that were actually landed. Believe it or not, the little one from the first picture actually put up a harder fight. I’m getting pretty addicted to this whole carping game. Like a true addict, I’m already jonesing for my next carp fix.

For my birthday, my wife and I had planned to go to PA to get some wild browns. Unfortunately, the weather decided to crap out on us, and we decided to stay local. We fished one of the few fishable (for trout) rivers remaining in Jersey. The fishing was surprisingly good, and the pressure was surprisingly light (for this river). It didn’t take us long to get hooked up, and it stayed that way until we left.

Alicia (my wife) is getting really good at the european nymphing techniques. At 5 months pregnant, would your wife be out there picking apart current seams with her fly rod?

My big birthday fish. Alicia was working a seam a little down river from me when she noticed this one swim past her and up into a small run I was fishing. As soon as I saw it, I drifted a size 16 hare’s ear right in front of his nose. One drift was all it took to get the trout all buttoned up and in the net. It was nice to get a big one for my birthday, even if it was an ugly stocker.

One of Alicia’s trout.

Close up of the birthday fish. At least it had fins! This place is gonna have a great holdover population this year. The toughest part of the year is over, and there are a ton of fish left in this place.