Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2013/6/17 (163 reads)
In Episode 7 Hank Patterson Reel Adventures brings us another colorful and informative look at fly fishing gear. Learn everything you'll need to know about all the essential gear that a good fly fishing angler will want to have. Snap It!
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2013/6/3 (371 reads)
The 2013 Paflyfish Jamboree and Meetup was marked by some of the best weather and hatches we have had in years. The crew that made it up starting mid-week took advantage of the great conditions hitting many of the central Pennsylvania streams like Penns Creek, Spring Creek and the Little Juanita (Little J).
The good dry fly fishing conditions dominated the weekend with pretty typical mid-May hatches. The colder weather that lasted into March and April did push the hatches back in general. Sporadic March Browns and sulfurs were the common mayflies every day. The evening crush hit just after 8:00 pm with spinners, March Browns and sulfurs hitting hard with a quick evening flurry of activity the trout went nuts on. Everyone seemed to do pretty well, but you had to be quick to take advantage of the evening party.
Along with he good weather and fishing many PAFFers took advantage of catching up with friends from across the country.
I ended up starting out on Thursday at Penns Creek with Bikerfish, Wgmiller, Csoult. Fun evening with Csoult who crushed it with a big night and Wgmiller catching a chain pickerel. I headed back to Penns on Friday with Afish and Frederick for a repeat. Plenty of guys enjoying the weather most of the afternoon and evening waiting for the evening hatch. Saturday was a little overcast and headed over the Little J. Fishidiot, Maurice and I put an assault on the the Little J. Glad to catch up on the stream with so many guys.
Much of the non-fishing time was centered around the Seven Mountains Campground. As usual Friday evening was a good gathering of campers catching up from the evening fly fishing. Saturday morning was marked with some morning coffee before everyone went of for the day. Saturday night was our raffle and will be covered in our part 2 of the blog post. Phish_On organized the smorgasboard of food items, which was a big hit. I want to thank everyone for their participation and good food we all could enjoy.
The best part about the weekend for me was so many people who shared with me their appreciated of the site. Regular heard about people who were able learn about fly fishing and meet with new friends as a exult of the site. Want to thank all those guys who share with others and take out all the new anglers to the sport. My photography is the best way for me to share my view of the weekend and more my shots can be seen here on Facebook.
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2013/5/13 (3282 reads)
Over the past 18 years one of the best things to come out of the site are meetups and the annual Paflyfish Spring Jamboree. The Spring Jamboree is our annual get together to fish, camp, tie flies and discuss the one that got away. Over the years we have found an accommodating campground in Central Pennsylvania for us all to meet and camp for the weekend. I wouldn't even call it an exclusive Pennsylvania event with folks coming from Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida. Some photo's over the years are here.
We have a lot of fun fishing over some of Pennsylvania's finest streams. If the Green Drakes often hatching and many head over to Penns Creek. Other streams the Little J, Spruce, Fishing and Spring Creek all offer some of the best in class fishing in the region. In some years it has rained, well every year, and there are many alternatives to the bigger named streams as well.
This year is no exception and members on the forum are making plans to meet the weekend of May 17-19, 2013 at Seven Mountains Campground in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania. Please contact them if you would like to stay there that weekend. They have a limited number of cabins and campsites.
We are working on more details but often we will have guest speakers, casting lessons, fly tying lessons, gear swaps and cool gear to check out.
Friday, May 17th Jam attendees often start arriving throughout the day if they haven't arrived earlier in the week. We don't have use of the pavilion until 3:00 PM on Friday. Stop by after 3:00PM to help or meet others trying to get back out on the water.
Saturday, May 18th Coffee 6-9am available at the pavilion
Fire Ring at the pavilion around dark with Live Entertainment! - The PAFF Band gets going about 10:00 pm out some great tunes for all to enjoy. Hoping that Shaky and the rest of the band can get back together for more tour! If you'd like to join the band or just put in a solo performance, just bring your instrument and/or voice and let 'er rip. Quiet hours may be a factor. If we get all the sites booked for Seven Mountains, perhaps they'll extend them for us.
Sunday, May 19th Coffee 6-9am available at the pavilion.
Streams like Penns Creek, Spring Creek, Spruce Creek, Little Juanita and Fishing Creek are all within an hour of the campground.
In addition to the expected fly fishing opportunities authors, fly shop owners, and other experts are usually in attendance and provide a lot of great knowledge at the evening gathers. Follow the latest details in the forum here.
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2013/5/7 (1050 reads)
So you probably have already heard about the onslaught of cicadas coming our way on the nightly news and just about every other media source. Cicada's are just weeks away from inundating much of the east coast and more annoying news coverage to follow. Mainstream media will pull out the playbook and ultimately take it to a stupid level like encouraging some Honey Boo Boo wannabes into eating some of these Cicadoidea [latin]. By the end of the coverage, some clever reporter will talk about cicada soup or grilling them or better yet some dumb sauce to put on them.
Sorry I digress and back to trout eating cicada.
So will this be a big deal for fly fishing? For some of parts of the region it may be. It has been 17 years since the Brood II has emerged. Generally they will be covering North Carolina thru New York. But heavily in Eastern Pennsylvania* and New Jersey.
Generally, we will not see much activity until the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees. Most records seem to indicate that this late May to early June.
"Thermal soil temperature is one of the things that trigger their emergence, along with a gentle to moderate rainfall," Greg Hoover, Senior Extension Associate Ornamental Entomologist at The Pennsylvania State University, said.
These insects emerge, mate and die all within about two to three weeks. They have no mouths and do real no damage during this final stage. Remembering former cicada brood fests, it is really just a big pain in the ass having millions of these bugs all over the place. They get into your house, car and just about anything you leave open.
For fly fishing anglers what does this mean? Well these things are insects high in protein and will likely fall in the water. No fear trout and other fish will be eating them.
Will cicadas be the only thing in their diet, probably not. Being prepared with a few tied up cicadas is probably a pretty good idea. As Tom (Afishnado) posted, "I'd have to say the cicada hatch in Central PA a few years ago was one of the best kept secrets of all time." So no doubt this year cicada fly fishing for trout, carp and bass will be important.
Like any fish food it will always be shape, size and coloring that will be important for imitations. This things are pretty darn big at about 1 1/2 inches long. Dwight Landis (Troutbert) suggests starting with size 6 hook. Generally they are black bodied with orange accents in this Brood II. Deer hair ties similar to what you might use for bass flies are good. But as Ed Maurer (Heritage Angler) offers, "All my cicada patterns are now made with a foam body. Foam is your friend - embrace it." There is a lot of conversation on options, but I would go with Dave Weaver's (Fishidiot) tie he shares here. But it is anyone's bet!
I would be targeting bigger trout later in the day. Kind of normal trout feeding patterns. But this is a bit of crap shoot and older reports share tales of carp going crazy for these things too. If your next question is how do you cast and present this beast? Well firstly don't slam the darn thing into the pool you want to target. These things are pretty big and if done improperly you will likely scare out all the fish, herons and beavers for a 1/4 of mile, so go easy cowboy and have fun.
This is going to be interesting in a few weeks and love to hear if it is a bust or a boom?
Published by Dave Kile [dkile] on 2013/5/4 (603 reads)
Well I just received an email from Shane on the latest from the Harman Invitational. Phil ended the day on Friday having caught the biggest trout of the day. This put them into a good spot to start the day on Saturday. The day ended with Shane sharing the following line: "We brought it home!"
Here is Shane and Phil during their interview with Curtis Fleming from the Outdoor Channel
Congratulation to Shane "SBecker" Becker and Phil "PhilC" Chadbourn for their efforts this weekend and representing Paflyfish. More details when the guys get back home and to some cell coverage!!
The good dry fly fishing conditions dominated the weekend with pretty typical mid-May hatches. The colder weather that lasted into March and April did push the hatches back in general. Sporadic March Browns and sulfurs were the common mayflies every day. The evening crush hit just after 8:00 pm with spinners, March Browns and sulfurs hitting hard with a quick evening flurry of activity the trout went nuts on. Everyone seemed to do pretty well, but you had to be quick to take advantage of the evening party.
Much of the non-fishing time was centered around the Seven Mountains Campground. As usual Friday evening was a good gathering of campers catching up from the evening fly fishing. Saturday morning was marked with some morning coffee before everyone went of for the day. Saturday night was our raffle and will be covered in our part 2 of the blog post. Phish_On organized the smorgasboard of food items, which was a big hit. I want to thank everyone for their participation and good food we all could enjoy.
So will this be a big deal for fly fishing? For some of parts of the region it may be. It has been 17 years since the Brood II has emerged. Generally they will be covering North Carolina thru New York. But heavily in Eastern Pennsylvania* and New Jersey. 
Like any fish food it will always be shape, size and coloring that will be important for imitations. This things are pretty darn big at about 1 1/2 inches long. Dwight Landis (Troutbert) suggests starting with size 6 hook. Generally they are black bodied with orange accents in this Brood II. Deer hair ties similar to what you might use for bass flies are good. But as Ed Maurer (Heritage Angler) offers, "All my cicada patterns are now made with a foam body. Foam is your friend - embrace it." There is a lot of conversation on options, but I would go with Dave Weaver's (Fishidiot) tie he shares ![Click to see original Image in a new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.paflyfish.com/uploads/img5185bc3537a40.jpg");)
![Click to see original Image in a new window](javascript:CaricaFoto("http://www.paflyfish.com/uploads/img5185bc1c54a83.jpg");)
Montana Fly Fishing
