Creek Addict

The fam and I decided to head out last Saturday and enjoy the gorgeous weather at one of the local parks. While the wife played with the baby, the baby played with his fish, and my dog laid in the grass, I decided to play with a few carp I saw cruising the pond’s edges. This was new water for me, so I wasn’t even really aware that there were carp here (I had my suspicions). It was supposed to be a “family” day. I wasn’t supposed to go fishing. I mean, Come on. You can’t expect a guy to watch fish tail around in the shallows and not do something about it. It’s like holding a crack rock in front of a crack fiend’s face that hasn’t had his fix in months. I hadn’t landed a carp since the fall of ‘09. I NEEDED one. Just one. Lucky for everyone involved, I always carry some rods in the car. Game on.

Victory!

Just a little guy, but I’ll take it.

Even the dog thinks they smell gross.

Enjoy your beer thirty everyone!

Nick and I took a LONG hike to a new spot on one of our favorite rivers last week. I’m talking 10 miles round trip. It was tough, no joke. I’m fucking fat, OKAY. Get off my case. It was worth it though — seriously worth it. The caddis hatch was off the charts and the fish were hungry. We got into them pretty good all day long. Normally a 16-inch fish earns the title of “fish of the day” at this place, but we were catching so many of them in that range, we just stopped taking pictures. My legs hurt for, like, the two days after the trip, but I didn’t care. Drooling at the pictures the next day, I can’t wait to go back. Maybe it’ll make me lose a few pounds and my wife will stop calling me fat boy. Woo yaaaa! Enjoy the pictures.

First fish of the day.

Another decent brown caught by Nick.

I got out from behind the camera and did some fishing and caught a real nice one. Nick took the pictures.

Another angle.

About the average for the day.

We were catching them on dries, wets, and nymphs. All wild fish.

Nick and a nice one.

Release.

Another fatty, filled to the gills with caddis.

Nick’s fish of the day. Caught in some really calm glassy water sippin dries.

I love this picture. The red spots look gorgeous on this fish.

Watch this video in 1080P to be able to see the caddis in the first half of the video. It was nuts.

I know I’ve been neglecting the blog as of late. I just haven’t had time to do any good updates. I’ll be posting some pictures from some of the recent outings at least.

A look downstream on a new (to us) piece of water.

First fish of the day.

Feeder stream.

Hungry for stones.

Sweet release.

Nick, Jordan and I met up on Easter to do a bit of fishing at the local wild trout stream. I don’t really remember too many specifics from the outing other than the snakes were out thick and we caught a shit load of fish. Yup, that pretty much sums it up. Oh yeah, it was gorgeous out too.

A few pictures.

The red spots on this fish were ridiculous. I caught a fish (this fish) with similar spots at this same stream last year. Must be something in the water! (or the same fish)

These fish looked VERY healthy.


We’ve all fished this creek more than a few times. None of us had ever caught a brookie. Jordan was just telling us how someone had reported catching some good size brookies up stream. Then ta-da! I pulled one out. Definitely not good size though. Cool to see them in there anyway.

Frickin snakes everywhere. Anyone out there know what they are?

For the trout opener in PA I met up with Mark Erdosy from This River is Wild. We hit one of the popular local trout streams that is open year round in hopes that the other trout fisherman were off fishing streams that were previously closed. No luck. The place was crowded. I even saw a guy with a grill and party tent set up right on the banks. We fished a section that is a little less pressured in hopes of catching a few wild fish.

Mark was interested in learning about some of the European nymphing methods, and I was happy to oblige. After a few quick blurbs on how things work, and a quick demo of how it all looks, we were off to the races. It didn’t take long before Mark had a handle on things and started putting fish in hand with the new learned methods. It probably only took about 15 minutes from start to finish before he caught his first fish using the European techniques. After catching a few fish, we decided to head to one of his top secret spots. A more than fair trade. The amount of gold hidden in the place he took me to is unreal. A new favorite spot, and I haven’t even caught a fish there yet.

At secret spot X we met up with one of the other writers of This River is Wild, Adam Hope. As soon as I stepped up to the water, I saw the shadows. After trying for an hour or so, I couldn’t get a take. Adam was lucky enough to catch himself one. A sure sign that the season is looking up. It’s time for carp, and I couldn’t be any more ready. It was great fishing with these guys. I’m all about meeting new like minded fisherman. I hope to get out on the water with these guys again soon.

A nice little wild brown.

I love the buttery yellows the trout in this stream have.

One of Mark’s rainbows after the release.

Looks like we took the same picture.