An October Day

As these days of October wind down, the nights are cooler to almost frosty, and the days find themselves in the 50's. One day last week found me on a wild trout stream. This stream flows through some beautiful countryside, its waters so very clear. The fly selection was one of southern origin, The Yellowhammer, the fly was given to me by Apache Trout, a fly fisher who just returned form North Carolina.

I dabbed some flotant on it and sent it on its way. The fly is designed to be fished as a wet fly and thats the way it worked best. At the end of the drift I allowed it to just sit at the tail of the pool for a second, when the fly was moved foward with the retrieve all hell broke loose. Orange fire could be seen from the belly of the brook trout as he tried to eat the fly. When brought to hand and admired, then sent on his way, that beautiful image remained. I never tire of those wild wonders.

As I walked the stream several brook trout could be seen on their redds, with several of the males competing for the right to mate with a lone female. I passed up on the opportunity to drift a fly through and let nature take care of the future.

A beautiful orange bellied brook trout

A brook trout lies at the tail of the pool.

A wild wonder who was fooled bt The Yellarhammer.

The "Royal Bomber"

The "Royal Bomber"

The "Royal Bomber" Variant

The Ausable Bomber has been one of the best producing flies I've ever fished. It has fooled trout in all of the streams I've fished. The Royal Coachman has also been a fly I'll reach for in streams that holds lots of brookies. So what I did in this pattern is to take the best of both patterns to create the "Royal Bomber"

I have not fished this fly as of yet but plan on doing so soon.

The "Royal Bomber"

Hook, Mustad 9671
Tail, Golden Pheasant Tippets
Butt, Peacock Herl... Grizzly and Brown Hackle
Body, Red Floss
Front, Peacock Herl,... Brown Hackle
Wing, White Calftail

The Variant has the grizzly and brown hackle wrapped from the back to the front, the same as the Ausable Bomber.



Thorns, Briars, and Weeds

At this ime of the year nature puts on a color show that few worldly artists could duplicate. It's also a time when much of the flora dies, and reverts to seed. But for some strange reason the briars and thorns seem to grow and become sharper.

Yesterday while walking into a stream I crossed a field full of weeds, and when I got home 2/3rds of the seeds were in my clothes and lungs. As for the other problem, the thorns proceeded to play tic tac toe on my exposed skin, and perforating my jeans, causing damage. Most of the small streams I fish I don't wade in, so its a constant fight with the thorns.

As for the cuts, the ones that are visable by the blood are nothing compared to the ones you can't see. Just take a shower, and the hot water will tell you where the others are.

The green briars.

The stream was low and clear, not easy to fool a wild trout

This guy could'nt resist.



S.S. Reflections, "Good Books"

A wonderful easy reading book. Its a book I pick up and glance through many times.

The book contains many of James Prosek's beautiful watercolor paintings.

This is another good book. It takes you to a special cabin in Michigan's upper penisula.

While I spend a lot of my time outdoors, there are times when its not comfortable to do so. Thats when a good book will fill in some time.

These are two of my favorites. They are well written, with lots of facts, and beautiful photos and paintings. They are not part of the throngs of "How To" books but they are of real life stories that show us how wonderful fly fishing is.

With the Holidays coming soon perhaps you should consider putting one of these fine books on your list.



A Small Stream, and "Thanks"

I was invited to fish a small wild trout stream, by a fellow small stream fisher, and "Fly Addict", Apache Trout. This is a stream he has fished many times and holds its waters with respect. This was my first time fishing it.

We met at a parking area and after some talk he took me down to the stream and started telling of its better places to fish, and the flies that he has used on it many times. He knew the stream well and his info worked magic on the wild trout that inhabit the stream.

We had a very enjoyable few hours, hooking some trout and even a few to hand. I thank him for the invite, and all that nature provided.

Apache Trout stalking wild trout

A favorite fly rod of mine. Great on small waters

This was my fly of the day, "Rich Sally"



These are two flies given to me by Apache Trout. They are widely used in the Smokies. "Yellarhammer" and "Coreys Calf Tail"

"Tradition"

I84 going into PA, a fog bank.


One of the highlights of my year is the time we make our first trip to Pennsylvania to scout out the deer woods. My son and I have been doing this for 25 years now and its now one of the traditions we share together.

On this trip we purchased our hunting license, visited a PA. rifle range to sight in our rifles, we will do this again as the season nears, you want to make sure your on. We then visit a few places that have special food items found here in PA. With the necessary tasks compleated we head into Penn's Woods to the area we have hunted deer for a quarter century together, most of those years prime venison was harvested, and all of those years have produced some of my finest memories.

Special food items. A great place.

Access to Penn's Woods

My son

Walk all the way to the top, turn left at the tree line, walk in about three quarters of a mile, and thats where I'll be at 5am, the Monday after Thanksgiving.



Framed Fly Photos

"Gray Ghost"


This is something I've been wanting to do for some time now, to frame photos of flies that I've tied. So the other day I selected a few streamers, took a photo and had them printed. The photos were put into matted 5/7 frames. A few of them I would like to put in a Jungle Cock feather to add a bit of a change. I would like to think that they would look great on a wall of an office, or perhaps under a favorite fly rod.

Your thoughts would be appriciated.

"Blue Waters"

"183"



Fork Tails, and Browns

When I started out this day, the weatherman said there was only one little shower in the state, and that the sun would shine soon. Well about ten minutes into my fishing the sky opened up, and within a few moments I was soaked. I walked back to my car, changed my shirt, and put on my rain coat, while walking back to the stream, the rain let up, and I was about to start enjoying the day. This stream holds wild browns and a few brookies. I tied on a Fork Tail to see if the browns would like it as much as the brookies. To make a long story short, they did. The fly prooved to be effective on them the same as it did the brookies. This is a good fly.

Wild browns/ Fork Tails

Yes the sun did shine

"Home Comforts"

Along with fly fishing, cooking is one of my favorite passions. And being Italian, pasta is tops on the list. Pasta can come either fresh or dried, fresh being a bit heavier, and much quicker to cook than dried. My preferance is the dried.

There are many sauces to top pasta with, creams, tomatoe, vegetable, and olive oil. I love the tomatoe as the base of my sauce.Into this base you can add meat, seafood, game, poultry, and vegetables. The one item that makes a pasta dish complete is a quality bread, one purchased from a local Italian bakery, not a supermarket.

These are a few of my comforts.

Smoky Mountain Fork Tails

On this beautiful Saturday, the first one in October I fished a stream that benefited from the recent rains that brought up the streams volume. It also allowed the trout to move freely and seek out food and new areas of the stream that were unavailable do to low waters. The sky was bright and sunny, with comfortable temps, and lots of leaves in the water and around, some colored and some just there from the stress of the trees.

I had tied up some fly patterns that were favorites of fly fishers in the Southern Appalichians for trout. The pattern is known as a "Smoky Mountain Fork Tail", I fished them dry, and allowed them to sink under the water at the end of the drift and retrieved them back as an emerger. The flies worked very well producing reactions on what seemed like every cast.

In the few hours spent along the stream today a few thoughts were going through my mind, we finally recieved the rain we so badly needed and that the brookies seemed to have survived the heat and the drought in very good shape. For their size they are tough little guy's. "Thanks"

A beautiful spawning male, and a "Fork Tail"

A wild brook trout who fell to a "Fork Tail"

A Favorite

Turning The Page

With the arrival of October there are some new hopes of better times astream. We have been blessed with some much needed rainfall. This water will perhaps enable the wild brook trout to move upstream to their spawning areas. The last few days of September I took a walk along a stream observing trout movement, they were there, and very cautious. Now with some depth and width to the stream their movements will be easier to conceal.

I also tied a few new patterns that were created in The Smoky Mountains.
The inspiration coming from a friend, John,"Apache Trout" who is on a trip in The Smoky's pursuing trout on the streams of Southern Appalachia.

With a frost being predicted in the next week the time was now to harvest a few native tomatoes to use in a homemade Minetsrone soup.

I plan to fish this small trout stream in a day or two as I turn the page.

Smoky Mountain Fork Tails, dry flies to tempt wild brookies through the month of October

With October, a cool rainy day calls for a good hot Minestrone, to chase the chill out.