Archive for October, 2009

Guided 3 anglers from central PA today and despite snow overnight, rain, and cold temps everyone hooked fish through out the day. Water came up just enough to help the fishing and went from clear to cloudy. Only 1 fish early on a Flatfish lure with another lost, and a couple strikes on jigs. With fish not chasing we switched to float rigs with single eggs and nymphs and this brought fish in for a few hours. When the water clouded up we switched to floating skein and this was a great move. Many nice fish were pulled in the last few hours of the day including a 10 lb male. Many fish were lost so hookups came seemingly every drift. Very good day despite the conditions. Instead of leaving inactive fish we switched presentations and this kept everyone hooking up on fish until the day was over. Some long fights and beautiful fish were brought to the net. One of the coldest October days I have fished or guided on. Too many pictures to post them all but here are some of the nicest fish of the day.

Did some fishing for myself in the morning. Most creeks very low and clear and rain is needed. Good numbers of fish are in the middle sections of the major streams and the smaller creeks have ok to good numbers of fish. Fish landed on jigs and Flatfish lures. With the low and clear water, and many guys throwing a lot of junk at them, the fish will respond to jigs and Flatfish that trigger bites out of aggression and instinct. Otherwise you better be drifting the tiniest of flies like nymphs and very small egg flies, or single eggs. A good amount of hookups despite the conditions but we need this system coming through to dump a good bit of rain to keep things going.

As stated unless you find good drifts and are really fine tuning the smallest of presentations, triggering bites by using the right jigs and Flatfish lures will get you into fish.

Doug from Indiana was able to fight past the extremely windy conditions and hook fish most of the day on smaller Flatfish lures. With the wind making it very difficult to float fish properly and get a good drift, and making even jigging near impossible we threw these lures with the appropriate weighting to keep the down and be able to cast them into the wind. Once we found good packs of fish the bite continued through the day. The wind may have actually helped the bite due to the low and clear conditions. I can’t say what the day would have been like without these lures. Other types of fishing became fruitless. Lots of hookups with some nice fish landed and some long and brutal fights won by some big fish.

Most fish were silver and fresh from the lake and provided some tense moments when larger fish were were charging to undercut banks during the fight. The Indiana angler was able to catch his first legal Steelhead and more. This trip was a complete success despite the conditions and goes to show how having a complete arsenal of techniques and presentations can still get you into fish regardless of conditions.