Going back today to the same pocket I got the TWO BIG RAINBOWS from on Tues. Its going to snow then turn to rain. I think that should do something for the bite. The river seems to be holding at about the same level as Tues according to the USGS. site. Hope to have more great news when I get back.
SUNDAY 24TH REPORT ON YESTERDAYS TRIP.
Okay that's fishin! I went to that same run and within 10 mins I hooked AND LOST another great fish.
It looked to be over 20 inches, at least as fat and a rainbow also. I decided to rest the pocket and try another spot downstream. I find an Island in the middle of the river and go to the downstream side of it where there is a rock about the size of my truck right in the middle of the tail out. I cast a few times and down goes my indicator I lift and I,m on what turns out to be about a 21 inch female rainbow and she slips my hook and foul hooks herself on the next hook down my leader. I play her for maybe two mins til she pops off at my feet Where I could clearly see she was ABOUT 21 inches.It seems today that the trout are just barely kissing the fly so it cant get a good hook set into them. I fish there some more with no luck so I go back to the magic spot as I now call it and find no takers there either. All in All I fished for two hours and had four strikes, so,.. not really a great day, BUT! If I had not gone, I would not have hooked those two big trout. Its Still better then watchin tv!!
If you want BIG FISH?..... Go to places NOBODY FISHES!
Most guys fish within 100-200 yards of their truck, right next to all the other guys.
IN THE HERD!.. Like Buffalo trampling over the same piece of water.
Hike away from where you parked,.. like a 1/4 MILE AWAY, until you see no bootprints, then go a little further until you come to the next pool or run/pocket. There, you will be over "unmolested trout", trout that are not fished so hard. I find that the best fish will leave water that is Unsafe and swim up or down to where it is safe. AWAY FROM THE CROWD. Also Rainstorms spread them out. They still have good holding water with plenty of food and are left alone, Until I come along, it might be a week or more since they have seen any people.
It takes 10 mins to walk there or less if the trail is not too overgrown with thorn bushes, watch out for these as they tear Gor-tex. If you follow my advice you will find IT PAYS OFF!!
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
WINTER TROUT FISHING TECHNIQUES
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| 22 inch female Rainbow caught on a size 22 trico Christmas eve. |
The short days of winter can be brightened by a trip to your favorite river or creek so long as the weather is warming a bit. This can be a great time to hook and play trout. Just like us trout have to eat EVERY DAY!
As winter goes on, we all fish much less then we want to, in fact most of us don't fish at all.
That should not be. I fish whenever I can, and find fish are willing to bite just about every trip out.
They don't always bite but that's fishing. Its nice just to be casting a fly anyway and fishing is like the lottery,
"YA GOTTA BE IN IT TO WIN IT" I have heard guys say there is not enough food for trout to eat all winter and they have to wait until spring to start feeding again, living only on their fat reserves.
I am not a fisheries biologist, but many fly guys talk like they are. I find that trout do feed all winter because I,m out there fishing. Sure, some days you cant see anything going on as far as a hatch, but I still can get a few bites on Prince or Pheasant tail nymphs. Other days Trout will come to the top for blue winged olives and trico flies but that can sometimes last only a little while as warm temps cool fast in winter and the hatch will likely be sparse. Most of my fishing is with bead head nymphs this time of year. Dry fly fishing is slow but can be pretty good some days.
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| 25 1/2 INCHES 5.45 LBS FEMALE RAINBOW PHOTO TAKEN THE NEXT DAY |
Don't forget to use a streamer as trout will swim right out of a safe place to get a big meal. Sculpins and Dace minnows are still in the rivers and creeks in the winter and trout will dash out to eat them. You may find that you have to cast over and over before a hookup, big trout get pissed when you bombard them with casts but they will crush the fly sooner or later, just on Principle. Change colors, rabbit fur is best I find, leach flies and so on. Zonker flies work great for this. Just keep working each run then move on to the next and sooner or later the line will go tight. For Steamer fishing I like to use a sink tip line.RIO DC 150, this keeps the streamer down near the bottom and will get more strikes. I find that my largest trout will be on Streamers. With nymphs I can often catch more in numbers but not always in pounds. Streamers, maybe only three all day but 7lbs or more in fish. NOW ITS 2 FISH... ALL DAY!
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| SAME FISH THE NIGHT I CAUGHT HER. ALL FINS FILLED IN PERFECT, IN THE RIVER A LONG TIME SHE WAS |
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
FEB 11TH TRIP TO THE POHOPOCO CREEK
FEMALE BROWN TROUT 12 INCHES
BOTH FISH RETURNED WITHOUT ANY HARM RIGHT AWAY
Mon the 11th was forecast to be 50 degrees so I made sure to go to my favorite spot on the Pohopoco creek locally known as the Big creek.
It was running at a nice level, not too high and fast as it sometimes can after snow and then warm weather. When this happens The Dam (Beltsville) will be opened up and it can run very high and fast. This can make fishing tough as you cant get a slow enough drift. But this was not the case on the 11th or 12th.
I waited til afternoon to fish so the water had more time to warm up. I fished my 5wt Winston LT with a Rio 5wt nymph line and a 6ft leader tied down to 4x Fluorocarbon. On my leader I tied three pheasant tail nymphs, second and third tied off the bend of the hook. Two size 18, last one size 16 all Beadhead.
The fishing was very good and in the first hour I caught 4 and missed two, all browns to 13 inches.
I,m using a fish pimp indicator and have fed the leader trough the middle of it and used the rubber tube to hold the line in place. This keeps the indicator where you want it. With the line Though the indicator it wont fall off my leader. I also used two very small split shot about 8 inches up from my first nymph to get them down to the bottom and slow the drift as winter Trout wont move awful fast or come off the bottom to far the eat.
I fish til 530 and catch 6 total and missed about 3, dropped two, All browns,
one was wild @ 8 inches. ALL IN ONE RUN! I did not have to move up or down creek at all.
Trout will come up out of the Lehigh River to the warmer water of this creek and stay all winter.
This just proves that you can catch Trout anytime of year.
Just like us TROUT HAVE TO EAT EVERY DAY!
The New Moon helped as I do find there can be more action during that time.
Go out and fish anytime it gets a little warmer. it makes winter go faster and a little less of a DRAG!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
OAK ORCHARD RIVER/18 MILE CREEK TRIP 11/12-11/17 2012
I went up to Olcott NY on Sunday the 11th to fish Oak orchard river and 18 mile creek with some friends.
We went to Oak orchard river and fished the archery club section of water on mon the 12th and found it full of Trout and Steelhead, mostly brown Trout were in spawning with a few Rainbows and some Steelhead and just a couple Chinook salmon.
I was fishing my Winston bllx 7wt rod with a Rio nymph line with a 10ft leader tied down to 2x Fluorocarbon. I tied on a size 10 green Caddis nymph and made short roll casts to the fish that were stacked up. After a short time the line went tight and I was on my first brown Trout of the trip, a healthy 8 lb male.
There was so many fish being caught by other fisherman that it was hard to watch my own line. The guy next to me hooked and landed the most beautiful Rainbow Trout I ever saw!
It was a 10lb male and the color was Incredible!,Crimson red bar down its side, hooked jaw all toothy, it was amazing! I start fishing again and then later hooked another brown trout that pulled the fly out as he was just not havin anything to do with it. The air temp in the afternoon was so warm I was down to my tee shirt.
Then I saw an Atlantic Salmon caught that had to go 12lbs. That did it! I am always going to come up here to fish. Pulaski is great,but if you want less crowds and a more relaxed atmosphere this is the place!! For instance,
1. Oak orchard has the Archery club where you can park right next to the river rather than hike down to it.
2. They have a new Cooking/Picnicking Pavilion where they make a big breakfast for anyone 5 bucks a pop.
they do this at 6.00 every morning and at 11.00 am they serve lunch for 7 bucks. This way you can fish .
all day long and not have to worry about going off river and drive to find a place to eat or take your waders off.
They also have picnic tables right on the river bank that you can eat your own food on. I bring my Coleman stove and cook my own lunch right there on these tables when I feel like it.
They are also BEER FRIENDLY!! Thats to say you can BYOB with no problem from club owners. I don't go fishing to drink but its nice to have one or two with lunch! THEY ALSO HAVE CLEAN TOILETS!!!
3. It seems that all the people that fish this place are there to relax and have fun and not kill their limit.
In fact I met a few guys that said take "This run were going up to eat", and one of them gave Me a scud pattern he said worked well.. and IT DID!
4.The river itself is much easier to wade! there are hardly any stones bigger than an orange in the section right in front of the parking lot. and that has got to be 600 to 700 feet long. You can beach a fish nicely on the bottom in the shallows and not stumble around walking backwards doing it. As I have Gout this is so nice!
18 mile creek is right in Olcott NY. And one mile from the Lighthouse motel where we stayed is the Fisherman's park. They charge 3.00 dollars to park there and its just a short hike down to the trestle pool.
on Tuesday we found it full of Browns and had great fishing with only a few people around.
the fish were reasonably accommodating, that's to say they would bite the right fly if you threw it in the water enough times. Most Fisherman were using egg fly patterns., orange, pink, yellow, and chartreuse green.
I was using green scuds size 10 that i bought the night before and they were working great!
we would fish til say 10.30 am then go back to the motel and get warm, eat, hang out awhile then go back at 2.00 pm and fish til dark. We caught almost all browns there and after a couple days I really wanted a Steelhead. So on Friday I went by myself back to Oak orchard and fished there for the day.I pulled out my 1948 Orvis Madison bamboo rod for this place as the fishing conditions are so easy that I wont likely fall down and break it. but I have to say this about bamboo, it can be fixed so don't sweat it! Take it and go have fun! This rod fishes an 8wt line perfect, so I use an 8wt Rio nymph line on it. Its lots of fun!
I fish right in front of the lot most of the day and get 5 browns up to 11 lbs.
Finally in the afternoon I hooked and landed my Steelie. She was a 27 inch 9 1/2 lb beauty!
The very next fish was a hook-jawed Rainbow that had to go 8lbs. Against my better judgement I let a guy try to net it for me, it saw the net, had a tantrum and BENT THE HOOK! OOOHHHHHHHHHHH!
I JUST WANTED TO HOLD THAT FISH!
I SHOULD have walked that fish down to the shallows, where it COULD NOT swim well and I WOULD have been able to beach it!
This is where the saying.. SHOULDA..COULDA..WOULDA comes from.
And nothing in life is MORE EXPENSIVE THAN REGRET!
Oh well I,ll get that fish next year when hes a MONSTER!
We went to Oak orchard river and fished the archery club section of water on mon the 12th and found it full of Trout and Steelhead, mostly brown Trout were in spawning with a few Rainbows and some Steelhead and just a couple Chinook salmon.
I was fishing my Winston bllx 7wt rod with a Rio nymph line with a 10ft leader tied down to 2x Fluorocarbon. I tied on a size 10 green Caddis nymph and made short roll casts to the fish that were stacked up. After a short time the line went tight and I was on my first brown Trout of the trip, a healthy 8 lb male.
There was so many fish being caught by other fisherman that it was hard to watch my own line. The guy next to me hooked and landed the most beautiful Rainbow Trout I ever saw!
It was a 10lb male and the color was Incredible!,Crimson red bar down its side, hooked jaw all toothy, it was amazing! I start fishing again and then later hooked another brown trout that pulled the fly out as he was just not havin anything to do with it. The air temp in the afternoon was so warm I was down to my tee shirt.
Then I saw an Atlantic Salmon caught that had to go 12lbs. That did it! I am always going to come up here to fish. Pulaski is great,but if you want less crowds and a more relaxed atmosphere this is the place!! For instance,
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| 10 LB MALE AND A 13LB FEMALE BOTH BROWN TROUT ON MY 1948 ORVIS MADISON BAMBOO 8WT ROD |
1. Oak orchard has the Archery club where you can park right next to the river rather than hike down to it.
2. They have a new Cooking/Picnicking Pavilion where they make a big breakfast for anyone 5 bucks a pop.
they do this at 6.00 every morning and at 11.00 am they serve lunch for 7 bucks. This way you can fish .
all day long and not have to worry about going off river and drive to find a place to eat or take your waders off.
They also have picnic tables right on the river bank that you can eat your own food on. I bring my Coleman stove and cook my own lunch right there on these tables when I feel like it.
They are also BEER FRIENDLY!! Thats to say you can BYOB with no problem from club owners. I don't go fishing to drink but its nice to have one or two with lunch! THEY ALSO HAVE CLEAN TOILETS!!!
 |
| 9 1/2 LB STEELIE |
3. It seems that all the people that fish this place are there to relax and have fun and not kill their limit.
In fact I met a few guys that said take "This run were going up to eat", and one of them gave Me a scud pattern he said worked well.. and IT DID!
4.The river itself is much easier to wade! there are hardly any stones bigger than an orange in the section right in front of the parking lot. and that has got to be 600 to 700 feet long. You can beach a fish nicely on the bottom in the shallows and not stumble around walking backwards doing it. As I have Gout this is so nice!
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| ANOTHER BIG MALE ON A 64 YEAR OLD BAMBOO ROD IF YOU HAVE A BAMBOO ROD DON'T KEEP IT IN THE CLOSET GO FISH IT |
18 mile creek is right in Olcott NY. And one mile from the Lighthouse motel where we stayed is the Fisherman's park. They charge 3.00 dollars to park there and its just a short hike down to the trestle pool.
on Tuesday we found it full of Browns and had great fishing with only a few people around.
the fish were reasonably accommodating, that's to say they would bite the right fly if you threw it in the water enough times. Most Fisherman were using egg fly patterns., orange, pink, yellow, and chartreuse green.
I was using green scuds size 10 that i bought the night before and they were working great!
we would fish til say 10.30 am then go back to the motel and get warm, eat, hang out awhile then go back at 2.00 pm and fish til dark. We caught almost all browns there and after a couple days I really wanted a Steelhead. So on Friday I went by myself back to Oak orchard and fished there for the day.I pulled out my 1948 Orvis Madison bamboo rod for this place as the fishing conditions are so easy that I wont likely fall down and break it. but I have to say this about bamboo, it can be fixed so don't sweat it! Take it and go have fun! This rod fishes an 8wt line perfect, so I use an 8wt Rio nymph line on it. Its lots of fun!
I fish right in front of the lot most of the day and get 5 browns up to 11 lbs.
Finally in the afternoon I hooked and landed my Steelie. She was a 27 inch 9 1/2 lb beauty!
The very next fish was a hook-jawed Rainbow that had to go 8lbs. Against my better judgement I let a guy try to net it for me, it saw the net, had a tantrum and BENT THE HOOK! OOOHHHHHHHHHHH!
I JUST WANTED TO HOLD THAT FISH!
I SHOULD have walked that fish down to the shallows, where it COULD NOT swim well and I WOULD have been able to beach it!
This is where the saying.. SHOULDA..COULDA..WOULDA comes from.
And nothing in life is MORE EXPENSIVE THAN REGRET!
Oh well I,ll get that fish next year when hes a MONSTER!
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| 14LB FEMALE BROWN TROUT |
Saturday, October 20, 2012
OCT 19TH TRIP TO KEN LOCKWOOD GORGE IN NJ
Yesterday I went out to the Ken Lockwood Gorge in Califon NJ.
The place I first learned Fly Fishing over 25 years ago.
It had started raining early in the morning and I knew this should turn on the Fish to feed as the water has been so low for so long.
The trout are now spawning and will take an egg pattern Fly if its the same size as their eggs.
Back at my Moms house,
The house I grew up in, the South Branch of the raritan River Runs right behind it.
this is some 20 miles downstream from Califon and the water was already chocolate brown when I left her house.
But up here in the the Gorge it was just starting to come up a bit and get a little of color.
This time of year you will often cast a lot before a hookup, and today was no different.
but after a while I caught a 13 inch brown trout on the pale yellow egg Fly I was casting.
It was a male and very colorful! I fish awhile longer and moved down to another pool.
There I saw many Caddis Flies starting to come off so I switched to bead head Pheasant tails, two size 14 and one size sixteen at the top I tie these flies onto my tippet off of the bend of the next fly about 6 to 7 inches apart. You can use an indicator up the leader if you want, this can work very well.
After some time I hook another fish, This one a Brook Trout, its about 12 inches and real pretty!
I stop fishing to eat a sandwich and just sit and watch the water for some time.
Its now starting to get a little more off color now and come up the bank a bit but the leaves are not to thick in the water yet so I then start to Fish with a big Rabbit fur fly that a guy I know swears by. He ties it on a long shank hook with a stinger hook in back. its dyed dark olive and about 3 inches long. The stinger hook helps hook fish as they whack it short to see what it is and maybe stun it before eating it as it looks like it might bite back. That is what I think they do anyway.
I fish this with a sink tip line as you want to fish these type of Flies very close to the bottom.
a Teeny 130 is perfect for this BUT! they don't make it anymore so now I fish the Rio dc 150 and that works great as well. STRIP IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT! QUICK 10 INCH STRIPS! they dash for it.
I fish this for some time and WHAM! I hook a real good trout! It turns out to be a solid 3lb female Brookie @ 17 inches and full of eggs I land her and let her go like all the rest, Giving her just a BIGGER GRIN!
The place I first learned Fly Fishing over 25 years ago.
It had started raining early in the morning and I knew this should turn on the Fish to feed as the water has been so low for so long.
The trout are now spawning and will take an egg pattern Fly if its the same size as their eggs.
Back at my Moms house,
The house I grew up in, the South Branch of the raritan River Runs right behind it.
this is some 20 miles downstream from Califon and the water was already chocolate brown when I left her house.
But up here in the the Gorge it was just starting to come up a bit and get a little of color.
This time of year you will often cast a lot before a hookup, and today was no different.
but after a while I caught a 13 inch brown trout on the pale yellow egg Fly I was casting.
It was a male and very colorful! I fish awhile longer and moved down to another pool.
There I saw many Caddis Flies starting to come off so I switched to bead head Pheasant tails, two size 14 and one size sixteen at the top I tie these flies onto my tippet off of the bend of the next fly about 6 to 7 inches apart. You can use an indicator up the leader if you want, this can work very well.
After some time I hook another fish, This one a Brook Trout, its about 12 inches and real pretty!
I stop fishing to eat a sandwich and just sit and watch the water for some time.
Its now starting to get a little more off color now and come up the bank a bit but the leaves are not to thick in the water yet so I then start to Fish with a big Rabbit fur fly that a guy I know swears by. He ties it on a long shank hook with a stinger hook in back. its dyed dark olive and about 3 inches long. The stinger hook helps hook fish as they whack it short to see what it is and maybe stun it before eating it as it looks like it might bite back. That is what I think they do anyway.
I fish this with a sink tip line as you want to fish these type of Flies very close to the bottom.
a Teeny 130 is perfect for this BUT! they don't make it anymore so now I fish the Rio dc 150 and that works great as well. STRIP IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT! QUICK 10 INCH STRIPS! they dash for it.
I fish this for some time and WHAM! I hook a real good trout! It turns out to be a solid 3lb female Brookie @ 17 inches and full of eggs I land her and let her go like all the rest, Giving her just a BIGGER GRIN!
FRIDAY 12TH OCT TRIP TO PULASKI NY
The Director of the American Fly Fishing Schools, Mike Corblies called me about going up to the Salmon River in Pulaski NY to meet up and fish with Kevin Margosian of BIG KEVS GUIDE SERVICE.
jmargosian@hvwisp.net phone 518 470 7908
Kevin has become our newest member in American Fly Fishing Schools. He invited Mike and I up to fish with him.
very early that morning he picked us up at our motel and off we went to the Salmon river.
Well before dawn we walked out into and up river to get to our run we fished at dawn.
Local law states the fishing can only be done at 1/2 HOUR BEFORE SUNRISE UNTIL 1/2 AFTER SUNSET. So we waited until 6.45 am and started fishing egg pattern flies.
Within minutes we had action, Chinook or (king) Salmon as well as Steelhead were stacked in the run we were on and they took flies every 10 to 20 casts.
Kevin has been fishing this River since he was 9 years old he is now 39 and knows it better than just about anyone. He would make a few casts and hook a Steelie that he was just pointing out to Mike and I.
when the light came up enough Mike had put the Fly rod aside and started filming.
I hooked a King that swam downstream at first, saw all the other sports in the water and went back up past me, and like Joe Morris of the Giants back in the day just kept on going, pulling the Fly about 50 yards upstream.
Just like most fish, he managed to "GET AWAY!"
After more than three hours we landed three kings up to 30 pounds and two steelies up to 9 lbs, but had many more than that hooked and lost.
jmargosian@hvwisp.net phone 518 470 7908
Kevin has become our newest member in American Fly Fishing Schools. He invited Mike and I up to fish with him.
very early that morning he picked us up at our motel and off we went to the Salmon river.
Well before dawn we walked out into and up river to get to our run we fished at dawn.
Local law states the fishing can only be done at 1/2 HOUR BEFORE SUNRISE UNTIL 1/2 AFTER SUNSET. So we waited until 6.45 am and started fishing egg pattern flies.
Within minutes we had action, Chinook or (king) Salmon as well as Steelhead were stacked in the run we were on and they took flies every 10 to 20 casts.
Kevin has been fishing this River since he was 9 years old he is now 39 and knows it better than just about anyone. He would make a few casts and hook a Steelie that he was just pointing out to Mike and I.
when the light came up enough Mike had put the Fly rod aside and started filming.
I hooked a King that swam downstream at first, saw all the other sports in the water and went back up past me, and like Joe Morris of the Giants back in the day just kept on going, pulling the Fly about 50 yards upstream.
Just like most fish, he managed to "GET AWAY!"
After more than three hours we landed three kings up to 30 pounds and two steelies up to 9 lbs, but had many more than that hooked and lost.
Friday, April 27, 2012
APRIL 26TH TRIP TO POHOPOCO
Took a Guy to fish the Pohopoco yesterday and just caught the hell outta them!
got to the falls up by the dam at 800 am and by 830 we caught three browns and one brookie.
fished awhile longer and then moved down stream and found lots more willing fish.
they were taking a size 16 tan body elk hair Caddis. The sky was nicely overcast and that made the fishing great! Every time we moved to another spot we caught more fish, LOTS MORE! We fished all day, ate lunch very quick and did not have any slow down in action. It was Awesome! you could cast upstream and let the fly drift down, across and let it swing, the fish did not care, you could even drag it upstream and some would strike it. by 830 pm my client had landed 18 browns up to 16 inches and one brookie, dropped or lost probably at least that many. We were beat but very happy!
got to the falls up by the dam at 800 am and by 830 we caught three browns and one brookie.
fished awhile longer and then moved down stream and found lots more willing fish.
they were taking a size 16 tan body elk hair Caddis. The sky was nicely overcast and that made the fishing great! Every time we moved to another spot we caught more fish, LOTS MORE! We fished all day, ate lunch very quick and did not have any slow down in action. It was Awesome! you could cast upstream and let the fly drift down, across and let it swing, the fish did not care, you could even drag it upstream and some would strike it. by 830 pm my client had landed 18 browns up to 16 inches and one brookie, dropped or lost probably at least that many. We were beat but very happy!
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