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January & February
As winter comes to an end and the fly fishing shows are winding down, it's time to start getting ready for the 2024 fishing season. Just a little recap of what we were doing in December, January and February. The month of December stayed pretty mild, and we were able to fish right up to Christmas Eve. The streamer fishing was great the whole month and some nice browns came to the net. In January and February, we spent the month tying flies and getting ready for the fly fishing shows. I attended four of the biggest shows which were well attended by anglers from all over.
With February coming to an end now we'll be getting our boats ready for on the lake and the river to chase bass and some toothy critters. Rods and reels are coming out of their cases and being assembled. The first sign of a decent day in March we'll be heading to the lake. Guide trip dates for trout in April, May and June are filling up pretty quickly. If you're thinking about doing a wet fly guide trip or an early streamer trip right now is the time to book.
March
As March comes to a close so does all of the fly fishing shows for the year. I attended four different shows and all were well attended by anglers from all over. We'll be looking forward to all of the shows again next year.
March has always been a busy month with getting ready to start guiding for the trout season. It's surprising how much prep work goes into getting ready to start the guiding season. This year I started pretty early and I've been ready for a couple of weeks now. From looking at my calendar April, May and June are going to be pretty busy and I am anxious to get started. Again this year I'll be running smallmouth and largemouth trips on the Juniata River and a few lakes during the summer months. If you're interested in experiencing something a little different then trout give me a call and I'll set you up. With a warmwater guide trip.
April May June
WOW, April,May and June has come and gone so quickly and the blog,well I just couldn't keep up with the up dates. It definitely was a busy three months for guide trips. Having retired from my maintenance hospital job April 1st and starting guiding trout guide trips April 2nd I hit the ground running guide trips from Central Pennsylvania to Northern Pennsylvania non stop. With the water being blown out in the central part of the state early on most of the guide trips were moved up to the northern streams in the state.
The streams up north had good flows and were running somewhat pretty clear. All of them fished very well and the anglers that I was guiding all were pretty successful. Meanwhile in the central part of the state things were starting to settle down. Those streams were starting to drop to almost normal levels and starting to clear up. Finally in mid May we were able to guide those streams and they fished well.
With the high water early on most of those early hatches were just not fishable. The grannoms and the sulphurs took a beating from that high water. It also seemed the tan caddis also suffered a little from those high flows. But we made the best of it the first half of the season and all of our anglers were pretty happy.
As we head into July it'll be smallmouths and largemouths on the lakes and Juniata River. We'll be chasing these guys throughout the summer months and hopefully putting some decent ones in the boats. We'll also be targeting some smallmouths on the bigger streams in northern PA out of the boat and walk and wade. We'll start trout fishing again in late September.
July
This is the month where we hang up our trout gear for a few months and totally concentrating on some of our warm water species. Lakes and rivers will be targeted in western and north central PA. We'll be on the lakes with our Salt Marsh skiff and the rivers with the StealthCraft raft and also doing some walk and wading on some of the smaller rivers in north central PA. All three methods have been very exciting to explore with bigger fly rods and bigger flies.
Well, on July 10th I headed out of the country to fulfill another bucket list trip to Saskatchewan, Canada and o boy what a trip it was. This trip was organized by my boss Rick Nyles of Sky Blue Outfitters and also along were four other anglers in our party. For me the trip started out leaving Pittsburgh flying to Toronto then to Saskatoon then to Stoney Rapids where we loaded up on a float plane and flew to Milton Lake Lodge. Arriving at the lodge we were greeted by the staff and guides. At this point we headed to our rooms and got our gear ready for the evening fish. Days fishing were laid out like this breakfast go fish lunch go fish supper and back out fishing. What a way to spend a week. The weather at the lodge was pretty decent all week with a little light rain for two days. The pike did not seem to care what the weather was like. They just wanted to eat everything that hit the water. The subsurface action was on every day and my fly of choice were big Murdich Minnows and the top water action was big double barrel poppers. All in all the trip was great from the guides, the meals to the company of anglers I was with to the awesome fishing. Another great bucket list trip fulfilled in my book. As far as the flights to and from, well that's a whole different story in itself.
As the end of July approached my good friend George and I spent a few days in north central PA chasing some river smallmouths. The weather was absolutely brutally smokin hot, temperatures hitting the high eighties to mid nineties. But that didn't stop us from the chase. We fished three different rivers in two and half days and all gave up quite a few smallmouths. George and I have fished together for years and we were never ones for counting how many fish we have landed during any of our outings. But just for shits and giggles on this trip we decided to count the smallmouths we landed and the fish count to hand was 168 smallies to hand. What a great couple of days,definitely a trip to remember.
August
During the month of August we still found ourself chasing smallmouths and largemouths out of the boats and wading. The fishing was still pretty decent but slowing down. We knew it was getting close to the end for bass and we were telling ourselves that the streamer game for trout was approaching. The month was really crazy with water flows going from low conditions to flood stage conditions and back down to warm temps and low flows. But as we move into September water temperatures will start to cool down and trout will start to chase a big meal and of course they'll still be eating wet flies. The end of August through September we'll start seeing slate drakes which means fall is just right around the corner.
September & October
September is the month we'll be cleaning up the boats and putting our bass gear away until next summer. It wasn't a bad summer to be on the bass waters. We know there is still some good bass fishing yet, but the trout fishing is calling. So it's time to get ready for the fall trout season. As we moved into the last two weeks of September the water temps were starting to cool down and streamers and wets were starting to work pretty well.
October really started to get the trout going. The flows were up a little and the month was starting to look real good for the streamer bite. But as luck would have it, the flows started to drop and no rain was being predicted for a while. As we're coming into the last week and a few days of October flows are really down and the streamers are not moving fish in the low clear water, but the wets are still taking fish. Hopefully the trout will see a little rain to get the spawning activity going.
The highlight of October for me personality was being asked to do a presentation for some of the members of the Anglers Club of New York at their clubhouse in the Pocono mountains. Club member Mark Chehi organized the event and what a great job he did and o yea he was also a great cook too. The event lasted four days and that included fishing on some of the area's hallowed waters. This was definitely a bucket list trip for me. I've always considered this area the birthplace of Pennsylvania wet fly fishing. The two gentlemen that really made a major contribution to fishing wets here in Pennsylvania were Jim Leisenring and Pete Hidy, my idols in the wet fly method. Definitely two great wetfly anglers that got me started. Again a big thanks to Mark Chehi and to all the members that participated in the event. Also a special thanks to Don Baylor, area resident, historian of angling on the Brodheads and also an excellent painter. It was a pleasure finally getting to sit down with Don and talk trout fishing. Thank you again for having me come and do a presentation it was a memorable event for me that I will remember forever.
November
The month of November has absolutely been the worst for water flows. On the Little J the flows have been the worst I've ever seen. On November 13th we finally got some rain and brought the J up to a fishable level. And that got the streamer bite going for one day, then the water dropped very quickly down to low levels again. After the rain we got on the J when the river crested and we knew it was going to be really good streamer fishing. Between the two of us we land between 30 to 35 fish on streamers. Not sure when we'll see a good flow again, but we'll be watching the weather very closely. On another note we did not see a single redd yet. Thinking we'll see them towards the end of the month.
The end of November has come and gone and the end of the month did not disappoint. Finally we got some snow and rain which brought the flows up and clouded up the water. As luck would have it I was bear hunting with my son in Potter Co for four days and it was a great few days in the big woods. No bear was brought home but it was time well spent with my son. Meanwhile my buddy George was turning out some new articulating streamers and putting them to the test.
About four years ago George and I jumped on the streamer fishing bandwagon dreaming of landing that one Pennsylvania giant. Well, on Thanksgiving Day George got him 26 1/2 inches. Sadly to say I wasn't there to share the experience and take the photo. We're still trying to figure out where this fish came from, because this stream is not stocked. But in any case it was a good fish and one to remember for a lifetime. Congrats Buddy............
