After planning our trip way back in February, Rich and I hit the Swift River Saturday to get Rich his first trout on a fly rod. Actually, anybody would be happy landing any of Rich's fish, let alone as their first trout ever! Rich and I met up early at the Swift under cloudy skies and rain showers with thunderstorms on tap for later in the day, we spent about an hour talking about fly rod rigging, and the basics of the cast. After wadering up we hit the river and "hunted" trout for the rest of the day. Rich was a quick study and was soon making excellent casts which soon paid off as he landed a large rainbow on a #16 Phesant Tail nymph. Rich wasn't close to done though because after a stream-side lunch he managed to land one of the largest Swift River rainbows I've ever seen...who says fly fishing is so tough? Shortly thereafter we landed a tiger trout as well which is a Brown trout-Brook trout hybrid on an olive whooly bugger, pretty cool.

Rich's first trout on a fly rod!!

Pre-release shot of Rich's first trout.

Another U/W angle.

Rich's second trout, what a beauty.



At the water's edge.

The Mass/RI Council of Trout Unlimited throws a great camping and fishing weekend every year out at Indian Hollow campground in Chesterfield. Indian Hollow is nestled onto the banks of the East Branch of the Westfield River where campers can enjoy great fishing right at camp or can venture around the largest catch and release area found in Massachusetts. A decent sized contingent of us North Shore guys from the Nor'east Chapter of Trout Unlimited had been planning on this weekend for months now. Kevin and Tom hit the road early and secured us a great spot right at the path to the river, by five or so Mike, Tom L., Bill, and myself had our tents set up and were on the water. I got about three hours on the water Friday evening and kept pretty busy with fish, it's nice to be able to swing back to the campsite, grab a beer, and then head back to the water! We all met back at camp where Mike cooked a fabulous dinner while we shared stories, Filipino moonshine (don't ask), and plenty of beers...needless to say it was a late night.

Despite the late night, I was up at five and on the water by 5:30 where I managed a nice brookie and had a long distance release of a heavy rainbow. We had plans to head upriver for a few hours before Matt and Jonathan joined us. Kevin, Tom, Bill, and I were able to spend three quality hours exploring the Gorge and we kept pretty busy with fish to boot! Kevin and I both got lucky hooking fish in fast water and running downstream trying to keep up with them, amazingly we both landed them, and didn't break any body parts!

Matt and Jonathan joined us and I got them on the water right away near the campground. Matt's been working hard for a trout for a while now and I was psyched that he was able to land his first trout within a few minutes of hitting the water! He then continued to have the hot hand all day where he landed another rainbow, a few brookies, and had a bunch of long distance releases. We hit several other spots in the area and got fish in each with a bunch on dry flies during the early afternoon. The day eventually turned into a blur of fishing and when all was said and done I spent close to 13 hours in my waders...that's my kind of day! We engineered quite a campfire on Saturday night with the help of Mike's blower which helped us overcome a lot of wet wood, luckily Kevin had taken the moonshine home with him!

Our other TOLGS guide, Chris, hooked up with us late on Saturday and he and I were able to spend a few hours on the water together Sunday morning, but I was pooped and headed home around noon time while Chris kept fishing. All in all, it was another great Indian Hollow weekend with good friends, lots of fish, too much moonshine, and one broken rod (oops)...can't wait for next year!

Looking upriver from the campground.

A brookie at my feet.

Kevin with a Chesterfield Gorge rainbow.

Matt with his first trout on a fly rod!!

Matt fighting another rainbow!

Jonathan fishing downstream in the Gorge.

Tom and I had been planning this two day trip since the winter so it was great that mother nature decided to cooperate with some nice weather. We started our adventure on the Swift River where Tom, an admitted flats fishing junkie, was able to land his first trout on a fly rod. Tom has fly fished the saltwater for years so he's an excellent caster and told great stories throughout the two days of chasing bonefish and tarpon on the flats of Mexico and Belize, but he'd never caught a trout on a fly rod. I was determined that his first trout would come from Massachusetts waters! The Swift was its typical self with very selective fish, some being down right snobby, and its beautiful gin-clear waters. Around mid-morning a great midge hatch started coming off and the fish got very active and they kept Tom and I busy until well past noon when we finally stopped for lunch. Tom was amazed at the speed and the fight trout put up, as several of his fish just charged upstream and one made an impressive jump. After a late lunch things slowed down a bit but we enjoyed the river and did some exploring.

Day two shaped up with pouring rain out on the Westfield but we were excited about the prospect of some great fishing and exploring a beautiful part of the state. The Swift and the Westfield are very different rivers and Tom and I spent a lot of time reading the water and searching for trout. Right as we got on the water a red thing came swimming past me, I lunged for it and grabbed one of our local salamanders a red spotted newt which was pretty cool. We checked him out for a minute or two and then watched him swim away, semi-hoping we'd see a giant trout inhale him! We explored the river all morning but things were pretty slow so we decided to check out some of the great native brook trout streams in the area, though we stuck around just long enough for Tom to take a refreshing swim in one of the river's pools!

Once Tom was done swimming we did some exploring and chased some native brook trout for the rest of the afternoon. Tom, used to throwing a 12 wt for tarpon, loved casting a 6'6" 3 wt, which is one of my favorite rods. We had good luck with the brookies, especially with dry-dropper combos with most fish inhaling the dry! Tom and I had a great two day trip and hopefully we can get together to do some kayak fishing later in the year!

Here's a link to my new steelhead movie from our trip to the Lake Erie tribs in April...it's short.

This was my first official guided trip for Taking Out Line Guide Service and I met Bakir out at the Swift for an 8 a.m. start. Zach and I had hit the Swift last weekend and enjoyed 80 degree temps and rising fish all day, unfortunately the conditions were quite different this time around. In fact, Bakir and I made it to the Swift a day later than the planned Saturday outing, due to the torrential rains that ripped through the whole state. I met Bakir near the bridge that crosses the Swift River at the beginning of the fly fishing only section. The winds were howling and the temperature was hovering in the high 40’s. With that wind blowing it was really chilly!  Glad I didn’t pack away those long johns yet. We started off the day by sighting some fish off the bridge and doing a quick casting clinic at one of the first fishing holes. Bakir had used a fly rod a few times before so after a few tips we continued our way up river. We started the day off nymphing with a dual fly rig setup. I started Bakir off with a black zebra midge followed by a small orange midge. We saw numerous trout holding in spots throughout the river but there was very little action throughout the majority of the day. As we made our way upriver, the wind was ferocious making it very difficult to cast forward, we worked on some techniques for casting into the wind and then made our way to within sight of Windsor Dam. We tried several different nymph and midge patterns with little response. After breaking for lunch we began seeing some surface activity. Risers were starting to surface as there were some large dries beginning to land on the water. I quickly tied on several combinations of dual dry fly setups using a size 10-14 for the top fly followed by some smaller size, 18-22, patterns. There were a few close calls as several rainbows looked and came close to hitting the flies.

After Bakir headed home for the day, I decided to head down one more time and try to catch some of those risers I had seen earlier. After almost landing a couple I decide to call it day. On my way back to the truck I saw a large rainbow feeding close to a log on the other side of the river. I couldn’t resist taking one more shot at this fish. I stealthly snuck into the water about 50 feet downriver from the fish. After slowly making my way up towards the fish I got within a good casting distance. The fish was still feeding and I knew I had a good chance. I made several cast with the double dry rig to no avail. Then on my sixth or seventh cast I landed my flies perfectly in front of the trout and drifted them over its head. It was as if in slow motion that the trout came up and swallowed my lower fly which happened to be a size 18 BWO. Fish ON!!! The rainbow gave a good battle and it was a great end to a tough day of fishing on the Swift River. Looking forward to some more of those 80 degree days!

Megan and I made it official on Friday and tied the knot on a beautiful day at Glen Magna Farms in Danvers, MA. I won't be out on the water until later in the week but keep an eye open for a report and some pics from Chris who was out with a client yesterday.

Hit one of my favorite Mass rivers Saturday for some early May trout with our new guide, Chris. Chris and I worked our way upstream to start the morning where we found a huge midge hatch coming off with rise forms dotting the river. Our initial offerings didn't make much of a dent but with the huge fish activity we knew that it was just a matter of time. We both settled in to a few different spots on the river and both had some luck, Chris on double dry set ups, and me with with my favorite tandem nymph rig (I have some great pics of the day's action but unfortunately my camera cable was just devoured by Larry, the 5 month old bulldog Megan and I were dogsitting for, so those will have to come later...). 

We stopped for lunch, took off some layers, and started heading downstream. As we got well downstream the month's high water became apparent as every hooked fish became a bear to land, between the two of us I think we were 0-6 on hooked fish landed. I headed home after 8 hours but Chris stayed on the water for another couple, so he put in a ten hour day, and picked up a few more fish for the effort. All in all a great day on the water.

After Kevin and I fished the Salmon River in March we hoped to get another steelhead trip in during the spring, this time we chose to head further west and check out some of the Lake Erie tributaries. For this trip we were going to be joined by Chris as well so there would be three of us to make the 8+ hour drive. We set this trip up to have two full days of fishing, one on our own, and one with a guide. I had heard some really good things about the team at Reel Action Fly based out of Fredonia, NY so we were able to schedule one day with owner, Paul Jacobs...a decision that turned out to be a wise one!

The drive out to Fredonia went smooth but we had rain and sleet for a good part of the way, and more on the forecast. Fredonia is about 30 miles west of Buffalo, NY and is centrally located to the many well known New York tributaries but also the Pennsylvania and Ohio tribs as well. We snuck in a few hours on the water on Saturday but it was more of a GET ME OUT OF THE CAR mission than anything else. From all reports this spring was a bit off on the Lake Erie tribs with everything about two weeks earlier than usual so we knew finding fish would require a lot of moving around. Our brief foray on Saturday got us a few sucker fish which is a pretty common by-catch in the spring as the suckers move their way upriver from the lake to spawn. The suckers are actually a type of carp and can get very big and put up a pretty good fight, they fight more like a Mac truck, sort of takes them a while to get up to speed but they were pretty fun after a 9 hour drive.

We stayed at the newly refurbished Best Western in Fredonia which was excellent and very affordable and within walking distance to Applebees which had two dollar Yeingling so we made good use of that throughout our stay. After a very good continental breakfast at the hotel early Sunday we headed out to find some steelhead. Within an hour of Fredonia there are probably 20 plus tribuatries to check out so Kevin and I did a lot of research prior to the trip to narrow down our options. With the rain and snow we awoke to on Sunday we had some decsions to make. The rain blows out the big river, the Cattaraugus, really quickly but we decided to check it out anyway and we headed back east to the town of Gowanda (or Go Wanda!!). We picked a spot on the Cat. which required a twenty minute hike to get down to the river with some extra time added thanks to my picking the wrong trail...sorry guys. The Cat. turned out to be running pretty high so we only spent thirty minutes or so there before hiking back out, beautiful spot though.

Next we headed down to Hamburg to fish 18 Mile Creek which has ample public access and has access down to the lake itself. We wound up spending the rest of the day working miles of the creek from Lake Erie all way up to past the Route 90 bridge. There were no pods of holding fish anywhere so it was a constant hunt to try and find fish which was a lot of fun. I hooked up pretty early but as the fish ripped down stream my frozen thumb got in the way of the spinning reel handle and next thing I knew my line was slack...needless to say there were some bad words coming out of my mouth for a few minutes. Finally at the end of a long day Chris landed his very first steelhead as we were hiking back to the car, it was a beautiful fish but he squirmed away before we could grab a pic. But we were on the board!

Saturday night as we took more advantage of Yeingling, which they don't really have north of Boston, we got the call from Paul that we'd be fishing in Ohio the next day and would be meeting at the lovely hour of 4:30. We had to run back to the hotel to buy one day Ohio licenses and get to bed for our early wake up. We hooked up with Paul near the hotel and followed him for the hour drive through Pennsylvania to a creek just over the Ohio boarder. We got to the river in the dark and desite not being able to see we could hear fish in the pool we were standing in. The fish turned out to be a few hundred steelhead holding above a section of fastwater which they needed more water to get through. As the sun came out we were able to see the steelhead cruising around just feet ahead of us, and unlike the Salmon River we had the spot all to ourselves!

Over the course of the day we landed 40 plus fish between the three of us, on several occasions we had triple hook ups which kept Paul pretty busy with the net. Depending on the time of day we were successful on nymphs, egg patterns, and swung streamers so a good presentation would get you a fish. As the water warmed the fight to land each fish increased and you could count on jumps and multiple runs from every fish. I had one fish run upstream and around the bend putting me well into my backing before breaking off...Kevin had a similar experience that we chased upstream and were finally able to net from under the bank.

So after ten plus hours on the water we made our way back to New York, glowing in our success, and reliving all of our memorable fish. If you get a chance to head out to the Lake Erie tribs I totally recommend hiring a guide, the multitude of streams and rivers, and ever-changing conditions requires someone with daily knowledge of the area, Paul was excellent, and we're hoping to make this trip next year as well. Thanks for reading.

Squeezing a quick steelheading trip in before my rapidly approaching wedding in May. Heading to Fredonia, NY with Kevin and Chris for three days of steelhead chasing. Warmer than usual temps this spring then rain this weekend should make for some interesting fish chasing! I'll have a report and hopefully lots of fish pics up on Wednesday.

Had about thirty minutes before heading to a fundraiser, luckily on the way was a healthy largemouth pond that always has a few surprises. Our recent rainstorms had brought the pond way out of its bank and up into the grass, it also brought a nice largemouth up onto the grass as well. Spring time can be great for some largemouth sight fishing here in the Northeast but unfortunately this guy wasn't buying what I was selling, so I opted to try to "catch" him in another way, and was able to employ my new camera. Thanks for reading.

Our original plan had been to fish the Swift River on Saturday but with record rainfall over the last few weeks the Swift was running close to 300 CFS, so we opted to stay a bit closer to home. Unfortunately, Saturday's forecast was calling for highs in the 30's with a stiff breeze all day, and for once the weathermen got it right. Recent stocking in some of our North Shore ponds heralded the potential for some great fishing but the cold put a big question mark on the whole endeavor.

We had our first lake surrounded with every conceivable type of personal water craft, Kevin had a kayak, John in his canoe, Tom on his pontoon boat, and Kevin K. and I in float tubes. Our impressive armada did not really scare the fish that much though because out of the five of us we only managed a handful of trout, a smattering of pickerel, and a couple of blue gill (a.k.a. the freshwater permit). After about three hours in pond number one Kevin K. and I headed to our next destination while the rest of the guys headed home. Our first pond was relatively sheltered from the wind so despite the cold temps it was more than manageable. Site two on the other hand was like a wind tunnel and Kevin and I only lasted about an hour, though we did manage one final trout before kicking for shore.

     As new England was pounded by wind and rain, Kevin and I escaped to somewhat warmer climates on the Salmon River in Pulaski, New York to chase some spring steelhead. The Salmon River is home to a world class steelhead and brown trout fishery a mere five and a half hours from Boston. Kevin and I left right after work on Friday and arrived in Pulaski with enough time to hit the fly shop for licenses and some last minute items before checking in to the Super Eight. Kevin has fished the Salmon River several times and was the appointed guide for the trip, a job which he proved to be quite adept at. We had been tying flies for about two weeks getting ready for the trip but as things turned out only one was really needed.

     Saturday dawned grey and windy and we were on the water by 7 a.m. attempting to find slower water while working our way down river. The river was running close to 1000 CFs with the combination of water release and runoff so we were dealing with some big water. We spotted some ideal holding water below a shale cliff band that was only accessiaable by crossing over to a mid river island, but with the river so high crossing any area proved to be a bit dodgy. We carefully made our way across,a crossing that we would eventually do six times, luckily we both had spiked boots and wading staffs, a must for the Salmon River. As we worked our way down to the beautiful pool we were amazed to find that we were the only ones there, the Salmon River is known for some really big fish but also some really crowded fishing conditions, so having a prime lie to yourself is a rareity. Kevin's guiding worked wonders and I had caught my first steelhead within about twenty minutes on the water, he was pretty small, but I was pretty pumped. My goal for the weekend was to land one fish and to have my goal met right away really took the pressure off!

     Over the course of the next nine hours, Kevin and I were busy with cries of "fish on" running up and down river landing fish. I landed my biggest brown ever and two steelhead near the 8-10 pound range, one was super-fat like a football and the other was 26"! A few smaller ones were thrown in for good measure, of the six fish landed, I lost four or five, with one being a monster that would have been well over 30". By the time we got off the water we were pretty beat and ready for some food and adult beverages. We hooked up with some friends for dinner at the River House pub where we might have stayed a bit too long...we'd feel it in the morning.

     After a rough wake up on Sunday we headed back to our hot spot from the day before and I immediately hooked into a nice fish that had my reel singing as it took off downstream. Unfortunatley, Saturday's luck was not with me and I couldn't land him. Kevin had a couple takes early as well but nothing landed, and after about four hours on the water we packed it in and began the drive home.

     I headed into the weekend with modest goals, but with Kevin's guiding and some cooperatiave fish my first trip to the Salmon River was a true success. Thanks for reading.

One of my favorite, and I think most rewarding, aspects of fly fishing is to explore new waters. Kevin and I hit some small Massachusetts trout streams today with little more than a good topo map to guide us. Mother Nature helped out with some beautiful temps in the 50's and bright sun, the early run off left our stream at a perfect level and we were able to easily explore and fish for about three hours.

  Despite hitting some beautiful water we were only able to spook one fish. As Kevin said, "it's clearly the departing low pressure system" which is exactly what I was thinking...of course the key to being a competent angler is the quality of your excuses!

The beautiful sunshine today couldn't fend off the 20 mph wind that whipped down river at good friend, Chris, and I on the Cocheco River in Southern New Hampshire. Chris had never fished the Cocheco before though so today was a quick tour of the river with absolutely zero fish caught between the two of us. Getting a drag free drift in high wind conditions can be a bit of a challenge as your fly line acts like a sail, pulling your fly through the water at break-neck speeds. I did manage to spook a fish as I blundered up river, the poor trout was relaxing nicely along the bank until I came along.

We did a full loop of the river starting on the eastern (?) bank and working our way back to the western side after a few hours. Once down stream the wind wasn't so bad and we had the sun in our faces so you'd overheat with your upper body as your feet froze inside your boots...well that's winter fishing for you.

All in all it was nice to get out, catching something beyond cold feed would have been nice, but everyone's got to pay the piper now and then!

A cancelled trip to snowy Atlanta put me into a great day of trout fishing here in Massachusetts with TU buddies Kevin and John on a relatively warm President's Day. Gearing up took a bit longer than usual, I know I had about 47 layers on and I know Kevin and John had on similar. We had driven out under clearing skies but as we walked up towards the Y Pool the sky was grey and a lot colder than we had hoped. The wind coming off the Quabbain was a bit much for my taste, with just a hint of snow in the air.

With our early start we were some of the first fisherman on the river and were able to pick our spots. Kevin and I worked our way upstream while John started below. I fished my "new" Blues Traveller fly with no success, but upon switching to one of my standard rigs I started getting some action. My winter without fishing clearly became evident as I missed several solid takes, but finally brought a brown to hand. Picked up several more as I made my way up to Kevin who was having a bit of luck himself. Kevin was fishing a beautiful 7' fiberglass rod that he and his daughter built together and he was able to catch a nice rainbow before we headed off to lunch. As we headed back downstream, the Y Pool had become a sea of fisherman with at least seven or eight anglers plying the water...the early bird gets the worm...err fly...

After lunch at the car, we headed downstream and enjoyed another three hours of consistent fishing. Kevin grabbed some great pics of John and I while we all nabbed a few more fish. Around 3:15 or so my feet stopped working so I stumbled my way to shore and called it a day. All in all the temps weren't bad...I never had to de-ice my rod once and we had some great fishing.

(John Lejeune photo)                                                                                                     (Kevin Correa photo)

Hit the annual fly fishing show in Marlborough, MA yesterday for a full day of fly fishing seminars, equipment, personalities, and shopping...err, maybe a bit too much shopping, but I digress. Started the show by bumping into Great Bay Rod Company owner, David Gibson. Great Bay Rods are based in southern New Hampshire and are doing a great business selling quality rods at affordable prices, while being designed and manufactured in the United States. David said that despite the not so great economy business has been going really well with lots of rods being sold internationally.

After speaking with David for awhile I meandered through all the tying materials which were available through a ton of different vendors. It always amazes me how quicly $100 in cash disappears into feathers, hooks, and bead heads my standard line to my fiance is, "but honey, think of how much money fly tying actually saves me"...it doesn't really work anymore but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Not sure if any of you guys listen to Ask About Fly Fishing Internet Radio podcasts but they are a great resource for everything fly fishing. I usually download them from iTunes and listen while on my way to fish, okay I'm a dork, anyways a few weeks ago I listened to Jeff Currier's experiences fishing in India for Mahseer and was psyched to be able to meet him at the show. Jeff, in the podcast, described his experience chasing Mahseer while a tiger was stalking him through the jungle, pretty scary stuff.

Finally, I was able to chat with Ed Engle before he began his tying deomonstration. Ed is world renowned fly fishing and tying author and guide, if you ever get out to Colorado a day on the South Platte with Ed would be a great learning experience.

All in all it was a great show.

Check out our new hats, get em while they're hot!

Happy New Year! We're looking forward to the Massachusetts fly fishing show coming up on the January 15-17th plus the Trout Unlimited annual banquet on the 16th. On the home front just been doing a lot of tying to replenish the empty fly boxes and have started booking for 2010. For Christmas, aside from a new wading staff, I also received Rick Takahashi and Jerry Hubka's new book, Modern Midges for all of us who fish the Swift a lot, this book is a great companion. Probably do another update after the fly fishing show.

Thanks to everyone who made 2009 a great year for us! We'd like to offer a 10% discount on all packages good towards a holiday gift certificate and a 50% off the second angler fee...so you could get a 2 person full day trip gift certificate for only $250!! The usual price for that trip is $300 so take advantage of our holiday offer! Happy Holidays from Megan, Zach, and Lex

I've been trying to get Tom on the water for ages and today everything worked out and we were able to head to Southern New Hampshire for some late November trout fishing. The water was much higher than last time on the water back on Veterans Day. I gave Tom some basic instruction and we were quickly on the water doing some deep water nymphing. I got things started with a couple rainbows right off the bat but unfortunately things slowed down after that...even after trying my slow retrieve through the pool with a whooly bugger, so we decided to head up the road to another river.

Threw down a quick lunch in the parking lot and then started the hike down to the water. We were able to hear the falls while still up the hill so we knew the river was running pretty high. Tom started with some high stick nymphing and on his first cast hooked and landed his very first trout on a fly rod! The chunky rainbow nailed a #16 Red copper John, one of my favorite flies. I was pretty pumped because I've been striking out a few times when bringing friends out on the water, so was psyched to get Tom a fish.

Things went down hill from here though as I broke a rod tip on one of my 5 wts while trying to clear a hang up. I then hooked myself pretty deep, thank god for barbless flies, and then I took took a digger on the slipperly leaves. So it was clearly time to head for home.

Last Saturday I had a tough go of it in Southern New Hampshire, worked real hard for just one fish...today was some nice payback. Greg and I hit the water around 10:30 with overcast skies and water temps in the low 40's. Rather than Saturday's poor fishing performance it seemed everything I did today was exactly what was called for and my first spot produced within minutes of getting in the water. My super secret nymph pattern worked all day and though I went through a bunch of them it was well worth it. After working my first few spots with excellent results I moved to the slower water and found equal success with a slowly stripped olive crystal bugger. Got a bunch of fish in the pool and decided to work my way downriver with my trusty nymph pattern and again everything worked out well and I nailed fish after fish. Around this time Greg starting finding success with a caddis nymph. The fishing was great and getting better, the only real problem was my lack of circulation in my feet which, for the first time all year, felt like two bricks, I knew I should have put boot warmers in! I had forgotten just what a pain it is to take a bathroom break at this time of year, but despite some cold hardships it was a great Veteran's Day for rainbows...and actually got a little brown to end the day.

The Swift is a tough river and everyone knows it...but sometimes everything just comes together and the river gods smile on you and you have a day to remember, and today was one of those days. Met up with Jeremy at 10:30 where we did some casting instruction and geared up for the river. We had beautiful temps in the 60's which felt fantastic after Saturday's chilly temps in New Hampshire. This would be my second day in my new Korker boots, this time I opted for the Klingon rubber sole, and again I was psyched for their great support and all day comfort (damn, that's a great advertisement!). Months ago I told Jeremy that I would be happy to teach him to fly fish but that I'd be fishing as well, and after cancelling due to weather a few times we hit it perfect!

Jeremy got things going by quickly hooking a few fish minutes upon getting into the river. His second hook up was essentially a "caught" fish but he got off right as I went to net him. We headed up above the Y pool and I started things off with another, "let me show you how to do this" number, and I was able to hook up and land a nice rainbow . It didn't take long for Jeremy to keep me really busy netting and chasing fish for the next twenty minutes as he nailed fish after fish, his third fish was followed by the great line, "so what's so hard about this fly fishing thing?"

Jeremy and I worked our way upstream, spotting fish as we went, we encountered and cast to some truly large rainbows. Jeremy hooked one real monster but he broke him off after an extended fight. I missed a few takes but managed a nice brook trout on a really small Miracle Midge (the fly of the day). By this time we had been fishing for five hours and were starving so we headed back to the car and put some sandwiches together and got ready for another hour on the water.

After our late lunch we did the old Swift River upstream shuffle and worked our way up from the Route 9 bridge casting to rising trout as we went. Darkness was falling quickly but we worked the river for another hour, where I landed one of my biggest trout of the season. All in all it was a great day on the Swift and I'm psyched that Jeremy was able to land his first trout ever on the fly rod! Jeremy lived in Alaska for years, luckily he came to Massachusetts to really learn to fly fish!!

Zach and I headed out to one of Southern New Hampshire’s great rivers on Saturday.  As we met up with Daniel and Jen in the late morning, the sun was just starting to peak out from behind the clouds.  The NH Fish and Game Patrol pulled up behind us and Zach was psyched to have his first official fishing license check.  After we geared up, we set off in search of a nice spot to catch some trout.  After a few unsuccessful attempts at bushwhacking our way through the woods, Zach, Daniel, Jen and I found a nice spot to start off with.  Being unfamiliar with this particular river, we weren’t quite sure what to throw at ‘em, so we each tied on double nymph rigs of varying types.   Accessing the water was a bit tricky with the steep banks and once we were in the water there wasn’t much room to wade around as the shallow sections dropped off into an abyss quite suddenly.  Daniel was the first to hook up, but he lost the fish while bringing it in.  Zach and I hiked up river a bit and found a nice river bend with a promising pool.  Unfortunately, the pool did not produce and I lost my indicator.  It was time to regroup.
    Shortly after that, Zach and I hiked back to the car for lunch and to talk strategy.  We decided to access the river from the other side in hopes of finding a better access points and a way to get out into the middle of the river.  The clouds were back by this point and the temperature was dropping quickly.  Now, I’m the first to admit that I am a “fair weather angler,” so I was losing steam rapidly, but I had seen at least 3 other anglers catch fish earlier and I’d seen at least 2 trout jump in the area, so I plugged on thinking it couldn’t be long before I hooked up.  Zach and I each tied on a wooly bugger just to mix it up.   After about half an hour my fingers and toes were numb and I found myself untangling line more than casting.  Daniel and Jen joined us in the area and it seems on Daniel’s 1st or 2nd cast he had a fish on!  Jen was ready with the net, but the fish got free just before he could be netted.  By this point I knew I was done for the day and I headed back to the car to warm up. Zach will have to fill you in on what happened on the river after that…Zach here: Just after Megan left I slowly worked an olive crystal bugger through the deep pool we were working and was rewarded with a little rainbow…I was really just psyched to avoid a skunking! Hooked and lost one more before joining Megan at the car.
    Had the pleasure to start the day meeting Jonathan (Ottter) from the NH fly fishing forums, it’s always nice to put a face to an email!
           

Fished with Greg and Nelson for the first time since we hit Pittsburg, NH together way back in July, this time they were touring me around the Squannacook River with their friend, Richie. The Squannacook is only about an hour away from my house so it's super-easy to get to, for Nelson it's only about five minutes from home so he knows the river really well. Greg and I hiked upriver for awhile and fished some of the deep slow holes that the river is well known for but without success, though Richie was having good luck swinging wet flies and caught a nice rainbow after just a few minutes on the water.

Greg and I opted to head down river to some of the faster water where we felt a bit more at home. While heading down we dodged wader busting thorn bushes and did some site casting to a holding trout which Greg guided me to from above, but my pile cast landed on the fish and he didn't take to kindly to my poor presentation.

Greg found a nice run and quickly got a rainbow on a streamer, which was his mission for the day. I had crossed the river and was across from him nymphing where I hooked and lost a fish and figured that things would be heating up, but that was the last of the action for awhile. I had an hour or so of not really being able to do anything right, cast my flies into the tree, drag free drift my flies into a log, snag my flies on my boots, have trout rise to my indicator...you know, the usual goofy things that happen while fly fishing a trout stream. Finally I got myself sorted out and landed a rainbow on a rubber-legged copper John. He was sort of a lazy fighter and once he realized that he was hooked he pretty much gave up.

A few minutes later I hooked a much better fish who ran upstream and broke me off around a downed tree, damn fish! All in all it was a nice few hours on the Squannacook with some good friends and some beautiful weather.

What was, two weeks ago, a study in greens and yellows had transformed itself into a background of reds and browns (and even some rainbows) as I headed back to the Westfield River this time with Kevin and Sean. As we watched the weather during the week Saturday's forecast was not looking good and unfortunately the forecast was spot on, we had steady rain with occasional downpours. Despite the dumping rain we had some good fishing with my digital camera being the only casualty of the lousy weather.

Now guiding Sean and Kevin on the river is sort of like being Tiger Wood's caddy, you can help with reading the greens and choosing clubs, but when all is said and done it's Tiger's swing that gets the job done. Sean and Kevin are excellent fly fisherman and were catching fish as soon as we got on the river, like a good caddy I kept rods in their hands, made some fly selections, and got us on the fish but the two of them took care of the rest with some great casting and wading skills. Kevin and I would look upstream and there would be Sean waist deep in the middle of the current and more often than not fighting a fish. We held our breath a few times as it seemed the rising river was going to beat him but Sean always kept his footing and never lost a fish.

Our plan for the day was to start in a great hole that produced well two weeks ago, pick up a few fish, and then do some exploring before lunch, and for once the plan went off without a hitch. A well presented drag free nymph presentation would get you  a fish pretty consistently for the first few hours on the river. We had good luck with Prince Nymphs, BH Pheasant Tails, and later in the afternoon with red rubber legged Copper Johns. Both Kevin and Sean were able to get a bunch of nice rainbows who were all pretty hot, getting into the current and just grinding to get away until we were able to net them. Speaking of nets, my new clear rubber net was awesome...no more hooks stuck in the mesh, and no more smell!! As we explored down river Sean was able to extreme-wade his way to two more fish, one of them being the only brown trout of the day.

Lunch was a bit rushed as the rain poured down and Sean was itching to get back on the water, but the short break allowed me to throw my gloves and hat on, and get some feeling back in my feet, the water temp was 45 degrees.

Post lunch was a bit slow fishing wise though Sean picked up a few more and the rain decided to rev up a bit and we got a few more deluges. All and all it was a great day on the Westfield. Hopefully I'll be able to hook up with Kevin and Sean again on the Swift. Check out some more pics in our gallery.

Well we've been getting lucky with some nice weather during the weekends this fall but this weekend was a bit of a washout. Saturday's cold and Sunday's pouring rain made for a few cancelled trips but it was a great weekend to get caught up on my fly tying. Mid-fall and the fly boxes are getting low so I needed to spend a few hours in front of the vise, cranked out some BH Pheasant Tails and some Prince Nymphs so the nymph box is looking a bit healthier now.

Out a few times during the week chasing some fat carp in a nearby pond. The "poor man's bonefish" is a seriously tough fish to pursue with a fly rod, it's really exciting sight fishing, but man's it is tough! You spot them and then you need to slowly creep into a casting position and if your cast isn't perfect they take off...very frustraing, but a ton of fun. The pond I've been fishing is right along a busy road so your backcast goes up over the road, so not only are you trying to make a perfect cast, but you're also concerned with not hooking a passing pickup truck...I've never hooked one but I imagine a Ford F-150 will certainly put you into your backing!!

The Westfield River was on fire this weekend with some amazing fall colors and some excellent fishing. Met up with Jenn and Daniel for a second full day of fishing after fishing the Swift with them a few weeks ago, both are becoming accomplished fly fishers. The drive out to western Mass was a bit distracting with amazing fall colors most of the way. We had okay weather which was a bit on the cool side under mostly overcast skies, though the sun did come out for a few fleeting moments.

Jenn got things off to a great start by hooking in to her first of many rainbows within the first few minutes of getting in the water. I think Jenn has some new favorite flies after this trip, one being a #16 Bead Head Pheasant Tail and the other a #14 Prince Nymph. Armed with her new favorites, Jenn stayed in the fish most of the day targeting the great structure just outside the fast current.  Daniel soon got into the action as well and we had a few busy moments of multiple hook ups which kept me hopping up and down the river with my net (which I just ordered a replacement for...I'm sick of having to unhook flies from the smelly net mesh).

Usually I expect to do some more river exploration but the first few pools we hit were so productive we stayed put and only left for a quick streamside lunch. You know it's a good day when you go to demonstrate a nymphing technique and immediately hook a fish! Jenn and Daniel were quickly onto me though as I kept insisting on demonstrating more and more...

Well had to take a weekend off from fishing for the 11th annual Gran Prix of Gloucester cyclocross race. Despite some lousy weather on Saturday we had close to 1500 racers, and I got to race both days. Though I hadn't ridden in three weeks I was able to make quite an impression on the Masters Cat. 4 race and took 72nd on Saturday and 65th on Sunday. Check out the form in these photos...

Jennifer and I had been hoping to learn to fly fish all summer and we finally got out last weekend. It was a perfect Autumn day--sunny and mild with little wind. Since Jenn and I have no experience flyfishing, we spent the first hour or two learning to cast on the lawn. Zach was a great teacher. He's was encouraging and helpful in pinpointing the things we were doing incorrectly and explaining to us how to adjust our casts. By the end we had a basic understanding of casting and enjoyed doing it. To be honest, we could have spent the entire day practicing casting and been totally happy. There's lots to learn. But Zach felt we made enough progress to get on the river and fish.
We headed out just before lunch. The river was clear and calm and it was helpful, as first timers, to actually be able to see the trout. I started out casting a midge to one particularly fat trout  that I was obsessed with. It didn't seem too interested and Zach ended up rigging a dry fly which the trout seemed very excited about. Zach almost caught him on his first cast (ed. this was an accidental near hooking...it was during a dry fly demonstration). I almost caught him later but failed to hook him in time. I enjoyed the simplicity of casting the dry fly and was comfortable trying the different casts that I'd learned earlier.
Meanwhile, Jenn was busy with another trout farther up. Unfortunately the trout was onto her and didn't take the bait. Jenn shook her fist at it as we packed it up for lunch.
Later we fished in faster water. I worked on high sticking, which I really enjoyed. I like that you work the line the whole time. Jenn caught a fish upstream but it got away from her. But she was really happy none-the-less.
Later, after Zach had rigged several different flies, he found a midge that the fish seemed to like. After passing me the rod I was able to catch my first fish with a sort of quasi roll-cast and then high sticking during the drift. It was a good size trout and I tried to be patient through its multiple jumps and runs. But the indicator got caught in my rod and the trout was able to make its escape with one final jump. It was VERY exciting!
Later, I was able to catch a smaller trout using the same fly and technique.
All in all, it was a great experience and we're excited about our next trip.  -Daniel

Headed out to the Swift River with Jenn and Daniel, they decided to learn how to fly fish for their one year wedding anniversary, and they couldn't have picked a more perfect day for their trip, we had great temps and beautiful sunshie all day. Daniel and Jenn were great students and quickly had the basics of the cast down and we were able to start fishing. We found active fish right away and had multiple dry fly refusals which is always fun to watch. Jenn sent the entire fly box over three nice sized rainbows but aside from a few refusals they weren't budging. We explored the entire fly fishing only section of the Swift where we bumped into Jason from Korkers, they make some really nice wading boots with interchangable soles and are based in Oregon.

After a streamside lunch the fishing really picked up. Jenn was the first to hook up with a big rainbow which got into the fast current and broke her off...her leader pretty much exploded. Then I accidentally got into things while doing a demonstration on high sticking I hooked up but lost him just as I was netting him, the leader was in the rod so we'll call it a catch. Daniel was up next and was able to keep his head clear despite my constant directions of, "reel, don't reel, lift your rod, move to the rigtht, move to the left, etc", Daniel got his rainbow net side as well but his indicator was set pretty high for deeper water and when it hit his tip-top the fish broke off...leader in rod though! Daniel wasn't done though and hooked up with a beautiul brookie (wild brookie in the Swift??) which he deftly landed. By this times the temp was dropping pretty quickly and we had 9 hours on the water so we called it a day.         

I've been trying to get up to explore some small streams off the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire for two seasons now and finally made the trip today. The Swift River in New Hampshire has some fine small streams that feed into it and today I checked out a beauty. It wasn't quite an alpine start but I left Beverly around 8 and was fishing by 10:30 so not too bad. Thought I'd be wet wading but it was pretty chilly so I wound up in a fleece jacket and waders, and was pretty happy with the decision because the fleece stayed on till the afternoon.

Rigged up my 6'6" 3 wt. with my favorite small stream rig which is a #16 Parachute Adams with a #18 Bead Head Pheasant Tail dropped off the back, sometimes I'll have a Royal Wulff on top but opted for the Adams today. Jumped in the stream yards from the parking area and just started hitting plunge pool after plunge pool while I made my way upstream. Things got off to a bit of a slow start but once I got away from the hiking trail a bit things started to pick up. The stream I was fishing has a very popular hiking trail that parallels it so the lower portions see a lot of people gawking into the water, so I attribute the slow start to spooked fish, not my mis-casting! The hikers head up to the falls which are about 1/5 of a mile or so up the trail, the pool at the bottom is just beautiful but there were about ten people standing right above it so I didn't even make a cast, just headed up and around the falls to get to the less travelled waters above.

Once I got above the falls things really started heating up and I was getting beautiful little natives half on the dry and half on the dropper. I'd make a few casts to each pool and then keep moving if I didn't move a fish, but more often than not, I'd get a quick take. After the first few fish I started thinking about heading down to the Swift but around the next corner more beautiful runs and pools would beckon so I kept going. After about two and a half hours I'd brought about eight or nine fish to hand and missed at least that many, so I decided to head out and make the longish drive home.

Headed to the Swift on Saturday with Lee and Deb for Deb's birthday celebration. Deb's always wanted to learn to fly fish so Lee hooked her up with a half day fly fishing trip...no better way to spend a birthday than a day on the water in my book! We spent about 45 minutes tuning up Deb and Lee's fly cast and getting them ready for their first time fly fishing, for Lee it was her first time fishing ever! Deb's an old pro with the spin rod and even won a pike fishing tournament on the St. Lawrence river when she was a kid, so she had an easy transistion to the fly rod.

We hit the Swift for about three hours and had a great time spotting trout and exploring the river up to the Y Pool, plus we hiked over and took a look at the always impressive Windsor Dam. Deb got a couple solid takes later in the day, I bet her head is still echoing with my yells of, "set the hook, set the hook, set the hook!!!!". The weather cooperated for the whole day but the rain caught up with us around three so we headed back to the car. Hopefully we'll be seeing Deb and Lee on the water again soon. 

Headed out to western Mass for some Westfield River exploration, warm water, and lots of rain made for very limited fishing, but the exploring went well. On Friday I fished  one of my favorite small streams in the area where I found some cooperative fish and some okay water temps. I then headed over to Chesterfield Gorge area where the water was really warm, too warm to fish, but there were a few spots I wanted to scope out, but the weather had other things in mind. As eastern Mass enjoyed sunshine Friday and Saturday, western Mass was ripped by some serious thunder storms which kept my exploration to a minimum.

On Saturday I was meeting friends in the late morning so I decided to explore the bottom part of River road near the Knightsville Dam area. River Road parallels the East Branch of the Westfield from Chesterfield Gorge all the way down to Route 112 in Huntington, but it's blocked for most of the way on both ends. I found the Army Corps of Engineers road that connects to the southern section of River road and took that up to the gate, it's really a beautiful area and the locked gates means there's great fishing that few people access due to the required hike. You'd think you were out west with the size of the valley in that southern section, it's really beautiful, and is part of the state's longest catch and release area.

Met up with friends later in the day but after Friday's rain and the continued showers fishing was pretty much out of the question, so we quickly moved on to the beers and barbeque portion of our trip!!

Had a nice write up today in my hometown paper, The Lynn Evening Item, check out the article here.

Megan and I are just leaving Truckee after four FULL days with Eric and Kath, off to Sanoma for some serious wine drinking now. Snuck away for a few hours on the Truckee River where I had a few long distant releases and saw a huge rainbow which I think had come upriver from the San Fransisco Casting Club's private water which was just below where I fished. Full report when I get home.
On the home front hearing some great striper reports from Ben and Chris so will hopefully get some striper pics up when I get home as well.

Megan and I are off to Truckee, CA so no fishing updates for a week or so. Hope to at least get one day on the Truckee River while out there but it might cost me a trip to the spa for Megan while I'm fishing!

Fly fished some of my favorite Central Mass streams with new friends and new fly fishers, Garren and Mikey. Both guys are new to the sport but are totally pumped to learn as much as they can. We had a tough time scheduling our trip around our very inconsistant summer weather this year, but Thursday's weather held up and we had a full day with no rain. Spent the first few hours of the day discussing the basics of the fly cast, rigging a rod, fly selection, and some of the other million things that beginners need to learn. Both Garren and Mikey started casting like champs pretty quickly, but our casting class got disrupted by rising fish, so class time quickly became let's catch some trout time!

Both guys learned that rising trout does not mean that the fish are easy to catch as both missed a few good takes. I think one of the hardest parts for beginners to learn is line and slack management while they're fishing, but they both got the hang of it.  Garren was the first to hook up using a #14 Parachute Royal Wulff, possibly one of my favorite flies, and Garren's now too. Garren brought the fish in like a pro and we grabbed a quick photo before releasing a nice little brown. Mikey soon got in on the action and landed a brookie on  a #14 Parachute Adams...got to admit I've been pretty pumped on parachute patterns over the last few months.

After catching a few more at our first spot we headed back to the car for a snack and to re-rig with three and four weights to hit one of my favorite small streams. This stream is a great way to show beginners the basics of reading water, though it does require some serious bush-whacking. The weather got really humid when we got to the stream so we were drenched in sweat and mosquitos, luckily we were well defended by bug spray. We also discussed the importance of stealth while fishing, staying low, and trying not to make a ton of noise. The fish weren't too cooperative but we missed a few dry fly takes and learned a lot.

We headed from here down to the Quinapoxet which was running really high and fast. After fishing dries all morning we discussed the importance of nymph fishing and looked at some various nymph rigs. The height of the river made wading a bit tough to get to some of my favorite spots, I kept telling the guys to wade and walk carefully and they did great. Of course it's the guy who is telling other people to be careful that usually gets in trouble and I took a real digger and landed in a heap in a pile of rocks...so that was fun!

All in all we had a great eight hours on the water, by the end of the day both guys were casting like pros. Garren even started messing around with hauling which was pretty impressive. The three of us are planning on hitting the water for some bass fishing in a couple weeks so can't wait for that.

Had a great trip today with Garren and Mikey out in Central Mass. Keep an eye out for the trip report and pics.

Warm Water Fly Fishing

Chased some warm water species around one of our North Shore lakes on Monday with Ben and Chris. Due to scheduling conflits we hit the lake at a not so optimal fishing time 1:30 in the afternoon, but we we were prepared to hunt around for some good sunfish action rather than the big largemouth we really wanted. We hit a few areas of the lake that none of us had fished before and were rewarded with some decent top water crappie and blue gill action. We were fishing mostly small gurglers in various colors, casting towards shore right in the vegetation line. Few more pics can be found in the gallery.

The gurgler, though originally a saltwater fly I think lends itself nicely to freshwater use. I tie big ones in an assortment of colors for largemouth on saltwater hooks...though it always amazes me how small sunfish still manage to take the big ones. Small gurglers work great with a 3 or 4 weight fly rod to target sunfish and crappie. These small fish are great training for aspiring dry fly fisherman and pound for pound I'll take a blue gill's fight any day! The included link for tying the gurgler is a bit different from how I tie it but it's a pretty basic fly and seems to always impress people who don't tie! I've found a a yellow foam body, with a purple chenille underbody, with a few deer hair body hairs as a tail in white or brown to be very effective for just about all warm water fish...though sometimes it seems that if they're feeding it doesn't matter what color combo you throw their way.

We fished until 5:30 and caught double digit fish making our way around about a 1/3 of the lake...there's a few good clues as to what lake it is, any guesses?

Pittsuburg, NH Fly Fishing

Made the 4 hour drive up to Pittsburg, NH to finally check out the fabled fly fishing available with Greg P. and his father in law, Nelson. Nelson and Greg have fished in Pittsburg on a bunch of occasions and always speak of the area with expressions of awe, so I was psyched to finally be able to make it up there. I fished Back Lake from the float tube upon arriving and had caught a smallmouth on my first cast on a small black whooly bugger. I started seeing some rise forms and some minor hatches going on so I switched to a trusty parachute adams dry fly and was rewarded with back to back trout. The first was a nice brookie and the second was a beautiful big rainbow, both of which you can see in the gallery. When all was said and done and after getting chased off the water by a rain shower I had picked up countless smallmouths and four trout. The coolest part of the evening was watching Golden Drakes emerge from the water and struggle to take off, some made it but the ducks got a few, and the trout got even more. As it was getting late I opted to leave the rising fish but it was nearly 9 p.m. and I still needed to find Greg and Nelson. Had a great burger and some ice cold Harpoon IPA's at the Deer Rub Pub which I highly recommend.

Had just enough time on Saturday morning to fish for a few hours before making the long drive home...definitley a bit off on the fishing to driving ratio scale!! Nelson and Greg took me to one of their favorite spots on the CT river and as the tourist they gave me the best hole, sweet! Started with a hopper, copper, dropper set up but quickly switched to a #14 copper john and a #20 barr's caddis pupa which paid off with a nice rainbow. A short time later I caught my biggest brookie ever. Was able to snap this quick pic, sorry for the poor quality, but it's always tough to take fish photos by your self. Nelson and Greg both hooked up shortly thereafter fishing similar rigs. The key, as always, was to make sure your nymph rig had enough weight to get it to the bottom, if you're not hooking the bottom now and again there's not enough weight on. By that time it was time to make the long drive home but I hope to get back to Pittsburg as soon as possible.                                                                                      

Greg and a nice brookie.

                            
 Nelson about to release another brookie.

We lost a dear friend on Friday July 17th, 2009 little Darby Johnson was hit by a car, and we will all miss her dearly. Darby's page

Heading up to Pittsburg, NH for a weekend of fishing...can't wait!! Check back on Monday for a trip report and photos.

Hit some nice dry fly action on one of my favorite native trout streams. Did well with a #16 Parachute Adams with a Bead Head Phesant Tail dropper.

Fished the Essex River with Megan, Ben, and Suzy...picked up three nice schoolies on the outgoing tide.

Fished the Danvers River today with Megan and Lex...check out the photos in the gallery.
Did two trips this past week to some of our usual North Shore haunts with pretty good luck both days despite dodging lousy weather. I hit for the "warm water grand slam" and caught a largemouth, a blue gill, a huge pickerel, and a crappie!

This is Fly webzine just published its latest edition. If you haven't been to This is Fly before, you have to check it out. Make sure you give a listen to their playlist as well.

Found a great site for tying parachute flies that anchors the hackle to the wing post...maybe this is what I should have been doing all along, but it makes the hackling part of the tie much easier and controlled. Check out the site at Fly Guys Outfitting