Happy Holiday Egg...

The holidays for me are filled with rushing around and dealing with crowds.  Something I don't like. Fortunately the weather and fishing are still good. Fewer anglers makes winter fishing some of the best. I try to get out before the holiday rush and chaotic family time. Eggs were the ticket the last time I was out, and these eggs delivered a pre-holiday treat. 

Eggs are on the menu.

My tungsten egg.

20" hog of a Rainbow

Egg in the face.

One phat Bow.

Happy Holidays!!!

Signs of Fishing Pressure...

No matter where you go, there's always fishing pressure on our streams. We all want the rivers to ourselves.  Let’s face it, that doesn’t always happen. We have to share. While out fishing last week, I had a good day Czech nymphing.  However, I did come upon signs of another fisher working the water ahead of me.

This very stealthy character should have been heading south. Yet, like the geese, it's now a resident fisher in NJ. You might have guessed by now. I'm referring to a Great Blue Heron. I'm seeing more and more these days, well into the winter. It seems they'll stay as long as there's open water and food.

The Great Blue Heron is a marvelous fisher and we can all learn from them. You can increase your catches if you simply wade and dress like them. While they are great fishers, they do miss some from time to time. Here's a freshly wounded rainbow (ouch!). Maybe too big or too deep...but this one got away. Mind you, it kept on feeding and took my anchor fly.

Freshly wounded Rainbow.

Looks like it just happened (less than a day).

Fishing With My Two Unique Boys - What's a Dad to do?

Even though it was cold out, my older son still wanted to go fishing.  My younger son wasn't wholeheartedly into the idea.  What's a Dad to do?

I put on my thermals. The boys dressed in layers and packed a spare set of cloths, just in case.  While no one went for a swim, there where cold feet and hands.  This put a limit on the time we could fish, but as long as there was action, no one asked to go home.

With rain levels spiked, the 100cfs streams were at 300cfs.  At 300cfs, my home stream is  challenging to fish and next to impossible for the boys. We ended up fishing the banks - no stream crossings.  While it was cold and high, the fishing was good.  Together we netted 6 rainbows, 1 brown...long line released a monster.

Both boys were happy in varying degrees, and I'm sure we'll be heading out again soon.

One happy lad.

Boy my hands are cold.

Cold + Egg = Rainbow

Bow on a rock worm.

They liked the rock worms.

Feather-Craft Fly Fishing Giveaway - The Steelhead Addition.

Here's a new give-a-way from Feather-Craft Fly Fishing.  First prize will be a FULL day guided trip for WILD steelhead on the Pere Marquette River.  Feather-Craft teamed up with Indigo Guide Service & Third Coast Fly for this great prize.

For this give-a-way, you'll have to use your Facebook profile to participate.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Go to Third Coast Fly’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/thirdcoastfly click the ‘Like’ button.

Step 2: Go to the Feather-Craft Facebook page give-a-way
http://www.facebook.com/notes/third-coast-fly/fly-fishing-giveaway/276976492354298
and leave a quick comment.

All who do both steps are entered to win one of theses three prizes.

1st Place: Full Day Guided Trip for WILD Pere Marquette Steelhead with Indigo Guide Service
2nd Place: 1 Dozen steelhead flies in custom fly box + SA Steelhead Taper Fly Line
3rd Place: Feather-Craft’s Bob’s Favorite Tech Shirt

Good Luck,

Fly and Fin

Fishing with Matt

Finally, after juggling our schedules, Matt Grobert and I final got out fishing this past weekend.


You may know Matt from the The Star Ledger's Fly Fishing column.  His work also includes:
Fly Fishing New Jersey Trout Streams, published in 2008; Caddis Chronicles, a blog -  "A celebration of the well-chewed fly."  He's also ties patterns at the International Fly Tiers Symposoum, the Fly Fishing Show (NJ), Shannon's Fly Shop in Califon.  He's also featured on video at Tightline Productions.

Matt chronicled our trip in his Short Report post of December 4th.  I don't have much to add other than the photos and comments below.

It was a cold morning, but warm for December - low to mid 40's.  It always feels colder when your feet are in 42-degree water.  It was even colder for Matt.  He left his thermals home and his waders had a leak.  (It's safe to say Matt's leg and foot never warmed up until he got home.)

The water was high, clear and cold, but fishing was good.  Matt took his fish with a bead head Bird's Nest, LaFontaine Sparkle Emerger, and one on Walt's Worm.  I, on the other hand, was Czech nymphing and took most of my fish on a my "big and ugly" variation of Hans Stephenson's "Bomb".   It was a good day; we both got into fishing.

Matt fishing down and across.

Mat with an nice bow.

Fish on.

To the net.

Czech rig and bow.

"big and ugly"

Good day with Fly and Fin