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3. Little Lehigh 3/6/10

Hooked up with two on a Prince Albert bead head. Both of which escaped.
Finally landed a nice, maybe9 or 10 inch rainbow by hooking it (get this) in its hind most fin. What a struggle!!

First fish ever landed on a fly rod!!! Don't think I'll be able to sleep tonite.

Congrats Matthew, always good to hear about the first trout on a fly rod. It sounds as if you may have hooked yourself. Keep it up and you will lose count. Now try to get some sleep so you can get up and do it again.

keystoner, kudos on breaking the ice -- no pun intended -- and landing your first on the fly. here's to many more.

Got back out sunday. First at the hatchery, then to the "fly only" stretch on millrace (for any one who might know where these are).

Nothing doing.

My technique still needs a lot of work, but thanks for the congrats!!!!

Ok, so I'm out there today (as I have been everyday since saturday), fishing nymphs of various types to fish that I can see to no avail.

[Although, I am getting pretty damn good a roll casting, but that's not the point.]

Right around 5 o'clock or so, light fading, I see a fish across the stream make a pretty pronounced rise.

What's the move here??? The first thing that came to my mind was a Griffith's Gnat, which I was fresh out of. That was what I had been seeing all day in those big clouds they make. Seemed rational.

Thoughts???

First off Mathew i just want to make sure your fishing the little lehigh river? And next, honestly man if you just saw that one sporatic fish rise it very well could have been on a passing by midge adult that it couldn't resist. If it wasn't that it's also possible that the fish was taking maybe a little winter stone. However if you saw clouds of tiny knats, tiny knats are probably what that boy wanted. That would be my best guess and in situations like that, i would suggest that you try a topwater frog pattern...they love them this time of year!

Jesse

Matthew,
Knowing the Little Lehigh my first gues would be a midge of some sort however the type of rise you describe is very UN"midge" like. If you saw just that one rise my next play would be to keep on pounding the nymphs. This is a lesson it has taken me a very long time to learn. Those sporadic rises will lead to alot of unproductive fishing time if you go chasing after them with dries. I usually try to wait until I see a fairly consistent set of rises before switching over to dries.

That being said you will want to have a good number of baetis imitations at the ready as that hatch should start busting out any day now. Try a small (#20)olive pheasant tail nymph trailed behind a larger nymph. I have seen those trout behave downright stupidly early in the baetis hatch. Also sneak down the hatchery side of the stream and prospect along the edges of the faster currents. Casting will be a pain over there but line managment will be much easier.
It's great to see your enthusiasm for the sport!
JW

Thanks for your thoughts guys!

It was just the one rise I saw on tuesday, however, yesterday (wednesday)they were rising all over the place! I'm low on flies at this point, having lost about six or so to snags and tree branches. Learning is a bitch. Nice to get some imput on what I'm looking for when I go to re-stock the box! Thanks again, fellas!!

Keystoner,

Send me you address and I'll send you some free trout flies.

I thought I’d throw in a little humor here, as the above quote reminded me of this story.

Last year, Doug, a client and very good friend of mine said that he and a friend would like to fish muskies on the Chippewa Flowage. They were interested in a half day with a guide, and asked if I would recommend someone. I recommended a long time friend and duck hunting partner Wayne Gutch, who happens to be a Chippewa Flowage muskie fishing legend. Several days later I ran into Doug and asked how they did. He said that he and his friend didn’t catch any muskies, but did manage to catch a hell of a lot of weeds. They also noticed that Wayne wasn’t catching any weeds, and finally towards the end of the day asked Wayne why they were catching weeds and he wasn’t. Wayne replied, “I’m not fishing for weeds”.

Allan,

That is very funny!!!

Guides! They are definitly a species all their own!

Maybe they should of asked him if he might be thinking about fishing for a tip later!?

Thanks! I have a smile on my face...

Maybe you have started a new thread here concerning guide stories...I sure have a few, since like you, I have a couple friends that are guides...When you get them to let their guard down they could tell us some stories that are pretty damn funny about us (their clients)...

Spence

That was a good one allan i liked it! I don't really know what i would do at that moment if a guide said something like that to me, probably be a little shocked at first then laugh really hard...maybe i would just laugh really hard. Either way i like the funny stories they are always good to hear. Oh and mathew, get those bad boys!

Just returned from the fly shop with a gaggle of new stuff. Mainly nymphs, gnats, wooly buggers, and of course, the baetis following JW's advice. Went small this time around mostly 16 and 22s realizing that my original equation ( bigger fly = bigger fish) may have been somewhat flawed. Ready to get back out there and see if I did the right thing.