Santa was good to us.

Headed north to MA for the holidays, packed my gear in hopes to sneak out for a day or two at one of my old stomping grounds. They had a few good storms up here early this fall which created some very high water the past month in the western part of the state. Headed out in hopes the rumors we heard about salmon
holding in the river were true... High water and crazy wind but we managed to have a really great day.

Pretty December Hooch Brown

Muskegon River with Jay Allen

I Had a chance to head up north to the Muskegon River in Newaygo Michigan to chase some Steel with guide Jay Allen from Riverquest Outfitters. Jay got us on some great fish dredging the deep runs with egg patterns and Marabous. These fish were just finishing up gourging on salmon eggs on the backsides of the redds and were screamers! Numerous jumps and runs, every fish was a different surprise. Thinking about moving to Michigan after that trip!

Jay Allen is one of the best up there and if your looking for a fishy guide look him up! 307-690-2962 or e-mail jay@theallenbrothers.com and check out his blog for all the latest river reports! http://fly-fishingmichigan.blogspot.com/

North GA Piglets

Johnny B came down for a savage like weekend of fishing. Numbers and size of fish were good. We fished around thirty six hours in four days. A few power bars and Atomic fire balls to get us through the day. We hit the Hooch Delayed harvest at Paces and Whitewater, where eggs and brightly colored czech nymphs did the trick on the fresh fish, we picked up a few decent hold over rainbows and browns which fell for some deeply placed czech nymphs. We hit another delayed harvest up north where the water was crystal clear and 7x and zebras were the only ticket to fool wary trout that were getting hammered by spin guys.
The fishing is getting good and with most of the locals heading to the delayed harvest areas it is a great time to head to the mountain streams for a good ol Georgia Slam!

Quote of the day:

“Next to prayer, fishing is the most personal relationship of man.”
-Herbert Hoover

Got to my house after driving around 20 hours straight south to Georgia, threw my suitcase in the house and drove straight to the river. I knew I had four days of hard fishing before the moving truck, wife and kids arrived at the airport. I spent all four days staying close to home nymphing the deep water runs of the Chattahoochee at Buford Dam, Jones Bridge and Island Ford area which is a few minutes from my house. The temperature averaged around 100 those four days but the fishing was great. Most fish were content with holding tight to the bottom right on the edge of the current seams and preferred eating caddis larva or pheasants. Great start to my new adventure in the south...looking forward to hitting some smaller water in the North Georgia Mountains this fall.

Stay tuned....

Last time out in MA

Sorry for the late update...been busy for the past few months. Moved the family to Georgia for work and currently chasing wild brookies, browns, and Rainbows in the North Georgia Mountains. Also spending alot of time on the Chattahoochee River which is the major tailwater down here. A surprisingly good fishery being so close to the city of Atlanta.

Anyways had a chance to get to the Swift for one last go. Ended up with a dozen or so to hand including my last which I called it a day on shown here. Great last day in New England. I will update everyone on my southern adventure within the next few weeks.

On the Fly Custom Fly Shop

On the Fly Outfitters will be going live with our custom fly shop within the next two weeks.Stayed tuned for an introduction to On the Fly tier Johnny Basile. I'm pumped to have him joining the team. This guy ties some funky stuff that straight up catches fish! All flies tied on Fly Tiers Corner can be ordered by the dozen via email.

Took an old co-worker and his buddy on the Swift last Sunday and got into a few fish on midges. The numbers of fish in the usual spots were slim. We were able to take a few cruisers at the Y pool on zebra midges and Rob managed this nice bow up in the bubbler drifting a San Juan into his face a few times before finally getting him mad enough to take. Saw a few deer in the morning walking in and also a couple small black mink.

Cant wait to fish the Swift this spring.

Thanks again Rob and Dan...I had some great laughs, especially when Dan decided to go swimming! Look forward to fishing with you guys again soon!

Farmington River

I was able to get out last weekend on the Farmington. We ran into a nice mix of stone/caddis hatch in the late morning and caught a few fish on top on #20 stones before the river banks got a little too crowded for comfort. The fish were cruising in pods and very active. It was tough to leave all those fish cruising but we wanted to get away from the crowds, so after taking a few fish on top we then headed down stream and were able to nymph up a few good browns on Stones/czechs. We had a slight drizzle in the morning which gave way to sun for the rest of the day. Surprisingly enough we didn't run into the crowds I expected and had our choice of riffles/pools all day.

A great day in the water!

Allagash Wilderness Waterway

My brother in-laws took and I a 70 mile kayak trip into the Allagash in northwestern Maine. The trip was highlighted by many moose sightings, beautiful native brook trout and great camp sites. Maine does a great job at keeping these sites very clean and the waterway as rustic as it was back when Thoreau made his journey down the river.

we camped for 4 nights making our way through three mountain lakes full of trout. There were nine miles of rapids at the beggining of our trip called chase rapids which held some nice trout in the different pools and bends. Hitting basically anything we threw from buggers to czech nymphs the fishing was unreal. Everywhere pool we cast in seemed like it was holding trout. The flow of the mayfly hatch up the river everynight was sort of like watching a play. the fluid rythem of the mayflys could put you in a trance and I caught myself stairing one night for about an hour until the temp dropped and the performace stopped.