Out and About

Left NH for several trips. First visit was the Raritan River in NJ. Water had been high but was fishable when I visited. Specific location was the Ken Lockwood Gorge area. Great spot. Lots of boulders, runs, riffles and pools. I probably turned a dozen trout in my 2 hour fishing stint. Lots of caddis in the air. I caught fat browns and brookies. Give it a look if you are in western NJ.

Next stop was the Battenkill in Arlington, VT. Always a difficult river. As one local told me years ago, it is a river that will 'beat you up'. It is frustating as there are big fish here but extremely smart and fly-shy. I spent 3 hours on the water and caught 2 native brook trout. Oh well, I'll save the fabled browns for another day.

News from PA

I was sharing my blog and comparing my weekend fishing stories yesterday with a buddy of mine, Ralph, from South Jersey and I thought, maybe, some of you out there would like to hear what’s going on in other parts of the world. I asked, and Ralph agreed that I could post a little bit about what he was up to down there.





Ralph is an avid fly fisherman, this past weekend he was out on Huntington Creek in Pennsylvania at the Twin Bridges section.












It would seem he had a great day out, alone on the Creek bringing in 10 fish, all on dry flies. Now one might think they breed small fish in Pennsylvania but knowing that the Brown pictured to the left isn't a stockie but a natural stream bred fish commands a little respect.






Ralph had gone out and bought an old (some might say antique) glass rod, specifically a 7’ 3wt and loaded it with Cortland’s new Sylk line. Not knowing what that meant, I checked it out on line and found that Courtland has developed a synthetic fly line with the characteristics of the old silk lines used in my grandfather’s day. It’s supposed to be thinner, smoother and was developed specifically for bamboo and glass rods but is advertised to work well with the new rods on the market today. It would seem Ralph was quite pleased with the results:

“Not too bad of a morning Saturday…..fished Huntington Creek at the Twin Bridges section. 10 fish to hand, all on dry flies. One bigger fish kept my fly and broke me off, Had my 7’ 3wt glass rod out with a Cortland Sylk line…..first time fishing the line and pretty happy with it. Not a soul on the water all morning, with the entire creek for about a mile to myself.”

I don’t know about all of you out there but I like to hear about other fishing trips that people have. If anyone would like to submit a post for this blog, feel free to send me an email at blog@vansconsulting.com. The more information the better and it needs to have some pictures if you want to get it posted.

Thanks Ralph for the report; I also hear you have developed a few fly’s on your own, maybe we can convince you to sending some recipes and pictorial instructions to post here as well.

Tigers and Brookies and Bows, OH MY!

After two weeks I finally got out this weekend. I got started early Saturday morning, on the pond by 6:30am to a slightly overcast, still morning. To my surprise I was alone on the lake, not a soul to be found, just me and the Cranes fishing that morning. I launched the Kayak and paddled directly across the lake to a small cove at the far end. I tied on the trusty Caddis on top, Prince Nymph dropper rig and began the quest.
Immediately I hooked into a nice fat 14” Bow on the Caddis and thought this was going to be a great day. As soon as I had that thought I reprimanded myself for jinxing the day recalling the last time out, when I hooked into a nice fish immediately and then spent the rest of the day fighting the winds that kicked up with no more fish to be found! But today would be different; as I was fishing I could hear fish breaking the surface a little ways away.
Paddling over to the far side of the lake I could see fish jumping. I don’t mean a fish here or there, I mean the fish were jumping!

I hooked into a nice Brookie and the fun began. Everything was hitting on top Saturday so I abandoned my dropper in favor of a variety of dry’s. It took some trial and error but I finally narrowed it down to darker Caddis’. It wasn’t easy, have you ever been in a situation where dozens of fish are jumping all around you and you’re trying to tie the ‘right fly’ on the end of your tippet? I couldn’t tie them on fast enough!!!







I hooked into about a dozen of these smaller fish in about a 1 hour time frame, it was glorious! Now I’m not saying any of these fish were trophy by any stretch of the imagination. They must have just stocked the pond that week, these were mostly 8” – 10” Bows, Brookies and Tigers (I even hooked into one Small Mouth Bass) but sometimes quantity makes up for quality and I was having a ball!





Unfortunately, the clock was ticking and I had to get back home but it was a lot of fun being out for the few hours I was there.

Memorial Day Weekend With Mixed Results

Well it’s been a while and I’ve been a bit remiss in posting so I’ll apologize up front. In any case while I was unable to get out last weekend I was on the pond both Sunday afternoon and Monday morning of Memorial Day Weekend with mixed results.

On Sunday all I got for my 3 hours of fishing was a 6” Small Mouth Bass that wasn’t even worth taking a picture of. The only thing it bought me was the bragging rights to say that I haven’t been skunked yet this year. A record I hope to maintain this season. Monday was a little different. I was on the pond by 7:00 am, It was a little breezy but the wind was coming from the far side of the pond and there looked to be some pretty flat water over there owing to the fact that the trees probably blocked the wind for the first few hundred feet from shore leaving at least that part of the pond flat and smooth. Casting in a dropper rig, with an Elk hair and CDC Caddis on top and the trusty Prince Nymph on the bottom, about 18” down I immediately hooked into a great 16” Bow.

This fish gave me quite a fight, breaking water with some nice jumps 3 times! 5 minutes into fishing and hooked into this fish, I thought it was going to be a great day! NOT!! I spent the next hour trying to get another fish to even look at my line. I went to a Crippled Elk Hair Caddis on top, different Nymphs below and nothing. Then I got a hit on an Elk Hair Caddis on top but missed it. A few minutes later, I hooked into the 12” Brookie on the nymph which turned out to be the last fish of the day.

Total count, 2 fish, both on the dropper, 3 bites, one on top and two on the dropper, all before the wind really kicked up and left me paddling through white caps on the little pond. Along with the pictures of the two fish I caught I also got some nice scenery pics. Maybe you can guess where we’re fishing from these pictures.




I just wanted to point out that Jeff still isn’t posting any pictures of his catches which, if I were a cynic might make me wonder if he really caught all those fish he has claimed to have caught. Being as I am not a cynic, I’ll just trust him at his word!