The Fly Fishing Show in Philadelphia was held the the weekend of March 5 & 6, 2011. This is the first time the show was held at the Valley Forge Convention Center and sounds like it will be part of the schedule for next year as well.

Being that is was the first year there was a little smaller with the number of vendors, booths and presenters. Chuck Furimsky, Fly Fishing Show Director, made sure there was plenty of the star power and regulars to make it a very good first year and plenty to go around for all. Joe Humphreys, Bob Clouser, Eric Stroup, Mike Heck, Bob Mead, John Collins, Shawn Davis, Anthony Giaquinto, Scott Cesari, Dave Brandt and Don Bastian to name a few

A lot of booths included TCO Fly Shops, Simms, The Evening Hatch Shop, Valley Forge TU, Main Line Fly-Tyers, Project Healing Waters, AA Outfitters Fly Shop and plenty more.

What I liked most about the show was just how well attended it was by Paflyfish members. I was into the show for than a few minutes and found Heritage Angler and LRSABecker eyeing up the hall looking for some deals. I'll let the video tell the story. More pictures are posted on the Facebook Fanpage : http://www.facebook.com/paflyfish

Nice show and looking forward to getting back to Philly next year as I am sure this will really grow!

For those not aware of this legislation, the PA House of Representatives has passed a severance tax on the Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction. The importance of this tax is to build a fund to help protect the environment form past, current and future impacts of this activity. Currently the PA Senate has just two days to pass this legislation or it will die and the areas of the state impacted by Marcellus Shale will be unprotected.

It is easy to help pass the tax, just click the link below and fill in the form, the text of your email is provided and you can edit it to your specifics if you wish. It only takes a few minutes.

The Penn Future direct link to email your Pennsylvania State Senators.

Although the Marcellus Shale gas extraction may not directly affect your home watershed, it does affect many of our treasured trout streams and forested areas upstate and to the west. This is an important piece of legislation to protect our states natural resources. Every other state that has MSGE has levied an extraction tax except Pennsylvania and the senate is stalled wishing not to pass it. They need to hear from every constituent.

Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited is encouraging the passage of this legislation with an appropriation of 2%-4% going to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Among other conservation agencies. It may be helpful to include this in your text.

Thank you for helping to keep Pennsylvania's natural resources protected.

Valley Forge National Historical Park got pounded by the rains of last Thursday and Friday. 9.5 inches of rain in a 24 hour period wreaked havoc on the riparian buffer fences. Most of them are down. Some can be pulled up again but many will need new posts. The Park is calling for volunteers for this week. If you can volunteer time during the week, that would be great. If not we will hold a workday in conjunction with the Park this Saturday, October 9, 2010 – meeting at the Wilson Road iron bridge at 8:30 AM and working until 1:00PM (or whatever part of the day you can spare). Many of you have worked on the deer fences before either installing them or restoring them after past hurricanes. We have an ownership in these riparian areas and they need their protection. Please give us a hand on Saturday.

Thank you in advance,
Pete Goodman
President
Valley Forge Chapter of Trout Unlimited
http://www.valleyforgetu.org/

The Muddy Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited like so many TU chapters in Pennsylvania does an amazing amount of work with conservation efforts for it's watershed. I am a big fan of these guys and the effort they make to keep up with projects in all aspects of the watershed.

The public is invited to attend an Open House on Saturday, September 25 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Come out to see the recent renovations to the Chapter’s Co-operative nursery grounds where they raise 8,000 trout that are stocked for the public in the Muddy Creek Watershed.

Activites will include:
Trout and Native Plant Nursery tours
Aquatic life exhibits
Trout egg incubator exhibit
Fly tying demonstrations
Fly casting demonstrations
Stream improvement project tours.

Food will be available for purchase including hamburgers, hot dogs, brauts and soft drinks. Chapter merchandise will also be available for purchase with a fly fishing rod raffle leading the fundraising effortin addition to bucket raffles for an Orvis Battinkill Bar Stock II 4/5/6 reel, Orvis Chest Pack, Framed shadowbox of flys and an assortment of 64 flys. We will also have fly tying materials for sale at bargain prices along with our fishing caps and collectible patches.

Directions to the nursery grounds are: Rt.74 to Brogue, turn at the Brogue Post Office onto Muddy Creek Forks Road, continue 2 miles to Left on Sechrist Rd, Follow Sechrist past Allegro winery to stop sign. Nursery grounds will be directly across.

Visit the MCTU website at www.muddycreektu.org

Are you concerned about about the environmental impacts Marcellus Shale drilling is having on Pennsylvania's aquatic resources?

Join Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director John Arway on Monday, August 23 where he will appear on the live radio call-in program Radio Smart Talk from 9 - 10 a.m.

The program will air on Harrisburg’s WITF 89.5 FM and may also be viewed and heard statewide at www.witf.org/news/smart-talk. Listeners may submit questions via e-mail at smarttalk@witf.org or telephone at 800-729-7532.

The creativity and talent of the members on the Paflyfish site always blows me away. Our own Skybay has created a wonderful visual representation of the Paflyfish 2010 Jamboree.

Many great scenes from the weekend of fishing, Penns Creek, Coburn area and our evenings. Skybay really worked hard as you can see from all the different scenes and time spent editing this together.

You must watch both parts to really capture the weekend and Skybay's talents.

2010 PaFlyFish Jamboree
May 21-23, 2010

Part I
Friday

2010 PaFlyFish Jamboree

Part II
Saturday and Sunday

Skybay thank you for your fantastic videos of the weekend.

One of my favorite fly-fishing books is back in print after several years. Trout Streams of Pennsylvania: An Angler's Guide, 3rd edition by Dwight Landis is must have book for anyone who spends any time fly-fishing in Pennsylvania. .

Landis provides an amazing amount of detail covering the most important streams across the state. Inspired by the streams and their surrounding landscapes, he wrote this 1st edition of this Pennsylvania fly-fishing guidebook in 1991 at a time when there were very few books of it's type.

His book was one of the inspirations for Paflyfish.com and I personally pack his book with me as I trek out on my fly-fishing jaunts.

The reprinted 3rd edition (no changes) can be found at many local fly shops and online Trout Streams of Pennsylvania: An Angler's Guide, Third Edition.

An interview with Dwight on Paflyfish can be found here.

The first week of June is one of my favorite weeks for fly-fishing. Warm weather and lots of good bugs make for fun days and better evenings. I especially enjoy of the late spinner falls that occur on some of the larger streams. My trips to Northcentral Pennsylvania have provided the best luck with some of these late evening spinner falls from what seems to be brown drake spinners. Being that these big spinners don't show up until about 9:00 they are not the easiest to identify.

This all started about 20 years ago with my friends Ron and Greg trying to outdo each other on these early June evenings up in Potter County. Naturally as the sun would start to set we would tie on our normal #16 rusty spinners and enjoy a casual evening of landing of few more fish that added to our counts for the day. We then would fall into the Wharton for a cold one and a replay of our great heroics.

After some period of cold beverages and tall stories of big fish we found ourselves discussing our limitless opportunity for fish the next day. The smell of over confidence was only outdone by the stink of our cigars.

These knuckleheads may have taught me how to fly-fish, but at 11:30 at night at the Wharton I was sure I could even out fish Lefty Kreh with one hand tied behind my back. We left that evening with a new challenge for the next days fishing derby. If I wanted to make sure Frick and Frack were going to be buying the cold ones the next night I was going to have to get up early and show them how to get it done.

The early morning plans got superseded by a very important resting and planning session until about 10:00 am. Well it was a marathon not a sprint right? The good news was those two seemed like they were planning as well from the sound of sawing wood rattling through the camp. I quickly dashed down to the stream and geared up for the battle of Fort First Fork.

Greg must have heard me leave...

The Paflyfish Jamboree 2010 was another terrific gathering of over 75 anglers with flyswaps, guest speakers, live music and the fishing the Green Drakes on Penns Creek. Not only the expected Pennsylvanians, but members from Ohio and Maryland made it up for the weekend. A wonderful time for many to to fish and reconnect with friends.

Kudos to GulfGreyhound who made the longest trip of the weekend traveling up from Florida.

Penns Creek provided it's usual wonderment and quandary for any angler. The evening fireworks on the creek seemed to start after 8:00 with several varieties of sulphurs, caddis and the Green Drakes taking center stage. Several different Green Drake hatches occurred during the days and evenings depending where you were at on Penns over the weekend. The size and number of these mayflies is always astonishing as the hatches exploded across the water. The creek and side roads were busy with people from all over the country checking out the late May spectacle.

Taking advantage of the great regional waters many folks took side trips to Spring Creek, Little Juniata, Fishing Creek and variety of local wild trout streams. General nymphing was popular during the day and sulphur hatches hit the streams with great predicability in the evening.

Friday night Jonas from the Feathered Hook Fly Shop spoke to the members about local fishing and hatches for the weekend. The next morning PaulG helped get the coffee going for the crew before everyone took off the day.

The weather turned on Saturday afternoon with rain slowing building into the evening. Everyone returned from the streams on that night to start off the evening with entertainment from Shaky and his band.

Dave Wolf author of a Flyfisher's Guide to Pennsylvania joined the crew for the evening. Dave provided an delightful and entertaining conversation about flyfishing...

Wild Trout Streams are a secret treasure for many fly fisherman in Pennsylvania. Many anglers hold a certain reverence for the quiet and often secluded opportunity they provide. With over 500 wild trout streams and well over 1,000 miles of water these hidden gems are a different kind of stream for fly-fishing. Some of these streams are unnamed or are tributaries of lesser waters. Rarely mentioned by name or found on many maps, this intimate experience also comes with greater stewardship and responsibility for those that take on these waters.

The fly fishing experience in these backwoods areas are often regarded as one of self reliance and stealth. These small streams can provide a surprising opportunity to explore and uncover trout in a more wilderness environment. Much of the experience is not only finding these streams, but then learning the secrets of what makes these wild trout so illusive.

The Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) defines Class A Wild Trout Streams as: "Streams that support a population of naturally produced trout of sufficient size and abundance to support a long‐term and rewarding sport fishery." The PFBC’s manages these stream sections for the the growth of the wild trout fishery with natural reproduction and no stocking. These streams can hold brook trout, brown trout or both species.

The PFBC is considering changes to its list of Class A Wild Trout Streams. At the next Commission meeting on April 19 and 20, 2010, the Commission will consider changes to its list of wild trout streams. Specifically, the Commission will consider the addition of over 80 new streams or changes to current watts of streams to the list.

So if you want to get a little wild try something new, it may be in your backyard.

Recently I starting working with my son on how to fly-fish. He was a little apprehensive about going out with me our first time. I was pleased to learn that his concern was not because of my wonderful "bark and nag" approach to learning, but rather he was a little intimidated with the thought of have to cast a dry fly right away.

Since we were going out in March I explained that we were going to be using a lot of weighted wooly buggers that first day. We talked about how a roll cast was type of casting we were going to focus on his first day and not anything more complicated like an forward cast. Once understood he was put at ease and really did a good job just working on the roll cast his first day out.

The roll cast is pretty easy and frequently used casting method for subsurface weighted flies and streamers. It is also very good when there is very little room to back cast. The video explains the basic roll cast.


Getting line to carry a traditional dry fly involves the the forward cast. The basics for fly fishing the forward cast involves good timing as you stroke and halt your cast until it is released. In principle energy is built up into the rod and transferred to the line as it moves back and forth. Your fly at the end of your line is just a tourist as the line gets tossed out onto the water. Another video shows good form and practice for the forward cast.


I really encourage that you take some time and practice this out of the water first. Watch the videos so you can visualize the proper method for success in doing this first. Find a nice open field with little wind and give it a go for 30 minutes.