The Pictures Speak For Themselves!

This is a monster brown caught on one of my big black nasty streamers from the toothy critter box.  It was a very old fish.  It barely had any teeth left in its mouth.  Congratulations to John on his biggest river brown ever.  How about those colors!

Browns, Browns, and a big Rainbow?

Another day, another good catch on the river.  My dad was on the oars on this trip and it was an excellent day.  Some very nice brown trout and one big hook jaw rainbow exploded on streamers.  It is not that we do not catch rainbows on the river but they are usually not as nice as this one. The water is getting just about right and the fish are really turning on!

Luck of the Irish!

The pictures speak for themselves but I would like to thank Bob for traveling all the way from Ireland to fish the Clarion River with me over the last week.  The water was high and the weather for all but one day was tough, but we made it happen!  Once again...high water, big streamers, and BIG BROWNS!

Opening Day of Pennsylvania Spring Gobbler

If I have learned anything about hunting big woods turkeys it is that once you think you have them patterned THINK AGAIN!  I really thought that I was going to be set up right in the birds bedroom this morning.  I even got there an extra half an hour early to prevent from spooking one out of the roost.  After sitting in the dark with forty minutes of anticipation behind me, no birds were gobbling.  Then I hear a faint gobble in the distance.  Upon inspection I realized that it was coming from the original spot that I wanted to hunt on opening day this year, but after scouting and not seeing any sign or hearing any birds I decided that I would hunt the far side of the valley that been home to birds all this spring and last.  Now I had a decision to make.  Did I really want to hike all the way back down one hillside, cross a stream with high cold water, and hike straight up the cliff on the far side?  The answer to that question is shown in the pictures above.  After making the long hike and my heart practically beating out of my chest, I caught up to the bird still gobbling.  I set up my decoy, got hidden, and made a few soft yelps.  Shortly after I saw the bird come around  the corner of the point in full strut.  A few seconds later he was joined by two jakes and all three began to run towards me after spotting the decoy.  They stopped at about 40 yards as the long beard went into full strut again.  They then advanced another 15 yards before I could finally get a shot at the Tom that would not result in me putting three birds on the ground.  The jakes finally moved off to either side and i split the uprights with 3 inches of #5 Hevi Shot!  It turned out to be the most intense easy hunt ever!!!  My only regret is that everything is so wet from the 40 days and 40 nights of rain that we have had made the bird not very photogenic.

A Morning in the Turkey Woods

I made myself get up at the 4:15am alarm to go out and scout for Spring Gobbler this morning.  I located a few birds and took a few cool pics while in the woods.  The porcupine pic is dedicated to Jared from brooksbrownsandbows.

More Clarion River Browns

I took advantage of having a Friday off from guiding to do a little fishing of my own on the Clarion River.  My father-in-law Fred and Mark, owner of Whitetail Country sporting goods in Olean, NY, joined me on the float.  We moved a lot more fish than were pictured but they were not being real aggressive.  The water was still high (6ft) and cold.  We had a lot of follows and fish just barely nipping at our streamers.   We did manage a few though.  Can't wait for the water to warm up and the bugs to start.

First Day of Trout Continued...

While I was back at the lodge in the shelter of the valley and cover of the hemlock trees on the stream, Shane was on the river fighting the wind, high water, and horizontal rain.  Congrats to Mike for putting a some nice browns in the net and Shane for somehow keeping the boat under control in the gale force winds.  The river was flowing between 6 and 7 feet, which is about 2-3 feet higher than we like to fish it.  The fish can still be caught with some well placed zonkers under the brush.  Needless to say, they had the river to themselves.  I am getting a little jealous that I have not been able to get on the Clarion River yet this year but my time will come.  Hopefully when it is at least 15 degrees warmer and the fish are feeding on the surface.  Although anyone that knows me will tell you that I have no problem throwing big ugly steamers for these nice browns.  I have a secret box of flies that only few have seen that works for many situations.  Snook, pike, musky, walleye, bass, and big trout can all be caught on the same flies from this very special box.  It has Toothy Critters written in permanent marker on top!  I am sure that as water temps get warmer that it will be featured soon.  It will be dedicated to Jared from the popular blog: brooksbrownsandbows.