The Deerfield and the Deluge

This is my second year participating at the Deerfield River Spey and Fly Day which benefits the Reel Recovery program. The fiver hour drive is always interesting and for this event I bring the rest of the family along. The big excitement last year for the girls was the overnight in a tent. We agreed that this year we would try two nights, since last year wasn't too bad. Thursdays forecast for Friday wasn't looking tent friendly and by Friday morning the 70% chance of showers and 90% chance on Saturday was enough for me to pull the plug on tent camping. By some miracle, the campground (Country Aire) had two new cabins this year for rent. By a second miracle one of those was available for Friday and Saturday night. We booked them sight unseen, not something I usually like to do. All I can say is this....WOW! The cabin was like the Taj Mahal of cabins....forget roughing it, this was exactly what we needed. Around 1:00am Saturday morning the rain started and never ended until late Saturday night. The event went on regardless of the weather, because we flyfishers are cut from a different cloth....LOL I had a blast as always and really enjoy the network of people that show up both old and new. It was a pleasure to meet a few folks from www.speypages.com and fellow blogger Garry at http://theriverscourse.blogspot.com/ Walt Geryk did a great job as always and Scott Anderson was a tremendous help setting up and breaking down. Phil Krista assured us that his Scottish kilt would weigh 700 pounds with all the rain, and none of us wanted that burden for sure. Raffles and auctions went well netting some money for Reel Recovery. The fly wallet I created was well received and fetched a decent bid in the auction. Some truly great items and bargains were again to be had for those willing to tough it out. Kudos to all who helped and organized. Next year I'm going to fish! I felt the same way after we got home

Reel Recovery & Deerfield Spey Day Donation

I will be attending the Deerfield Spey Day next weekend and thought I would show my donation that will benefit Reel Recovery. Details here. http://www.neffguide.com/dfldspeyday.html

Cookie Cutters

I slipped away for a few hours on Sunday morning to fish Nine Mile Creek near Syracuse, New York. I was armed with my trusty 4/5wt Beulah switch rod and ready to try some new tubefly/streamer creations. I was lucky enough to hit the stream early with almost no one around. I threw the tubes for a bit, but after a few short strikes I decided that I was a bit over-gunned in the fly department. I made some changes and threw a wet fly with similar results, but eventually connected with a cookie cutter brown. As more people began to arrive, I headed down to some pocket water and returned to dipping bigger streamers in the fishy looking spots. Several fished lunged in territorial defense at the fly, but none connected with hook point. It's quite exciting to stand in rushing water and try to focus on where to deliver the fly and watch an unseen fish attack your offering. As I made my way through the pockets, I noticed a nice slower stretch below me. It wasn't long and I noticed a rise or two. I went back to the soft hackle and living for the swing. As soon as I reached the water, I connected with another brown trout. Before I knew it almost every other swing resulted in a short strike. It was tremendous fun, and how quickly I noticed the rushing pocket water noise was gone and I was in the sneak attack zone, stepping softly, calculating my casts, and taking in the world around me. This is what I came for...a few more fish came to hand, all cookie cutter brown trout but I was a happy camper.

You never know what you're going to encounter when climbing up a drain pipe:

Coal Car

Randall Kaufmann of Kaufmann’s Streamborn Fly Shops which sadly went out of business in 2011, created this darker version of his famous Freight Train pattern. Which he later called the Coal Car. It was created originally for the Deschutes River in Oregon. It is still one of the most popular patterns in the Pacific Northwest and has gained popularity recently in the Great Lakes Steelhead scene. Thus I was asked to tie a custom order through Malinda's Fly Shop. Here is the version I tyed. A special thanks to http://therockyriver.com/library/fly-catalog/steelhead-salmon for providing some of the background history on the fly.

Hook: Daiichi 2051 Size 3 Thread: Black 6/0 Tail: Black Schlappen Fibers Counter Rib: Medium Silver Oval Tinsel Rear 1/3: Orange Uni Yarn Mid 1/3: Red Uni Yarn Front 1/3 Black Ultra Chenille Throat: Black Schlappen Under Wing: Krystal Flash Wing: Black Squirrel Tail

Just A Few Pictures...

I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write lately, but I am working on a few things. In the mean time here are some pictures of some recent flies, mostly experiemntal Couple of soft hackles

Purple Spey

Dream Catcher...hopefully fish catcher for many

Popper Plug made from an ear plug and some clear cure goo

The End Of Another Steelhead Season

The pressure had gotten to me and I had to take a mental health day. The steelhead season on the Salmon River was coming to an end quickly. Malinda's Fly Shop was closing for the summer and I needed to stock up on supplies and say see you at Spey Nation in July 14 http://speynation.com/ . The beauty of taking a mental health day in the late spring, is the chance to fish those spots once crowded, and explore new nooks and crannies. The river had been running at summer low flows and visions of skating flies on the surface danced in my head, but to my surprise the flow was at a healthy 900 cfs. I had the pleasure of fishing the Compactor all alone, then moved to the Willows and watched as the caddis and black flies danced all around the water's surface. There was a brief tug, but nothing significant. I moved to the Upper Fly Zone and fished to no avail. I then wrapped up my 2011-2012 steelhead season in the Sportsman's pool watching fingerlings launch themselves after the bugs and managed to land a nice pepper speckled rainbow all of 8 inches. To the river I'll be back to challenge my soul again. Some Caddis Clinging to a Log

Still Playing

I havent been able to devote as much time to married wings as I would like, but here are a couple that I tried. I love the looks of guinnea fouwl, but finding matching pairs in my stash is virtually impossible. The other key thing I'm learning is having quality materials to work with can make the difference. The key factor with that being said is to know what to look for in quality materials. I hope to address this soon, since I'm still learning myself. The heads on these haven't been coated and look a bit rough...next time