Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2012/5/13 (243 reads)
The Paflyfish Jamboree and Meetup is fast approaching this weekend. Members and friends will be gathering at the Seven Mountains Campground in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania on May 18-20, 2012. The weekend is an opportunity to catch up with old friends, campout, and fly fish over some of the best waters in the region.
Friday evening our guest speaker will be author and Paflyfish member Dwight "Troutbert" Landis. Dwight is best known for his book, Trout Streams of Pennsylvania: An Angler's Guide and shared an interview with me a few years ago that can be found here. Dwight will be speaking about Spring Creek starting at 10:00 PM.
We have several friends of the Paflyfish helping support the weekend with a raffle on Saturday night. Proceeds from the raffle will go to Rivers Conservation & Fly Fishing Youth Camp.
Moderator Dave "Fishidot" Weaver will be working on and then donating one of his wonderful watercolor fly fishing paintings.
Coty "csoult" Soult a member on the site has been gracious enough to make a beautiful fly tying bench made of red oak and birds eye maple. There is plenty of spots to hold your tools and all your thread. The drawer has 5 compartments with a twist lock latch.
The team at Allen Flyfishing has sent over several rods to demo and part of the raffle. For the weekend they have included some 5, 3 and 2 weight ATS Series and XA rods. See Dave Kile to try out some of these rods.
Cutthrout Leaders is the newest sponsor to the site and has packaged up some of their fine leaders as well.
Harman's North Fork Cottages has provided a gift certificate to stay one of their luxury log cabins for a two night stay.
It is a pretty busy weekend with a lot more details found here and in the forum here.
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2012/5/7 (304 reads)
Throughout the year trout feed a disproportional amount of the time under the water. For me even during a recent sulphur hatch on Spring Creek trout were not rising and could be seen actively feeding below the surface. George Daniel's book, Dynamic Nymphing, offers an extensive look at tactics and strategies that get to the heart of subsurface nymph fishing.
I enjoy all the puzzles that fly-fishing provides and always appreciate ways to overcome those challenges. George shares the best of these techniques in solving many of these trials with his book in a wonderful format of instruction, photography and sketches for some of the best approaches to nymph fishing.
A range of chapters provide: a nymphing systems overview, riggings, casting techniques, tight-line tactics, fly patterns, small streams, challenging locations and much more.
Anglers not as familiar with all aspects nymph fishing or looking to extend their subsurface skills will quickly enjoy all facets of this book.
For example George provides details for the Curly Q rig, which is ideal for shallow water and longer casting requirements. This may be a more advanced technique for some and is broken down into a couple parts within the book for use and clarification. Explanations of how to make the Curly Q and ways to cast this rig are completely covered. In addition, he provides many other detailed leader formulas making it easy to understand where and when to implement these different strategies.
Dynamic Nymphing provides several for tight-line tactics, which is a method of nymphing without the use of a suspension support device. Joe Humphreys mentored George and details of the Harvey/Humphrey high-stick methods are explained along with several European nymphing styles as well.
George provides well over 60 detailed fly patterns ranging from pheasant tails to Czech nymphs. All these flies are beautifully photographed and chronicled.
For those looking to explore wild brook streams or find themselves in other challenging spots there are several chapters that take you off your typical stream and provide options in some adverse nymph fishing situations.
While I have been fly fishing for quite some time, I can get bit lackadaisical with my approach to the sport. Too often I stick with what I know. What I liked most about Dynamic Nymphing for me was getting me out of my comfort zone and to try some techniques I have not yet mastered. For those newer to the sport the Dynamic Nymphing provides a wealth of information that will certainly help improve their fly-fishing opportunities at many levels.
Dynamic Nymphing: Tactics, Techniques, and Flies from Around the World [Hardcover] by George Daniel can be found on Amazon here .
George Daniel is assistant manager at TCO Fly Shop, in State College, PA. He travels the country conducting fly-fishing clinics for various groups and organizations. George is a former member and current Head Coach of Fly Fishing Team USA. Some of his accomplishments include being a two time national fly fishing champion, won The Fly Fishing Masters, and ranked as high as fifth in the World along with other competitive achievements. The title of the book will be “Dynamic Nymphing.” He lives near Lamar, Pennsylvania. If you want to keep up with George in the Internet you can follow him on his Facebook page here.
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2012/5/2 (161 reads)
The Simms 2012 Shoot Out videography contest in Bozeman, Montana was held at this year's ICE OUT Guide Event from April 16-18, 2012. Videographers hit the water in Montana with the West's best fishing guides. The culmination was the Shoot Out competition held on April 19 at the Willson Auditorium in Bozeman, MT. Sponsored by Costa and The Drake Magazine, the Shoot Out is a one-of-a-kind event that celebrates fly fishing filmmaking and the fishing guide.
Rules of the Shoot Out Competition: • Teams of 2 • Simms Guide Ambassador to accompany each group • Teams started at sunrise (6:27am MST) on Monday, April 16 • Each team can only submit 1 film for inclusion in the MAIN EVENT • All footage for inclusion in the MAIN EVENT must be shot during the prescribed shooting window • Submitted films must be no longer than 6 minutes in length
All four finalists can be found here to review. Ian Majszak was the Shoot Out winner with "Untitled". My friends Luke Carroll and Adam Kryder from Raw Water Productions made their way out west from New York and entered this with "Brant Oswald".
I am looking forward to more projects from Luke and Adam this summer.
We're all back from the 2012 Quill Gordon Summit, and by all accounts the event was a great success! We had a good turn out of about 7 guys; Skybay, Dave_S, Turkey, CSoult, Wetfly_01, The Sasquatch, and my father, Jerry (non-board member).
The weekend started for Jerry and me at 5:30am. By 9:15am we were on the Pine Creek in Ansonia not far from Sandfly's shop. We fished for about an hour and then headed over to Sandy's. First thing we noticed was that the water was low and very very clear. No fish to be found in the AM, but lots and lots of caddis on the water.
Meeting Sandfly is worth a weekend trip in and of itself. He's full of stories, all full of hilarity and also fly fishing wisdom. His hens that he raises for hackle are beautiful, and although his shop is quite small, the amount of stuff he has in there is overwhelming! He loaded my pops and I up with flies and advice and about two hours later, we were on our way up to our camp.
We opened up Camp Iroquois on the top of Denton Hill and made plans for our evening outing. Decided to hit the Pine Creek down in Gaines. Again, LOTS AND LOTS of caddis, but no risers, no action sub surface, it was quite confusing. Dad and I decided to bail on that stretch while the evening was still young, and drove up Rt 6 to where the Pine crosses Rt 6 above Galeton, right at the Sylvania Diner. This was the right choice. Dad went down stream, I went up stream, and both of us came back to the car with reports of many rising trout and several brought to hand, mostly hold over rainbows.
After returning to camp I called Skybay to make plans for him to meet up w/ us the next day, and then called Csoult. He told me him and Turkey were already at the campground (less than a minute drive from my cabin) and that I should come over. After telling him I was too tired for socializing, I changed my mind and headed over to their camp site. Glad I did. Got to hang w/ Turkey and Csoult for a few hours, getting to know each other, drink some beer and tell some stories, before the rest of the guys came up.
Friday we met at 8am and headed to Lyman Run. Beautiful setting, but again the clear and low water was our bane. As we worked our way up stream, the further we got the more fish we saw, but we were unable to bring any to hand. After heading back to the cars, we found a tiny trib that flowed under the road and into a little drainage ditch. We spooked two brookies out of that little pool, so I decided to rock it "Lehigh Valley Style" and fish the drainage ditch. After about 15 minutes I brought my first Potter County native brookie of 2012 to hand. A hilarious approach to catching a beautiful fish!
After lunch Dave_S arrived on the scene and we made plans for the evening trip. Originally we planned on hitting the Allegheny, but after seeing the flows, Dave_S led us up to the Oswego. Right decision as the flow was much better. Tons and tons of caddis flying around, march browns, even thought we saw some sulfers...but NO RISING FISH! I managed to catch a decent sized "Golden Rainbow" on a hare's ear (fun fight!), Dave_S caught a stocked brookie, my dad caught a nice little brookie that regurgitated a big old sculpin, and csoult and Turkey were wishing they stayed at State College ;) Ended the day at the campsite, sitting around the fire ring where we met up w/ Skybay who had us all laughing and telling stories quite quickly!
Saturday was the main event. Dad and I arrived at the campsite to find that Wetfly_01 arrived, and we learned that the plan was to hit the Pine all day. Wetfly_01 quickly took on the guide responsibilities as he led us to our first destination; the Pine Creek at Darling Run. Good flow to the Pine, the weather was overcast with rain, so conditions were working for us for the first time all weekend. There were several hookups at the first section and everyone was having fun, although wet and cold. After heading back to the vehicles for lunch (Dave_S I'm sure will tell the story of "The Sasquatch in a China Shop....), we headed up to the Pine at Blackwell. Wetfly_01 had us walk upstream to get away from all the crowds, and put us on some GREAT pocket water. As the rest of the group fished upstream, I joined up w/ Csoult and started hitting large pools. The March Browns were coming off the water big time, and the trout were rising! Csoult and I caught it right and we had a blast for the next two hours picking off risers on MBs. We officially renamed the event, "The March Brown Summit". Everyone brought fish to hand, including Skybay who caught his first fish on a dry fly. I say fish, because when he landed the beast, we discovered that he caught a 3lb smallie! Great catch!
Next we drove to Slate Run Tackle Shop. Lusted after things we couldn't afford, ate some legendary Slate Run sandwiches, and then fished the stretch behind SR. The rain was coming down HARD now, it was windy, and the temps dropped about 10 degrees from what it was when the day started. Fish were still rising, but none of us could figure out to what. Lots of MB and Caddis on the water, but they weren't taking either. Tried some midges, still nothing. Dave_S hooked up w/ one on a bugger, and my dad brought a few to hand. We all had enough though and were back in the trucks by 8:30. Headed back to Camp Iroquois, got the wood stove burning, Skybay cooked for us (amazing food from Skybay!), and the guys sat around the dinner table for hours talking FFing. All except for me, who headed over to the sofa and passed out...although I added my 2 cents every now and again. All were out and in bed by 12:30am.
Turkey took off first thing the next morning, the rest of us met up and had a final meal together at the Sylvania Diner. It was a great time. Crazy to think the weekend began w/ weather in the 70s, and now they're calling for snow. No QG anywhere, but it didn't matter. The landscape and the company made the event worth every minute. Can't wait till next year.
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2012/4/23 (587 reads)
Recently going through my mayfly photographs I found a nice set of pictures from the Paflyfish Spring Jam in 2010. The Green Drake (Ephemera guttulata ) hatch was in full swing that year and photographs of these mayflies was easy and plentiful. Most of the weekend was overcast and rain as normally forecasted for the Spring Jam. Emergers (subimigo) and spinners (imago) were not so much active during the day, but lined the sides of the streams in the hundred's of thousands. I am always torn between fishing and photography on days like this but glad put down my fly rod for a while and captured a lot of great shots.
With so many mayflies and photos it was easy to get so nice shots of the Green Drake spinners, which are referred to as Coffin Flies because of their white extended body. I wanted to demonstrate the differences between spinner (imago) male and female. These two Coffin Flies attached show these differences. Most notably the male has longer extended fore legs and claspers at the rear of the body. Females as seen do not have these body characteristics.
Male (left photo) Long fore legs Rear claspers or forceps at rear of body Eyes on a male tend to be larger
Female (right photo) Short fore leg Forceps do not exist Smaller flatter eyes
Coty "csoult" Soult a member on the site has been gracious enough to make a beautiful fly tying bench made of red oak and birds eye maple. There is plenty of spots to hold your tools and all your thread. The drawer has 5 compartments with a twist lock latch. 
I enjoy all the puzzles that fly-fishing provides and always appreciate ways to overcome those challenges. George shares the best of these techniques in solving many of these trials with his book in a wonderful format of instruction, photography and sketches for some of the best approaches to nymph fishing. 
George Daniel is assistant manager at TCO Fly Shop, in State College, PA. He travels the country conducting fly-fishing clinics for various groups and organizations. George is a former member and current Head Coach of Fly Fishing Team USA. Some of his accomplishments include being a two time national fly fishing champion, won The Fly Fishing Masters, and ranked as high as fifth in the World along with other competitive achievements. The title of the book will be “Dynamic Nymphing.” He lives near Lamar, Pennsylvania. If you want to keep up with George in the Internet you can follow him on his Facebook page 
The weekend started for Jerry and me at 5:30am. By 9:15am we were on the Pine Creek in Ansonia not far from Sandfly's shop. We fished for about an hour and then headed over to Sandy's. First thing we noticed was that the water was low and very very clear. No fish to be found in the AM, but lots and lots of caddis on the water. 
Friday we met at 8am and headed to Lyman Run. Beautiful setting, but again the clear and low water was our bane. As we worked our way up stream, the further we got the more fish we saw, but we were unable to bring any to hand. After heading back to the cars, we found a tiny trib that flowed under the road and into a little drainage ditch. We spooked two brookies out of that little pool, so I decided to rock it "Lehigh Valley Style" and fish the drainage ditch. After about 15 minutes I brought my first Potter County native brookie of 2012 to hand. A hilarious approach to catching a beautiful fish!
Next we drove to Slate Run Tackle Shop. Lusted after things we couldn't afford, ate some legendary Slate Run sandwiches, and then fished the stretch behind SR. The rain was coming down HARD now, it was windy, and the temps dropped about 10 degrees from what it was when the day started. Fish were still rising, but none of us could figure out to what. Lots of MB and Caddis on the water, but they weren't taking either. Tried some midges, still nothing. Dave_S hooked up w/ one on a bugger, and my dad brought a few to hand. We all had enough though and were back in the trucks by 8:30. Headed back to Camp Iroquois, got the wood stove burning, Skybay cooked for us (amazing food from Skybay!), and the guys sat around the dinner table for hours talking FFing. All except for me, who headed over to the sofa and passed out...although I added my 2 cents every now and again. All were out and in bed by 12:30am. 
Montana Fly Fishing
