Dec 2012 Post Spawn not quite yet

State College 68 degrees on Dec 4th, Spring Creek @ 51.8 degrees and the fish are still spawning. Looks as if the 2012 spawn has been a very good one by the number of redds you can see and the pairs still going strong.Did not see any really big pairs but enough of the 12 thru 15" class fish that makes it worth going. At 10:00 AM the midges and olives were going strong and the fish also. Not the typical winter olive hatch but they were eating them, midges seemed to be less important. If you floated it to them they would eat not any really nice fish but still for Dec 4 not bad at all. I used one dry fly a #24 loop wing olive emerger, did not have any refusals! I do not think that the trout have taken their typical winter lies at this time but it also does not appear that they are on the post spawn feed. I did take a few skinny males that really needed some extra calories! Did not bother to fish scuds, too dam many people in the good nymph water- just too nice! I'm looking for a nice drizzle or soft snow fall to bring the olives in mass before the Jan/Feb turn off occurs.
  Heard a few reports that Cherry Run was full of really nice 12-16" sized browns from the new Cherry Run bridge to the new bridge at Ole Mingle, we had a good flow of water that allowed them to ascend and spawn. I hope none of the locals took any of them, they are our future!

Nov.2012 The Spawn?

Fished Spring Creek Wed. & Thursday of this week, Olives were the name of the game not strong but they ate everyone that passed them by even moving a few inches to intercept them. I used a #20 1/2 loop emerger in olive, if I got the float right they ate it, not big numbers but just the same they made me smile. Did see quite a few tan caddis around and also noticed a few big rises to Oct. caddis, all in all a nice few days. Checked the known spawning locations for redds but did not see them, looks as if they are just starting to dig a few but not the numbers that Spring Creek usually has, maybe a week to 10 days will be about right. Normally around Thanksgiving is the perfect time unless we have a real early flush and cold snap?
  Resisted the urge to fish streamers, just to dam much work, might try Penns this weekend with a large purple bunny pattern.

East vs. West Fly Shops

It's easy to compare the East and West from a customer view point of fly shops. The West has much more to offer, Headhunter tippet, leaders and a wide varity of other leader material. Craig, MT is home to "3" fly shops, The Orvis shop is typical of the company, rods made in American and everything else made in China, one word shooty. Headhunters is a new comer to the scene but their web site is wonderful, filled with a very candid snapshot of current fishing conditions, they speak the truth. The coffee is always on as is the Yeti cooler on the front porch filled with beer, nice touch. This shop has girls in the store and they can fish, not here in the East. The Trout Shop also in Craig is large it has almost everyting that you could want or need, Patagonia, Simms, Headhunter, Rio to name a few. The Trout Shop also has a small deli that serves a wonderful selection of made on the spot sandwiches, try the "cuban" (had 3 of them in the 10 days), they offer Starbucks coffee- who knew. Moving up the river to Wolf Creek you'll find MRO, a full service shop with motel and cabin rentals, Tim is still there and will go out of his way to help. All of these shops give good solid advice but never oversell the river or the trout and they never insult customers with boasting of their skills?
  We did the 5 shops in Bozeman and found they offered the same type of laid back underselling of the resource, each shop had it's nitch but they all got along, a far cry from the shops in our area who seem to enjoy bickering about one another, to the point of vengence.
  Stopped in Ennis at the shop and found the same wide selection and wonderful service. West Yellowstone offers 3 shops Arrick's know for matedrials, Montana River Outfitter had a great guy in the shop, Chris Daniels the brother of TCO manager George Daniels, Chris has some of the best photography that I have ever seen, innovation seems to run in the family. Stopped in at Blue Ribbon a wonderful shop, just to stand in front of the deer and elk hair bins and pick the perfect piece for your tying needs is wonderful.
  The last shop was George Andersen's in Livingston, same wonderful service and wide selection, makes we want to stay in the West.
  Our local shops have limited selections and seem to want to tell everyone about how well the do and not give a shit about their potential customer, out West the set the customerrs expectitations lower and deliver far more in the end. If you want to tell everyone how great you are don't do it to customers and don't oversell the resource.
  When was the last time you saw the wide product offering in our area, we do have the anglers but not the single store to serve them

Montana October 2012

Time for my annual trip to Montana in October in hopes of a strong Baetis hatch on the Missouri, well that did not happen the first two days, normal Pesudo's- those little devils! On the Missouri the fish will take a bigger imitation if you present it well on the first float, they did. I fished with Arti Newman from Sunbury who now lives in Craig, MT "Trout Town USA", we used a drift boat and really could not get in position to work the pods of rising fish, still did well. Had reservations on two spring creeks, took off for Bozeman. A good friend of mine from FL and I tried Milesnick's Benhardt Spring Creek (3 miles of heaven) in Belgrade, MT, 406-388-7001 but the first day we had winds of 45 MPH not good for casting or for that matter getting out of a portapotty! We took off South and fished Three Dollar Bridge and Slide in area of the Madison and did very well- still not the Missouri.rainbows. We tried Milesnick's the next day arriving with Mary saying "You two are certainly determined" go ahead and try it and come back and pay if it's ok. We did well but with the winds at only 30 MPH we could not stand it more that an hour, we'll be back in the future. Wed. I had reservations for Nelson's Spring Creek, Paradise Valley, MT 406-222-6560, arrived at 9:00 AM,walked the entire 1.5 miles of the stream and took a few browns before a truly wonderful Pesudo hatch took place, the entire stream was alive with rising trout from 10 to 20+", just what we wanted! We noticed when signing the guest book no one was there since mid Sept., we had steady rising trout till 5:00 PM, truly heaven. Give either of these spring creeks a try at least once in your life, the video below is from Nelson's.

  Back to the Missouri, fished 2 more days in the drift boat and could not get any steady rising fish due to the winds gusts, this was the week for WIND! Took fish but I really do not like indicator or streamer fishing from a boat. Saturday came and I was determined to wade fish the old way. Drove to one of my favorite spots and just watched the river, saw fish working the tail out off a gravel bar, they never broke the surface but were eating. Used the same rig that has worked well the last 20 years in the fall, a #16 soft hackle wet, biot body, fur collar and med dun soft hackle. They ate it but I had a heck of a time keeping them on, hook ups only lasted 15-30 seconds, finally I had a break off and tied another one on using 4X, same crap happened but this time I looked at my hook- the gap had opened. Did not take long to determine that Tiemco 2487's we not the answer, quickly knotted on a 2457 #16 and landed 16 big rainbows, still had the typical MO break offs, at take and run and break off. A truly wonderful morning, gos to show you if some thing worked before don't be stupid do it again till the fish tell you otherwise. The picture is of one of the 16 that morning, 20+" , heavy with no marks in her mouth.

Iso's in Sept.

Fished Penns Thursday Sept. 27 below Cherry Run, no not in some one's personal riffle! Got there about 10:00 AM and watched the stream and saw a few fish rise, put on a tan Iris caddis emerger, floated it over at least three good solid rising fish but no takes? I saw a Iso coming off the surface and decided to put one on, that was the last fly I put on, fished it all day and it accounted for 20 fish, 2 big rainbows, 3 big browns and the rest smaller but in very nice shape browns. The only problem was I forgot my dry fly shake material and it was hard to get it back in shape after each fish, I'll remember next time. My Iso emerger is just a smaller version of the one I use in the summer those tend to be very large size 10/12 and the fall guys are about 12/14- depends on your hook choice. I use Tienco 200 #14 with a dark olive grizzly shuck, dark red brown Aust. opossum body, a full looped old grey poly wing and light ginger hen hackle. Just treat the wing loop and float in to them, the fish took it all every way possible, splashy, head & tail or down stream, all good indications that they were locked on that insect. No one else around till I was leaving, some young dude started to fish in the riffle and I bet he did not have a pass to do so?

Carp, Caddis & Rio Line

I have been trying and trying to find a good spot in the local river to try and catch carp on the fly but just can not find a spot where they are in sight, you can not blind fish for them. You stalk carp the same as you do bonefish. The only spot that I have found them and have caught them is near the Chinese resturant in Lewisburg just off Route 15 N., we call it Bull Run but I know this is not correct. I use a bead head crayfish like pattern and cast it lightly ahead of them and just give it some action and 3 out of 10 time they will take but in this small area it is dam hard to land one, give it a try next summer.
  I have been fishing Spring and Penns Creeks with success using any tan caddis pattern, Iris (emerger) or a Bubble Back adult pattern with great success. My killer black bead caddis wet emerger has had limited success but it is very early in the pattern testing to throw it away. Saturday Sept 15 I was at the junction pool of Penns & Elk/Pine a bit early, got dressed and decided to walk down the bank and come in from below, as I was dressing I could hear an Eagle in the area but could not see it. As soon as I came out from the stream side vegetation I waded to a rock to rig up well just below me in a stream side tree was the Eagle just looking at me, well got the camera out and turned it on- Message Battery Exhausted *** dam he flew off and I was just thrilled to be that close to him. Had a hell of a time trying to get a fly to the fish, every time I cast the leader would just fall on top of itself, cut it back and rebuilt it with limited success. I had to cast maybe 6 times to each rising fish to get the dam fly where it should be, the line was a Rio Gold WF3F and it will be burned this week, I tried a t least 3 different leaders and they all sucked. I did use the line before and had limited time with it but it's gone now. Any suggestions on leaders will help but please no Geo. Harvey formulas, they just are not accurate for me. I'm using Rio Trout leaders and have become more familiar with them and have had some good days with them but this was not one of them, the rod was a Winstion 8'6" BIIX- god figure.
  Anyone looking to buy or sell quality equipment might want to use either of these guys, they are far and offer a lot of rods and reels;
www.tradenstuff.com or www.ricksrods.com Dave at Traden Stuff has a huge inventory and it fast, Rick's is more for the high end stuff but worth a look.

No Trico's?

Fished Spring Creek this morning 8/9/2012 and found no Trico's but did find a lot on tan caddis, just had to watch and pinpoint the rises- only missed 4 fish all the others took well. The attached video is a very nice brown that was tight against the bank. Sorry about the "3" copies of the same video- duh!