Fly VS. Jerks New Season

Sorry for being late with this as the fishing show Fly VS. Jerks just finished up it's season 9th. on kanalgratisdotse.com. This year it was 3 days of fishing with four teams, 2 fly and 2 hard wear teams fishing in Europe. The quality of the film is just amazing and the amount of fish they all caught is nothing short of amazing. Team Vision Sweden caught 122 pike in 8 hours one day and team Vision Finland landed a gigantic pike of over 12 kilos to win the overall championship of the competition, you need to give it a try just to see how the Europeans are using different materials and equipment along with the newer clothing that they have. It looks as if Vision is the leader in fly fishing supplies over there, some of their rods are different, some have foam handles (not my choice) their lines are different colored and of course their flies are really on the cutting edge of patterns. The guys are using a lot of tube flies, this is something we just never bother with here but maybe we should be, they are easy to tie and don't use that much material and sure can be changed easily.
This series is on every early spring and the quality of the show is just amazing, some of the language is not fit for younger people but that is Europe TV. Give it a watch and you might just see some ideas for big streamers that would get some really big browns moving. I know some of the patterns they are using would get some of the muskies that reside in the section of Penns below Selinsgrove at the junction of Penns and Middle Creek running into the Susquehanna River!
   On another note I see the babies of the Fish Commission are pissed at the Director because they told him to save money and he decided to close some hatcheries thereby pissing some of the Directors off, they must of gotten phone calls telling them they wanted their stocked fish for the money they spent on a licence. Now the Commission wants to limit the term of the Director, wow looks as if he mad some of them mad! Where is the common sense that tells them to manage the resource and balance the budget in a sensible manner not like little kids? I be we will have to spend money if we fish for browns,brooks,rainbows,bluegills,bass,walleyes and any other species we catch, they will sell us a specific tag for each of them and fine us if we catch any on them and do not have a tag- kind of like the Game Commission now does with hunting tags for everything.

When not to fish in the Winter/Spring

I can tell you one of the very best days to fish in the Winter/Spring is when the Olives are going strong and it is snowing, you will never experience such quiet on a stream, even the birds are silent. Snow doesn't seem to bother the Olives and or Midges they just keep coming. now I am not talking about a full blown blizzard just a nice soft snow, we all know that rain gives the Olives a good kick in the pants but it is not that quiet and still. Hopefully we are done with the snow and the wind that seems to be ever present this year. I can tell you one of worst times to fish is after a good snow fall and it begins to melt, this will take the water temp's down and put the fish off. Between the snows we have seen water temp's slowly climb (not much but a little) and the fish become active then boom the temp goes down just a little and they turn off! Give it a few days to begin to warm up and get rid of most of the snow cover that is exposed to the sun, the remaining snow will melt when the air temps begin to rise enough. Next week with the for cast of 50's and 60's will get some more snow melt going but if you plan on getting on the stream early you should be OK, most of the heavy melt occurs later in the afternoon. Now none of this applies to Fishing Creek- hell the sun does not hit it till April, or it just seems that way but it does stay colder than the other streams at this time of year. Small black pheasant tails and Chimera caddis larva & pupa imitations are just the ticket now. Scuds and shrimp will always bring fish to you, just keep them on the smaller size #16 & 18 will do the trick. Penns is good for the bigger stuff, black stoneflies in size #6 & 8 along with yellow stones in #10 & 12 will work provided you get them down near the bottom, with cold water temps the fish just will not move that far for a treat.
  Enjoy

Good By to Lefty

Sad news in the fly fishing world, Lefty Kreh has passed on, to say he was a one of a kind is a gross understatement. I meet him years ago when I attended The Brotherhood of The Jungle Cock" annual summer camp out in Thurmount, MD, as always his knowledge was given to anyone who asked any and all questions. I was stunned at just what he could do with a fly rod, sometimes just throwing it down on the ground on a fore cast and yes it always hit the mark! One could ask him anything about fly tying and he would give knowledge and help on the spot, many times he would just sit down and show you how and why to do something. We never got to fish together but we kept in touch thru the years most of the time it was about fly tying materials and new hooks, he was in a position where he saw most everything that was new on the market well before most of us did.
  I will miss the laugh and that Baltimore draw that he had but most of all the simple fact that he shared his knowledge so freely. He used to give me hell saying that you PA guys do not share your fishing locations to the general public. I know he is fishing now, maybe he and Joe Brooks just hooked a very large bonefish.

It Can Happen

The more the world changes the more we think that some established business will stand the test of a competitor, well they do not. Gone are the days in which a company can withstand another company trying to take over, here is an example.
  During the 80's Mustad was the best and one of the very few fly tying hooks on the market, we all remember those little white boxes with the white semi waxed paper inside of them holding 100 hooks. Mustad had the fly tying market cornered except for some of the Partridge hooks from England, one of them was the Vince Marinaro dry fly hooks, they were crap, soft. I am not sure if the hooks were that soft or it was our new tippet material that was strong and we did not play our fish that long, because we were told to get the trout in fast and get them back. Not many people used the English hooks back then and they were not cheap because they were hand made. Well we did not see any other hooks making a dent in the Mustad market, then we began to see a lot of 94840 & 94833 #14 & 16 hooks that were soft and began to open at the bend when a fish was hooked, some of my clients began to complain about this and we started to check the hooks and yes there was a problem maybe not as bad as first though, again maybe it was the new tippet material, Cortland had Nylorfe from France and it was very strong as was Maxima from Germany. Low and behold we began to see a new hook on the market "Tiemco" from Japan, not cheap but dam good quality and super sharp. What began as a problem for one company became an opportunity for another and history was made. Tiemco became the hook of choice on the market and Mustad began to become less available to fly tyers in this country. We saw the little white boxes now sporting the Tiemco label on them and the white paper inside holding new an exciting hook designs. Given the cost difference Tiemco had to come up with a new package, they put 25 hooks on a G-Dam magnet and enclosed it in a plastic bag thereby lowering the cost. I for one hate those magnets because it does not allow me to line my hooks up by dozens in a neat fashion, the hooks stick to my tweezers.
  Now in 2018 we have a ton of hooks on the market most of them are good but once in a while you will find some of the European ones may have the same soft problem, the hook opens up just enough after hooking a fish that you can not get a good hook set on a fish and wonder why your not hooking fish- check you fly and see if it did in fact open at the bend- if so get it off because bending it back is not the answer. Go home a tie more flies with better hooks. We have seen new manufactures coming out every year, look at new one "Ahrex from Sweden/Norway- really great wire, styles and super sharp. Yes even Partridge has a line of Predator hooks that are super as does Gamagatsu!
  Case in point if your in business never think that you will not have someone who can do it better than you can because they can and will
  If you think the streams are crowded, well they are just look how many fly tying hook companies are out there making a living off us, no wonder sometimes you just want to go home and not deal with the crowds.

Is It Age or Hoarder Disorder?

Ok the weather sucks, the waters are high and I do not feel like chucking heavy nymph rigs, call me lazy or old, so I tie flies and go thru my boxes seeing what needs to be replaced or what flies to experiment with. Well I wanted to tie up a crap load of scuds and other patterns that I use on Spring Creek and Bald Eagle, OK so I go thru my tying cabinet and low and behold what do I find, shit I forgot that I had and some of it in doubles, now what is going on. The other week I ordered some material and glue after receiving it I was going thru a drawer that holds most of my glue and head cements, well you guessed it, what I just got I had in the drawer. The sad part is I wanted to use some tack wax, gees I only had 6 of them, 4 were so dam old the wax was dry, now I just had to start looking at my materials to see what else I either forgot I had or had too much.
  The results are in I either have deminta or have a hoarding issue because I just have too much stuff that I will never use in my life time. I talked to a PT nurse the other day at Geisinger who's husband I taught to tie 40 years ago at Geisinger in the evenings, he has done the same thing ordered something then to find that he already had it.
  OK so here is the deal, you need some thing, ask and if I have more than I need I will get it to you, cover the cost of postage and if I need packaging cover that also and it will be yours. Please no hooks (well maybe the shit ones) or really good dry fly and wet fly hackle capes, I value the hen necks more than the rooster necks and refuse to give them up. If I have a good Metz, Hoffman or Hebert neck that I will never use all you have to do is cover the old cost not the new cost and I might part with it.
  The weather here sucks and the water is high and I have a G. dam cold so life sucks for now.
My e mail is jhepner@ptd.net

Results of meeting on Penns scetion 5

I was sick with a terrible cold and could not make the meeting (presentation) concerning Penns Creek section 5 rule change. This does not take effect till 2019 and it was posted on YouTube, well I tried to watch it and all I saw was some old fart going on about how bad a job  is doing and on and on, ok get to your point, I just could not watch it any longer. From what I hear it will be the same as the Coburn section, a slot limit and continued stocking of fish to Glen Iron (some say it is too warm there but they did in fact stock it that far down years before), long story short is the Fish & Boat boys need to save money and this will get them where they want to be. The Coburn section has always had a very good population of resident fish and has suffered only because of one very good old guy that keeps taking all the big fish he catches, other than that the population might have gotten a bit smaller but has held up good.  Check out YouTube "PA Woods and Water channel to get a good idea of the relative size of fish there. I hear that Joe Humphries was one of the few who wanted the section to stay the same and to continue stocking, strange coming from him? We shall see what the future brings for our beloved stream, just don't screw up the FFF area!
   A short note on where to buy stuff if you shop local and need tying materials it is hard to beat Jerry at Fly Tiers Heaven but if you need more, try "Fly Fish Food" or "Worley Bugger Fly Co." for mail order they are very fast, your order will be there from Utah or Washington. If you are looking for the very best materials on the market, then try Worley's selection of " Natures Spirit". Everything that I have ever gotten from Natures Sprit has been top quality. I first ran into them when I ordered material from Trout Hunter, never knowing that it had been packed for them from Spirit,I was in Helena and found a huge selection of their material in a big sporting goods store, it was just a quality selection but they did not do mail order nor does Spirit sell direct to consumers. If you need something give them Worley a try.