raftman
Active member
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2012
- Messages
- 938
Last night I was looking back on some fish photos and decided to put together a little fish seasonal review of the year. This was a pretty interesting year of fishing for me. I ended up exploring a ton of new water, which was and will continue to be my goal going forward. I'm much more interested in exploring new ravines than catching the same fish over and over again. The only downside to this year was the lack of bass on the Susquehanna River. It was pretty terrible on the section that I usually fish. Here's hoping that changes this year... Also, big shoutout to Hopback for exploring some of these waters with me. Good dude to fish with.
Winter
I've always loved fishing in the winter. It may be harder to catch anything, but there are far fewer people and with all the undergrowth dormant, you can really see the riverine landscape you're exploring. I started the year with a pretty beautiful brown trout and then began to fall in love with exploring post-industrial watersheds.
Spring
I took advantage of the high water we had throughout the spring and fished streamers for large brown trout and continued exploring those post-industrial streams we have throughout the state. I also landed what was probably my personal best wild brown trout while casting a black woolly bugger upstream and stripping it down through a riffle into a deep hole under a tree.
The Summer
Summer was fun. I started it off up in Potter County and ended up finding some beautiful brook trout elders in small streams. Then, we took a few days in the Catskills before I ventured up to the West Branch of the Penobscot in Maine for a week of fishing. Maine was, as always, beautiful and inspiring. But this time the fishing was tough due to their long, wet spring and the black flies were mind-bogglingly torturous. Finally, I ended the summer with a ten day trip out to Yellowstone and the Bighorns with a good friend I hadn't seen in years. I ended up camping 4.5 out of the 10 weeks I had off.
Fall
After my summer of traveling and camping, I slowed down quite a bit in the fall. I went back to work and fell into that routine. I didn't catch a ton of fish, but I did manage to land a few really nice ones. I was really hoping to finally get into some bass on the Susquehanna River, but the river never really seemed to wake up. I did manage to get into two of the most beautiful trout I've ever landed.
Winter
I've always loved fishing in the winter. It may be harder to catch anything, but there are far fewer people and with all the undergrowth dormant, you can really see the riverine landscape you're exploring. I started the year with a pretty beautiful brown trout and then began to fall in love with exploring post-industrial watersheds.
Spring
I took advantage of the high water we had throughout the spring and fished streamers for large brown trout and continued exploring those post-industrial streams we have throughout the state. I also landed what was probably my personal best wild brown trout while casting a black woolly bugger upstream and stripping it down through a riffle into a deep hole under a tree.
The Summer
Summer was fun. I started it off up in Potter County and ended up finding some beautiful brook trout elders in small streams. Then, we took a few days in the Catskills before I ventured up to the West Branch of the Penobscot in Maine for a week of fishing. Maine was, as always, beautiful and inspiring. But this time the fishing was tough due to their long, wet spring and the black flies were mind-bogglingly torturous. Finally, I ended the summer with a ten day trip out to Yellowstone and the Bighorns with a good friend I hadn't seen in years. I ended up camping 4.5 out of the 10 weeks I had off.
Fall
After my summer of traveling and camping, I slowed down quite a bit in the fall. I went back to work and fell into that routine. I didn't catch a ton of fish, but I did manage to land a few really nice ones. I was really hoping to finally get into some bass on the Susquehanna River, but the river never really seemed to wake up. I did manage to get into two of the most beautiful trout I've ever landed.
