The Official Quill Gordon Recap

The_Sasquatch

The_Sasquatch

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No photos for this one. The other guys have much better cameras and eyes!

Sal and I met up in Ephrata at 5am. After loading up the Volvo, getting some gas and breakfast, we were officially on the road by 5:30. We were pulling into Big Meadows Fly Shop in Ansonia at 9:00am, well earlier than when Sandfly was expecting us! I guess he didn't check his PMs...

The "stop at Sandy's shop" is now pre-jam tradition, I believe. Sal and I had a great time as we looked at old clickers, wiggled some glass (including a Kettle Creek blank......), bought some supplies, and had some laughs.

We had to meet Csoult by 10am, but that wasn't going to happen. We left Sandy's around 9:45 and it was at least a 30 minute drive up to the top of Denton Hill. We actually made pretty good time, and got to camp about 10:15am. Coty was there for almost an hour! After opening camp and unpacking, we headed down to Cross Forks "crick" (as Wetfly01 pronounces it!). Cross Forks was just amazing water. I haven't fished it in years and forgot how amazing the water and habitat was. Sal managed one nice brownie, but overall the fish were put down (story of the weekend). I did find a nice little trib though. The trib was shallower and was getting more direct sunlight. It was littered with natives, and we all caught a few.

We grabbed some food at Cross Fork, and sat on a picnic bench along Kettle watching fish rise. We should have stayed and fished the bigger stocked water! We decided instead to be wild trout snobs and head for other water. First we stopped at what we thought was Losey Creek. Where we parked and walked in though, ended up being the Pine. This had great flow, great structure, nice hatches, everything you'd want...except feeding trout! We then moved on to 9 Mile. Again, same story. Great water, great structure, bugs, no feeding fish. This was getting a bit tiring, but we were trying to be realistic. There was snow on the ground when we arrived at Denton Hill that morning, the recent cold front could have put the fish down for the day.

Back at camp Bikerfish, Wetfly01, and BradfromPotter (who introduced himself as 1wt as I opened the cabin door....) all showed up for a good evening of eating, drinking, telling fish stories. We decided on a plan of attack for the next day.

Friday morning Brad met us at camp around 10am, and we drove out to the West Branch Pine. We 'hoofed" it in and fished some absolutely amazing stretches....that apparently had no fish! We know it has fish, but no one was catching them.

Coty and Wetfly decided to go scout out the bigger water on Pine down in Ansonia/Darling Run area.

After "hoofing" it out, we drove down to a bigger stretch of west branch, and Brad managed a nice brownie doin' that nymphing thing.

Sal and I headed back to camp to meet up w/ Wsender, who planned on arriving anywhere from 3pm-5pm. Wsender arrived, the other guys came back, and we headed out to Lyman. Lyman is absolutely beautiful. Biker and Brad headed down stream, wsender and I headed upstream, and Sal hoofed it up the road a bit to a beaver pond we saw driving in. After all of us getting skunked, we tracked Sal down who said he caught about 15 natives below the beaver dam. We think the water was warmer running out of the dam, making the fish active for a couple of stretches below the dam. Wsender and I decided to hang around a bit and fish below the dam. Bad timing, as the sun was going down, but Wsender got himself a native, and I missed a few rises.

Pulling in back at camp, the real excitement started as I saw Skybay's car sitting the camp parking lot! Now I KNEW things were about to get lively! We had a great time Friday night eating tons of red meat, drinking good beer, talkin' about God knows what. Wetfly and Coty came back to tell us about their epic day on Pine, and it was settled, we were heading to Pine on Saturday. After we sleep in and eat Bikerfish's amazing breakfast, of course.

And so it was, that we embarked on one of the greatest skunkings in fly fishing history. We drove down to Tiadaghton. The caddis were flyin, the Hendricksons were coming out, (see Csoult's blog), but NO fish were rising. It was the same story from every fisherman we talked to-no fish. Nothing on streamers, nothing on top, Csoult managed 2 high-sticking a run, but that was it.

Biker, Sal, Skybay and I had enough. We got in the Volvo and drove over to the Darling Run access where Coty and Wetfly were the day before. There was one guy in the access point they started at, and a few very splashy risers. Good enough for us. Biker and I both missed some serious hits. Sal hooked into a good one, but lost it before the fish was landed. Still, it was at least nice to see signs of life.

We reconvened at camp that evening and ate the most amazing burgers most of us had ever seen, thanks to Skybay. We sat around for hours talking and enjoying the evening. Sunday was an early morning, as I had to be back in Lancaster by 2pm. Everyone was up, got camp cleaned and shut down, and we were on the road by 8:15am.

If you're going to get a massive skunking, its good to know it ain't just you. We were all getting our tails kicked, and some of these guys are guys who don't just get skunked. It was what it was, but it was an amazing weekend regardless of the fishing. We saw some great waters and had great company. I know for myself, I now have a list of streams to fish when I'm up in June. I only wish the rest of the guys would be up there with me! Hosting this event has become one of the highlights of my year. There will definitely be a 3rd Annual Quill Gordon Summit. We found the Quill Gordons this year...maybe next year we'll find fish willing to eat them!
 
Heck yeah man! Sounds like a blast, who needs fish when you have grewt company! And man thats not that far from me, might have to vet in on this next year myself.
 
The_Sasquatch wrote:

And so it was, that we embarked on one of the greatest skunkings in fly fishing history. We drove down to Tiadaghton. The caddis were flyin, the Hendricksons were coming out, (see Csoult's blog), but NO fish were rising.

Understatement of the trip. That day had easily one of the best caddis hatches I have ever seen. The morning was had sporadic caddis activity, but from about 2 or 3 until we left there was just constant, thick, caddis activity. There were points that looking up into the sky that it looks like a thick blanket of snow. The whole time, there was zero fish activity. Very bizarre.
 
It was great meeting everyone & a big thanks to Andy for hosting the gathering!

The story behind Skybay's carpet fly...well I was laughing so hard I was crying!

Here's a photo of Potter County flyfishing at it's best!
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Hah!

Jared had us all in tears Friday night!
 
My buddy and I would have had the skunk had it not been for one hole on Kinzua this weekend. Seemed no fish were very active which was suprising given the temps on Saturday
 
That is the best way to fish that dumb glass rod. ;-)
 
I'll have you know, I used graphite on Saturday. Granted...it was 1st generation graphite that wiggled all the way down to the cork, but it was still graphite!

Biker was rollin w/ glass too. Style, man. It's all about style.
 
I am still amazed every mini jam I have intentions to make and something comes up, turns out to be a suckfest for fishing. DaveS will back me up on this. lol
 
Huh?
 

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SBecker wrote:
I am still amazed every mini jam I have intentions to make and something comes up, turns out to be a suckfest for fishing. DaveS will back me up on this. lol

Miles of hiking in the woods, amazing food, plenty of beer, awesome company, and a great place to kick up at the end of the night=not a suck fest!

Coty and Wetfly had an awesome day on Pine Friday. They themselves redeemed the "suckfest" as far as fishing goes.
 
JackM wrote:
Huh?

good one Jack!

I saw the forked stick sitting there and just couldn't help myself! wish I had some worms though, and a 6-pack of pabst.
 
The_Sasquatch wrote:
SBecker wrote:
I am still amazed every mini jam I have intentions to make and something comes up, turns out to be a suckfest for fishing. DaveS will back me up on this. lol

Miles of hiking in the woods, amazing food, plenty of beer, awesome company, and a great place to kick up at the end of the night=not a suck fest!

Coty and Wetfly had an awesome day on Pine Friday. They themselves redeemed the "suckfest" as far as fishing goes.

Purposely stated fishing because I know the surrounding events are worth while.
 
Yeah. Fortunately, Coty and Wetfly didn't have a suckfest w/ the fishing either. I'd feel a bit guilty otherwise haha!
 
how many did the guy sitting on the bank with his rod in a stick catch?

that is funny and a good story.

my buddy and i staged a very similar picture one slow day on the j, if i find it i will post it.
 
Sounds like a great weekend even though the fishing was tough. Lyman wasn't producing again huh. I can't believe you guys bought the story about csoult and Dave catching 80 fish while everyone else was off getting skunked. I didn't fall for it. I expect this kinda thing from csoult but not wetfly01 ;)

Seriously though, I wish I could've been there. Great report Andy.
 
Lyman produced for Sal! The stretch we fished this year was much better than the lower stretch we hit last year. We should have fished above where Lyman does all those splits. I've had some success where we fished last year, but the water we were at this year definitely looked better. I'll hit it in June and let you know! It's one of my favorite streams up there.
 
Sounds like I missed a great weekend. OK THAT won't happen again. And for the record, that fish catching stuff is WAY overrated. Drinking beer, bustin balls, and knocking down Skybay's cookin, THAT"S the stuff that you can't get anywhere else!
 
I was out in Tioga county this weekend and it was close to the same. Nothing on Cedar in spite of many bugs. Nothing on Little Slate in spite of bugs. Lots of natives on a smaller stream, but no browns and it has a good population in it. I thought the same thing about water temps being too low for the fish to be active on top.

I wish i had tried a stream in Potter that always produces on top this time of year to see how it fished, but we chose the Big Woods instead. As a side note, my buddy fished BFC on the way up Friday evening and did well, in about 2 hours he caught several fish including a few on a brown stimulator in the Narrows below the Lock Haven property.
 
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