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.

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.

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!

Unpredictable

     From 80 degrees and sunny to snow covering the ground this morning.  It has been a very unpredictable spring so far.  All I know is that we need some rain to bring the low water conditions up. 
     These are just a couple of pics of browns caught on the Allegheny the last couple weeks.  The fish on top was caught last weekend during a windy cold day that topped out around 42 degrees.  The fish to the left was caught the week before while I was wearing a t-shirt on a bright sunny 80 degree day. 
       I wonder what it will do next week???
 

Weekend Catch

     Despite the tough fishing conditions with the warm sun and a million canoes and kayaks, we still managed to catch some nice fish over the weekend on both the Clarion and Allegheny rivers.  Hoppers with nymph droppers on the Clarion and caddis emergers on the Allegheny.  Congratulations to John and Linda on some nice fish caught the last couple days and some even nicer ones that got away.  One giant jumping rainbow in particular on the Allegheny.

Last Chance Riffle

After a good day of fishing on the Allegheny River, we managed to catch this nice rainbow out of the last riffle before the takeout.  We had a good day with some quality browns landed and some nice fish that got away.  This best fish of the day came after drifting the same small pocket for 20 minutes before finally getting a strike.  I guess persistence really does pay off!  Nice fish Phil.

Hook, Land, Pose, and Celebrate!

 Shane with a nice rainbow and the whole story captured in a series of pictures.  It was a good day to be off and fishing the Allegheny with Dave acting as our guide.

Stained Water+A Bright #2 Clouser=Fish On!

This is another post for the Big Flies For Big Fish series.  We got another great day to fish the Allegheny.  The water is still cold and the fishing a little slow but this fat bow could not resist the large easy meal swinging in her face!