Spring Gobbler 2012

     Last year I was spoiled and took a bird on the first day of the season.  This year I had to work my but off for an entire four days.  That is still a pretty short amount of time.  I have gone many seasons without even coming close to a shot.  I feel very fortunate to have had this quick success these last two years.  With another tag in my pocked, I will continue to hunt out the season trying to take another bird.  But even if I don't, It will still be fun being out there!

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!

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???
 

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.

More Tiger Trout Pics

     This is just an addition from the previous post.  Here are a few more pics now that you know what you are looking at.

What do you see in this picture?

     If you did not know that I was a fisherman and what you would assume to see in this picture, would you notice?  This is a Tiger Trout that a client caught on the Allegheny River today.  I can't explain how pretty the markings were on it.  You can see it for yourself!