Pocono Fall fly fishing - Nov 2011

Although I haven't posted much lately, I have been regularly fishing. I have been fishing small native streams the past 2 months. Devil's Hole has been the main stream I've been fishing along with some unnamed streams. At DH, I averaged 5 trout per 2 hour outing. The water temperature was 55 degrees in Oct but today DH was only 44 degrees. I didn't notice any insect activity while fishing DH the past 2 months but all trout were caught on dry flies. I used some rather ugly, size 16, flies that I didn't care if I lost in a high hanging tree. The quality didn't seem to matter nor did the presentation. The most important fact is that the trout don't see you first because the water is crystal clear. The size of trout weren't large but that is what you expect from a small native stream. Below is a pic of one of my catches today. I caught a couple others with even more color but my camera died after taking this pic. Outside air was in the high 30's but my fingers didn't stay cold once the fish started hitting!

Native Pocono Brook Trout - SEP 30 2011

I haven't done much trout fishing the past month due to recent traveling, family vacations, and the annoying high water we've been having. My core 3 Pocono streams have been running at much higher than normal levels since Hurricane Irene hammered us towards the end of August.


I did manage to do some trout fishing in the Black Hills of South Dakota on one of my recent vacations. I fished Castle Creek, near Deerfield Lake. August is prime time for hopper fishing Black Hills streams. The first fish I ever caught on a fly rod was in a Black Hills' stream with a regular hook and a live hopper I caught in the grass. Unfortunately, the eastern side of South Dakota, where I grew up, did not offer much for fly fishing so my fly rod pretty much lay untouched until my move to Pennsylvania. Fortunately for me, my few Black Hills’ hopper fishing experiences in my teenage years stayed with me and helped me look into fly fishing PA streams. I would describe Blacks Hills fly fishing as a mix between big western streams and rivers and small eastern streams. The Black Hills is a mountainous region with elevations up to 7,000 feet but it also has a lot of open prairies. I fished Castle Creek for a couple of hours and hooked into 2 Bows, both on hopper patterns. I "probably" would have landed one of the Bows but my line got caught around a sunken log and I ended up breaking the line. I missed a few other trout that rose to my fly. Castle Creek is very narrow (3-5 ft) with a lot of tall grass along its banks. I was unable to do much casting there other than flip upstream - drift - and then flip again.


Yesterday, I checked my trail camera for deer, bear, turkey's, etc.. Below are a couple of the pictures. No big bucks or bears caught on camera yet but I finally took the time to fish a stream that runs through the property I hunt. My father in law, who owns the property, told me 4-5 years ago that there were native brook trout on the stream but my obsession with fly fishing only started this year so I never bothered. I had seen some "fish" in the stream during previous surveys but I couldn't tell if they were trout or a "chub" like fish. The only rod I had in my trunk yesterday was a 9' 5 weight which is very large for this extremely wooded property. I think a small weight 7’ rod or maybe even a Tenkara rod would work great for this stream. I tied on a #18 royal wulf, snuck close to the stream, hid behind a tree, and started making a couple of casts. On my third cast, I saw a rise so I set the hook. Fish on! I had a smile on my face for at least the next 20 minutes. I didn’t take long to land the small brookie but for their size, they do fight well. As you can see, the colors on it are beautiful! I’m excited to fish this stream again. When the big streams are too high to fish, go find that little mountain stream and start exploring. Now that I know my father in law was right, I’ll be carrying both my bow and fly rod into the woods next time I go hunting.

Native Brook Trout Stream 

Brook Trout

Smaller Bear

2 more years and he'll be ready

Arctic Grayling - Alaska fly fishing on Delta Clearwater River

I just returned from my annual work/fishing trip to Alaska. I spent 3 days fly fishing the Delta Clearwater River outside of Delta Junction, AK.  This is a crystal clear, spring fed river in the Alaska Interior about 90 miles south of Fairbanks. The water temperaure is 34 degrees year round.  Silver Salmon make their run to the river at the beginning of October each year as the Delta is their spawning grounds.

The hatches were plentiful and consistent each day. The first set of sailboats started covering the water surface at around 2 pm and then the rises became consistent until dark. The 3-6 pm timeframe was the most exciting for me. The competition with naturals was strong but there were so many grayling. I took a charter boat up river one day with 2 co-workers. I caught fewer fish up river but the size of the catch was much larger. Each grayling up river measured at least 20 inches whereas I only caught one that close when I fished from shore the other 2 days. I don't know the fly species that hatched each day but they were size 16-18 with a light tan color. I used various dry flies such as a royal wulf, mosquito, adams, tan caddis, BWO, march brown, etc... Each of those flies caught fish with the royal wulf probably being the most successful. The last day I found a hand tied, no name fly, that looked identical to the naturals when I dead drifted it. It worked like a charm. I caught probably 8 grayling on the single fly before its condition became so deterioated that it was no longer usable.


All in all, I estimate that I landed 50-60 grayling from 11 inches to 22 inches. I missed atleast 3 times that many. I fished 3 days for a total of about 20 hours. The action was consistent and fun. Pound for pound, grayling are one of the best fighting fish out there and they take dry flies very well. I highly recommend this fish species to any fly angler that visits Alaska. Grayling can be found near most areas in Alaska.

Shore fishing location - Delta Clearwater River

Local Scenery

Fish On!

One of many Grayling

August 2011 - Trico's on Brodhead Creek

I fished before work on Friday, August 6th from 645-730 am. There were a good amount of trico's fluttering 5-10 feet above the water. I saw the first spinners fall at 711. There were a good amount of spinners drifting along the creek with ocassional trout rises. The spinners were size 20-22. I didn't have a trico fly pattern so I used my smallest BWO (20) and fished it. I had one miss in a little over an hour of fishing. I tied some trico's last night so I plan to go out tomorrow morning if the water clarity clears.

Plenty of trout still in Brodhead Creek - July 31 2011

I thought that the extreme heat we had the past couple of weeks may have killed off a lot of the local Brodhead trout. I had been fishing my trout waters and was only catching bass but last night showed me the trout are still alive and well. At 8:30 last night the trout went nuts! I saw white bellied trout performing acrobatic barrel rolls all around me in the shallows. Fish were jumping and rolling in water 1-2 feet deep. I don't know what they were eating but it didn't really matter because they were agressive. These trout were fat and nice sized. The activity I saw last night was hotter and faster than I've seen all year. It lasted until about 9 pm. I landed 3 trout and missed over a dozen more. I hooked into an additional 2 trout but they got off probably due to my aggressive retrieval. I landed the fish very fast and aggressively in order to have a successful catch and release. All trout took off well after being released. I used a high vizz parachute BWO and then a high vizz parachute light cahill, both size 16. The light cahill was much easier to see in the dim light. It didn't really matter what I presented because I even saw trout eat a duck feather floating. As long as the fly was drifting drag-free, they were hammering it. The insects that I saw were black/tan caddis, mosquitoes, stoneflies, moths, and small very small unknown to me type flies. All insects were small, 16 or smaller. I wasn't expecting much action last night but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess the trout were in survival mode the past few weeks. Hopefully this hot action will continue.

Dog Days of Summer on Pocono Creeks (July 2011)

I've been fishing 1-2 times per week for the past couple of weeks. The summer heat is extreme and it has to be taking a toll on the local trout. We've had record setting, 90 degrees plus, temperatures for a week. Last week I caught some nice Rainbows on a Royal Wulf at dawn. I also fished the following morning without luck. This past week, I fished the evening again on the BHC but only had one bite. Once it became dark, there were insects swarming all around, including some nice sized yellow stoneflies. The river rocks on the banks of the BHC are currently covered with thousands of small nymph shucks. See picture below. I'm not sure what kind of nymphs but there must have been a massive hatch that I missed within the past couple of weeks.

I fished the McMichaels this past Thurs for about an hour. The water levels are down but there are still some nice deep holes. I tried drifting a nymph but the current is almost non-existent in most locations. The "house flies" were so thick and annoying that I didn't fish long. They kept biting me no matter where I went.

Yesterday I took my dog out for a swim on the BHC from 630-800 pm. I took my spinning rod as well and landed a couple of bass, 1 smallmouth and 2 rock bass. That's the first time I caught rock bass on the BHC. Neither were large but they hit the spinner pretty hard. If I would have landed a trout this past week I would have kept it because I'm sure it would have died anyway due to the high creek temperatures.

I'm anxiously waiting for fall to arrive so the trout action can pick up and I can do some salmon fishing in NY.  I'll be in Alaska next month for my annual work/fishing trip and I'll have time to catch some Rainbows and Grayling while there and possibly some Silver Salmon depending on where I fish.

Thousands of these shucks currently cover the BHC rocky banks

July 17, 2011 Brodhead Creek fly fishing report

I fished the evening of July 16th from 815-945 pm and had good luck. I landed three trout, all on a Royal Wulf dry fly, and missed over half dozen more. Two trout were Rainbows in the 14-15 inch range and they were very fat. I was tempted to take one home and clean it to see what it had been eating but I seldom keep my trout and especially not when I get home at 10 o'clock at night. I dead drifted the Royal Wulf in medium paced current. The bites were light and sometimes not even visually noticeable. There wasn't much insect activity but fish still came to a rise when the fly was presented properly.

I fished the morning of July 17th from 7-9 am. Insects were plentiful this morning. I was able to snatch a small caddis, a few spinners, and a small (#18) yellow fly with big buggy eyes. I tried to match each of these flies with flies in my box but I only had one unsuccessful hit the whole morning. I fished dries again but wish I would have drifted some nymphs during my two hour skunking.

Water levels are normal. Fish are still plentiful. Fishermen are scarce. Water temperatures are high but not too critical. I'm not landing multiple fish like I did in March and June but the action is still consistent. The stocked trout are obviously getting smarter as well so an amateur fly fisher like me (2 years) has more difficulty in landing fish as the season extends but that only makes me become better.