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.

What a terrible first day of trout season...The weather that is!

The temprature was in the low 40s with rain and winds out of the North at 23mph and gusts over 40.  We had some guests that were willing to brave the conditions and it sure payed off!  These are just some pics of the bigger fish.  Many were caught in the 13-15 inch range.  I would like to thank the Suter family for spending the morning on the water with my Dad and I.

Wild Browns

Upon feeding the fish in our hatchery at Glendorn Lodge we noticed a bit of a disturbace in the stream down below.  I took a few ok pictures of what was causing it.  There were four wild browns in the stream eating the fish food that was flowing out of the hatchery.  It is hard to tell in the pics but they all appear to be over 18 inches.  One of them goes about 3 or 4 pounds for sure.

Big Flies For Big Trout (The Series)

Finally!!!  The Allegheny river was fishable.  Unfortunatley the water was too dirty to nymph effectively, but when in doubt put on a big ugly streamer and see what happens!  We did not catch a lot of fish but did get a couple of nice browns.  The Big Flies For Big Trout will be an ongoing series that I am positive you will see many more posts from.