Fishin' Skinny Water!!

I have been very busy at work at not had nearly enough time to get out and fish as I usually do, it sucks as most of you steelnuts are stuck doing the same thing! Well this past Tuesday a couple buddies and I went and stalked some smaller creeks that clear and become fishable with 24 hours of a big rain.  We hadn't fished this creek in some time, but last time we scouted it out there were a handful of fish ;).  Well when we arrived I was pretty amazed to see that the creek was pretty much blown out, damnit all haha.  Despite being  disappointed in the color and flow of the water we decided to wet a line any ways.  Within the 5 minutes FISH ON!!

This lil 22' was feisty!!

Not even 10 minutes after the 1st another nice Chromer! 

My buddy Ryan who likes to stay anonymous with a nice Buck!

Hungry? Little Piggy

Overall on the day I went 2-4 and Ryan went 1-2!! The second fish that Ryan hooked none of us even got a look at, this fish grabbed a streamer and took off up stream.  Ryan battled the fish for a good 5 minutes trying to turn this freight train to no avail, that fish was hot and that is a good sign for things to come.  Last but not least my buddy Mike Z. didn't catch any steel but managed a creek chub that was worth of a wall mount ;).  Thanks for ready and until then get out and fish, it should be good for the next week or so!!  Check out the company that I guide for www.ohiosteelheaddrifters.com Owen and the boys can get you on some of these silver bullets!!

Supposed to work...Went fishing instead!

Well as the title states I was supposed to continue a turf job that I have been on for the last few days, but plans change :) and I decided to head east in search of some chrome!!  Arriving at the creek around 11 a.m. I had high expectations for this trip considering I hadn't been fishing in like 2 weeks, and for those of you who don't know me that is a literal eternity considering I fish 250+ days a year!!  I parked and set-up my new SAGE reel at the truck and started stomping up stream to a hole that always has fish in it, to find no fish haha, so I walked up a little farther to find the mother load of fish.  I threw every fly that I have caught a steelhead on and other that I haven't.  I ended up landing around 40 fish, a solid estimate would be 20 on egg/nymph patterns, and 25 fish were swung up!!  I couldn't believe how active the fish were, they were eating everything, so I tied on a steelhead waker and fished it for a few hours and had 2 takes but landed neither, this is a dream of mine to catch a steel on top, maybe 1 day.

Gotta Love The End of Fall

As the fall slowly draws to an end there are many thoughts dancing through my head...What will winter steelheading bring? We will have an ice over this winter, because last year we were lucky enough to be able to fish all winter!!  Well with these questions in my head I decided that I should get up at 4 am and travel to all the Mile Creeks and Elk creek in PA.  The fish were spread among the mile creeks, on the bright side very few anglers out considering the sub 30 degree temperature and snow falling :) (my favorite time of the year).  

 Brown that swam down a streamer!!

 Grand River Love!!

 Gettin some tail!

On the E killin' it with my boys

1st Drift BOOM!!!

Chromin'

Well I have been extremely busy lately with work and haven't been able to fish as often as I would like, but I did have a day off last week and made the most out of the day off!  I ventured east for the day seeing how most of the home waters were still lacking flow and color.  Fishing in PA is an experience all steelheaders should get at least once in their lives, the shear number of fish that can be sight fished is truly an awesome sight, on the other hand people are crawling all over these places, so walking and escaping crowds is definitely needed.  I have a few favorite spots that don't get nearly the pressure that other parts of the streams get.  I ended up landing 7 fish in the first hole that I got to, and later went to another stream and lost 2 bruisers that straightened out my hooks.  Gotta love fresh chrome fish that are full of piss and vinegar.  After this hurricane passes the streams should be loaded up with fish, so hit the vice this week in anticipation for good fishing in the weeks to come.

1st fish of the day on the Halloween Bug!!

 Underwater close up!

 Dime Bright

 Boom

 Chub

 Love those colors!

 Fatso!

Guiding The Alley With No Water

While the rivers maintain minimal to almost no flow there were some hungry fish out there.  This year has been one of the craziest water level years I can remember.  It seems like when we do get rain for a few days the water gets soaked up in the ground and does little to elevate the river flows.  But even with the low water conditions early run Chrome have been finding their way to the bank.

Here's my client from today with a few early run fish

   

Early morning chromer

Love those Colors!!! 

 Underwater release!

 2nd fish of the day

Another C&R

Great client from West Virginia came up and put a whoopin' on some fresh chrome.  You should've seen the 1 that got away 30' plus!!

Sleeping in your waders

Some fellas from a local fishing group had brought to my attention a camping and fishing trip to New York and the Salmon River for Kings on the fly. It didn't really take me long to decide that I was going. The trip would give me and my best fishing buddy the chance at 35+ pound King Salmon on the fly.  So we began tying flies and cleaning lines getting some heavy leaders and tippets, considering that it's not very often for a steelheader in Ohio that you need a 30lb leader or 18lb tippet.  So finally when the day arrived we were all packed up and pumped to get there (to bad it's a 6 hour trip) so needless to say when we arrived we were ready to hit the water for as long as possible.  The first day we met up with the fellas from the local fishing group and to my amazement the fish and people were lining the rivers for miles and miles.  Only problem with the first day is that the fish must have developed lock jaw by the midday when we finally able to get out on the water.  But that's not to say that we didn't try our hardest 6 hr car ride followed by 10 hr on the water with 1 hookup is enough to drive anyone to have some beers and apple pie moonshine (thanks Josh).  But the 2nd day was a completely different story for me and Mike.  We headed out to a spot on the map that picked up and walked a good 2 1/2 miles from where we parked to find a run about 1000 feet that was lined with Salmon just waiting to eat flies ;).  The people were minimal and the water was swift.  Once we started fishing we were consistently hooked up on fish throughout the day, and literally probably the single best fishing day of my life and will let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Can't describe the power of these fish!

 CPR (catch,picture,release)

 Mike with a fresh King

Estaz egg he couldn't resist

Yea baby!!!

 This day was unreal!

 Underwater close up!

 King Kype!

 Awesome fish!

 Check out the chompers

 Fish gun haha

 Open wide

 being a goof ball

 Rolling

 Can't get much better 

 Swung up the only Coho of the trip

 Orvis Cover?

We stayed until dark

Well after the long day of casting and catching 25 Kings and 1 Coho we were whooped and decided to celebrate with many good beers and some more apple pie moonshine.  Thanks for reading and I'll keep you updated on the many more fishing and hunting adventures that I take on!!