Fall and Winter Streamer Bite Coming Soon

The trout fishing will be heating up again as the air and water cool down this fall.  There will still be some bugs around in October, followed by some excellent streamer opportunities from winter-early spring.  Looking forward to some clients booking trips on the Allegheny and Clarion Rivers for October thru March.

Clarion and Allegheny River Trips 2017

After a soaking wet spring, which had the water levels high for most March and April, conditions finally stabilized for mid May-June.  The fishing was phenomenal.  Lots of big wild brown trout with a few rainbows and some brookies mixed in.  There are always streamer fishing opportunities when the water is high, but it sure is fun after it comes back down and you can get some shots at these big bruisers on dry flies.  Action will pick back up this fall and be good all through the winter.

A New Year Brings New Opportunity

    I'm very happy to restart my old page with its new look, name, and content.  Finally after 15 years in the industry, I'm taking my show independent and it's my pleasure to present Fin & Fly Adventures.  This is a primarily fly fishing based guide service that also offers some terminal tackle opportunities.
    Fly fishing opportunities include trout, bass, musky, carp, and steelhead.  Species options are all based on conditions and time of year.  Both wade and driftboat fishing trips available as well.   Terminal fishing opportunities are primarily targeting walleye, with perch, crappie, white bass, smallmouth bass, and northern pike as a bonus.
    Our area of service would be NW Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of NY.  Waters we fish are, but not limited to, Allegheny Tailwaters (Allegheny River), Clarion River, Lake Erie Tribs, Kinzua Dam, and Chautauqua Lake.
    Also on this page you will see my own adventures from hunting and fishing with family and friends.
 

     These pics are just a little recap of last years guiding season.  We are looking forward to a great 2017!

Where else would you propose taking a lunch break on a hot day?

A rare double on the Allegheny River where both quality fish were landed and able to get pics side by side.

Larry with one of the best trout of the year.

Just another quality Clarion brown for Walt.

Larry doubled up on back to back runs with big Allegheny browns

Great markings.

 A net full of fish is a beautiful sight.

Here are a few more pics from some of the terminal fishing trips.

                                                                                                                 The Fourth of July weekend on Chautauqua was amazing.

Beggining of the Clarion River season

    It has been a not so bad start to the season so far.  Water temps are still pretty cold but on the good cloudy days with stable flow conditions decent fish have been caught.  The first couple trips found that most of the fish were grouped up in their prime wintering spots.  Slower currents, deep water, and lots of structure.  As of late, the fish have been spreading out.  More are being caught in the faster current and shallower water.   A few bugs have been present.  Black stone flies and midges mostly.  Not enough for consistent rising but enough to make a trout attack once in a while.  

    We have been fishing mostly streamers so far.  Big and ugly has was the ticket early but a slimmer, shorter profile has been working best as of late.  We have stopped and ran some nymphs in some of the primary riffles with moderate success.  I am sure that a little more time and effort would produce more fish on nymphs, but I must admit that when they are chasing streamers and you get to see the entire follow and take, that I would much rather cast the big stuff. 
    

Warmer temps this week should help get the fish a little more active.  Hendricksons are right around the corner.  As much as I love streamers, I can not wait to cast a dry fly to a big rising brown trout.  More clients are starting to book trips now that the weather is breaking and I can not wait to spend more days on the water.  Hopefully this will be the start to a great season.

Living The Dream

          I do not really know what to say other than.... does it get any better that this?  Two beautiful days on two different rivers.  Thank you to Jim from the Dudewater Blog and Orvis Cleveland and also Alex, who guides out of Ohio for coming over to fish.  Great weather, great fishing, and spending time with other FISHAHOLICS.  Like the title of this post says...Living The Dream

Clarion Browns On The Surface

                                                                                            

     What started as a cold slow morning took a major turn after lunch.  In the heat of this cold day the hendricksons came off heavy for about an hour in the afternoon.  We took advantage of every minute.  My clients Mike and Dave caught some great fish on dry flies.  Looking forward to this week.  Should be some good fishing.

Clarion River Scouting Mission...Success!

They do not get any more colorful than this.

Had my tripod attached to a tree branch over the water.  It's tough taking pics when you are by yourself.

Pretty brown with a nice copper john stuck to his nose!  Right were we like it.

Nice male with a good hook. 

   

   

      A good day of scouting on the Clarion River.  Caught a good number of fish on various beaded nymphs today.  The water is still cold but the fish seemed to be pretty active.  I have some guide trips coming up soon and can not wait to put some clients on these beautiful fish. 
     Finally it looks like we are going to have a normal spring.  Last year at this time it was 80 degrees, water was getting low, and we were already through the hendrickson hatch and starting into caddis.  Hopefully this makes for a longer season on the Clarion this year.

60 degrees in January... "Let's go fishing!"

    January 30th and the weather was pushing 60 degrees and rain.  The Allegheny River had been running at 1900 CFS and on this morning was rising.  Sink tips and big ugly streamers were the ticket.  Pictured above is Steve with a nice healthy rainbow and on the left is myself with my second brown trout of the morning. 
    Today the temperature is in the 20s and falling with lake effect snow.  Glad we were able to enjoy it yesterday.  Back to tip-ups and fishing the hardwater next week I guess.  It looks like it is going to be winter again for a while.

Clarion River Browns

 I was in charge of keeping my father-in-law out of the house on Saturday so that people could set up and arrive for a surprise 60th birthday.  I decided to take him fishing down to the Clarion.  It was pretty tough keeping him out with fish like this eager to take a fly!

It's that time of the year again!

I 

     Decided to be selfish today and just go by myself down to the Clarion River.  I took a rod, my backpack, most importantly a camera, and just walked the train tracks along the river to some of my favorite spots.  I started off the day with nymphs.  Managed to land one brown really quick and then hit a dry spell.  I noticed that there was some caddis flies coming off and I saw a fish come up for one but that was it.  I switched to some caddis nymphs and started really doing well.  I landed a few browns and one rainbow.  Being happy with my success I started walking back towards my truck.  To my surprise the Hendricksons started to hatch and the fish started rising.  Needless to say an hour walk downstream turned into four hours on the way back.  Caught some nice fish and lost some bigger ones all on a parachute adams.  What a great day to be on the water!

Back on the Clarion

     With the lack of winter we have been having here in the Northeast, the normal ice fishing months have been put on hold.  Normally this would make for a boring winter, but when you have the Clarion river in your backyard it can make for some great late season trout fishing.  This big boy was caught the day after Valentines Day.  Even with water temps in the low to mid 30s this big brown was very eager to smash a streamer that was just barely under the surface.  He came at it so hard that his entire head come out of the water with it before I could even set the hook.  Also pictured are a couple of flies that I tied up the day before just for this situation that produced very well for us all day long.