Fly Fishing Consultant

Fly Fishing In The Wind

2012-02-12T20:44:00.000-05:00

I could go on and make this about casting in the wind, using heavier lines and flies and rods etc. But thats a different story. I did bring 8wt rods with 8wt floating and 10wt sink tip.

I was out with a client yesterday when the winds kicked up. We watched the cold front blow in from the west onto Four Mile Run. Snow squalls came in and the wind kicked up the water. Waves were splashing us and I was almost pushed over into the water several times. The water at low tide with the waves was thigh deep. Some spots were waist deep as the tide dropped.

Over night the wind picked up. Temps dropped and we got a dusting of snow. Our power went out several times.

I had a client today. I was to pick him up at National Airport. I pulled over to the Roaches Run waterfowl parking spot. The tide was out with the wind. The shore line was exposed like I had never seen. I walked around and waited for my client to call to pick him up.

My client and I pulled in behind the buildings along Four Mile Run around 4:15pm. The wind was still whipping around. I had expected the water to be blown out of the stream and the fish to be concentrated in the deep holes.

I did not expect that 75% of the water would have been blown out of the stream, leaving 50% of the stream bottom exposed. Its a strange percentile in the last sentence. It has to do with depths and water in the deep vs. shallow. Don't worry about it too much.

Places where my shoulder bag was submerged yesterday, spots that were waist deep etc were dry today. Here are some pics.

Nice People Still Exist

2012-02-07T16:27:00.000-05:00

I had an out of town client book me for last Saturday. He was coming from Colorado and was unable to bring his waders. I had a pair of Orvis waders and Simms boots I could squeeze him into no problem. If that was the case, this post would not exist.

Less than 48 hours till fishing time, I was asked if I could accommodate his brother. I said absolutely. I then inquired about his wader size and was told "2xl size 12 shoe." That was a size I didn't have. I said I would take care of it.

I had to think of who I could borrow a pair of waders and boots from. I have some big friends in Maryland but they are far away. I did have a client and his dad over the summer. They were built like Paul Bunyon.

I e-mailed client Mark and asked if I could borrow his waders in exchange for a few free hours of guided fishing. He agreed. He sent me an e-mail at 9:30 on Friday night that it was ok for me to stop by and pick them up. As I had a long day Saturday, I was already in bed. I jumped up and got in the car. I turned on my phone GPS and headed out towards Burke.

My GPS stated I was 200' away from my destination when the battery died. I didn't have a phone charger with me so I couldn't charge it off my car. And my AC adapter broke so a charger wouldn't do me any good.

I'm now trying to remember the address. No luck. Hopefully Mark looked out the window and saw me cursing at my phone. My options were to drive home and check my e-mail on the computer and come back or go to the nearest shopping center and use a phone to call the wife.

I drove over to the Caribou coffee. I asked if they had a pay phone (an old device where one put metal based money in a round, coin form, and dialed a local number). They didn't. Instead, they gave me their phone-he was about to let me use his cell but then grabbed the store phone. I made 6 calls to my wife. She was in bed when I left. Had earplugs in as someone in the house snores (?). And thus didn't answer the phone. The kid behind the desk was being nice, as I was dressed like a slob. Black hoodie, black Patagonia puff pants, and a baseball hat.

I was steaming. The wife didn't answer so now I was going to drive home. There was a guy next to me with a computer. I asked if I could check my e-mail. He said he wasn't allowed to. Not sure what that meant.

I saw a young lady in the back on an apple computer. I walked over to her and asked if I could use her machine. She let me log on and check the e-mail. I wrote down the address. I gave her my card and offered some flies, hair feathers, or earrings. Within a few minutes I was back at Mark's street and at his house.

Its nice to know there are still some nice people out there willing to let you use their phones or computers and even loan you a pair of waders.

Turns out the brother fit in my size large waders with 10 boot foot. I dropped off the waders at Mark's last night.

You may remember Mark as the client who was holding his leader at Gravelly Point and caught a white perch while the fly dangled in the water.

Inside The Fly Fishing Show @ Somerset 2012

2012-02-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

If you didn't have the chance to make it to Somerset 2012 Fly Fishing Show, here is a bit of the show for you. I have some pictures to share and Producer Jason and I walked around and interviewed some people. The last couple of interviews didn't come out. The sound was recorded through the computer mic not the hand held. So the concessions girl, SIMMS, and Grease Trucks sound like they were recorded through a wet wading boot.

Take a listen.

Stream Podcast episode 1
Stream Podcast episode 2

Listen On Itunes (AND BE SURE TO RATE IT)

http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/

Andy Mill - Tarpon Guru & Aspen Extreme Cameo
Crosby Beane - Hardy/Greys
Henry Cowan - Georgia Stripers
Kevin Arculeo - Coolest Flies Out There
Natural Retreats
Pete Kutzer - Tall Dude and Orvis Casting Guru
Simon Gawesworth - Speyborn & Rio Products
Captain Sarah Gardner - Flygal Charters & Outer Banks Fly Fishing
Derek Deyoung - Canvasfish
Evan Burck - Allen Fly Fishing
Nick Curcione - Temple Fork Outfitters
Lefty Kreh - Temple Fork Outfitters
Tom Rosenbauer - All things Orvis, The Bonefish Caption Contest
Trent Jones - Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders
Tom Baltz - Orvis Endorsed Guide
Jay Lovering - Northern Virginia Trout Unlimited
Brian & Colby Trow - Mossy Creek Outfitters
Steve Monahan - Temple Fork Outfitters
D. Scott Doty - Korkers
Daniel Gallardo - Tenkara USA
Barry & Kathy Beck - Photographers
Mike Heck - Falling Springs
Kiki Galvan - Ms. Guided
Beau Beasley - Eastern Fly Fishing, Virginia Fly Fishing Festival, Author
Martin Bawden - Flymen Fishing Company
Capt. Paul Dixon - Rise Fishing Rods, Fly Fishing Montauk
Mike Batcke & PK Stealthcraft Boats and Fishingporn
Robby Lepczyk - Great Feathers Fly Shop
Brooke - AnglingBookstore
Dave Whitlock - Tyer, artist, author, etc

Simon hiding out while listening to the ManU-Liverpool match

Stealthcraft boats

Lights on inside

bottle opener

Ostrich plumes

Tyers wall

Bears Den

Sculpin

Bears' Den

Lots of flash

Inside the show

Random pictures

Inside the show

Bulk estaz

Lots of tying materials

Dave Whitlock signing print

Full bird skin

Dave Whitlock nymphs

Casting For Recovery cupcakes

The computers for the survey. I wonder how many poo germs were on those!

C.D. Clarke

Mike Heck

Falling Springs flies

Pimped out Derek DeYoung boat

Random reels

Korkers drainage system and soles

Tenkara USA

Daniel Gallardo

Snowhite and Lefty

Nick Curcione

Kevin Arculeo

Tom Baltz

Simon and Bill

Mossy Creek flies

Martin from Flymen

Korkers

Natural Retreats

Tenkara nets

Puppy

PK's tats

Stealthcraft

Kevin Arculeo flies

Chicken fingers with fries and mozzarella sticks on a lousy bun

Grease Trucks at Rutgers

Ranch Tooth

My Version of the Caine/Hackman Theory

2012-01-30T19:45:00.003-05:00

If you don't know about the Caine/Hackman Theory, it goes like this: There's always a Michael Caine film on TV. In fact, the Caine/Hackman theory states that, no matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV. http://www.citizencaine.org/faq/

You may know this from the legendary 90's comedy PCU. This movie was great not only because it was like watching a documentary of my school, Mary Washington College, but it had George Clinton in it and the band named 'Everyone Gets Laid'.

Pigs is writing his senior dissertaion on the matter. In one epic scene he is watching tv and comes across a movie starring both Caine and Hackman. He has the finale to his thesis. He stands up as he has been watching
TV for a long time and falls over.

He shouts 'Pins & Needles' as his legs have been asleep for some time.

I recently had my own version of the theory. Lets call it the Boy Meets World/Fly Fishing Theory. If you (and by you, I mean myself) watch enough Boy Meets World and Fly Fishing shows on TV, you will eventually come across them together. And so I provide to you the clincher to my theory: Sean has a date over at the Matthews house. Not just any date mind you, its Veronica Watson!!!

Mr. and Mrs. Matthews come home early from a dinner and find Sean and his date making out on the couch. Mr. Matthews sits down next to Sean in sort of a cock blocking, preventing Sean Jr. sort of move. He turns on the TV and guess what is on? FLY FISHING

And for you Boy Meets World fans, I know you were wanted a picture of Topanga. So here you go:

Preparing For Colorado Drive

2012-01-24T21:28:00.001-05:00

I'm driving out to Breckenridge next month. I don't ski. I don't have the coordination. What I do out there is fish with Tom and eat. Here are the reasons I'm driving:

I can take the wife and baby's stuff with me
I can bring my favorite rod, my Orvis Henry's Fork 2 piece 5wt
I can bring my cigar cutter and lighter
I can bring my long handled net
I can bring dr. jones
I can buy fireworks on the way back
I can see parts of the country one would normally not see
I can bring back micro brews that you can't get here in the Old Dominion
I can bring gear that won't fit on the plane
I'll also have to bring my cooking gear (knives, pots, pans etc) for the condo as we'll be there for a few weeks
my ting gear
camp stove and fuel
my car (a whole lot cheaper than a rental, and I can smoke cigars in it)
a big knife

As I prepare, I need to clean out my car. I need to put things in it like sleeping bags for me and the hound as we camp in Kansas the first night. I need to pick up road flares and junk food. I'll eat jerky, chips, funions, sunflower seeds, dr. pepper, hot tamales, and cool ranch doritos. You have to pop the bags of chips once you get into Colorado as the air pressure expands them.

I plan on staying at Tom's house the first two nights. I will fish the South Platte for #carp on Sunday as I have gotten some good spots from #FishChat and then pick up my ladies on Monday. We'll head to some Denver biscuit place and gorge ourselves before we drive to the mountains.

I plan on listening to a lot of podcasts. Mike O'meara show, Fish Schtick, Itinerant Angler, Outdoor Podcast, TED Talks, and Live 2 Fly Fish Radio. I might do a book on tape. I am a fan of Bill Bryson so I'll listen to 'Short History' as I do often.

I have not had a solo adventure for a while so I'm looking forward to this one. I hope the jet stream takes a break and doesn't dump a lot of snow on Kansas that week but then starts to dump in the mountains in the days we get there.

I'll be prepared with my pack snow shovel and floor mats in case we get stuck in the snow.

Things I need to tie before I get going:

Juju midges
micro eggs
mysid shrimps
mouse
floating midge cripples

I plan on fishing 11 Mile Canyon, Dream Stream, Blue River, Colorado River, Frying Pan, Roaring Fork, Eagle River, and some other places that Tom knows that I won't tell you about.

More updates a the days get closer.

Stood Up By Client --> Went Carp Fishing

2012-01-24T13:57:00.000-05:00

What to do when your client does not show? We fished on Saturday and agreed that he would put down a deposit electronically that night and we would meet at the same place, same time the next day.

The deposit didn't arrive. I waited in the lot for an hour. I called him. Nothing. I was already wearing 3 layers of clothing and had a rod strung up for carp. I walked down to 4 Mile Run and got in.

Steam was rising off the water as the hot water discharge upstream was filling the stream. I had observed feeding carp while on the overpass so I knew where they would be. I tied on two carp flies and started casting.

I foul hooked a brute of maybe 12lbs. It got hooked in the tail and headed straight upstream. I was on one side of a piling in shallow water and it was on the other side in the deep. It was a tough fight. I didn't know it was tail hooked until I got it to landing distance. I popped the hook out and off came a few silver dollar sized slimy scales.

Carp were breaching all over. That's not a carp to the right. That's snow melt coming down from the bridge. The goldfish were also in abundance.

There was one guy downstream working the next set of bridges. Didn't see him hook up. One guy in the lot stated he got a bunch of gizzard shad (gross).

I switched up my nymph and started at it again. It was hard to see where I was casting as it was overcast and every time I exhaled the steam obscured my vision. I had two feeding carp in front of me along a drop off. I cast upstream and drifted my flies to them. One of them sucked in with a puff of mud and the fight was on. The fish ran up the deep channel between pilings and I got it back down. It went for deep water and I pulled it back. I couldn't land this fish (around 8-10lb) where I was. I backed up on the mud flat to shallow water. This fish did not like the shallows. It fought harder. I got the leader just up to my rod tip and was preparing my fish moth grips to land the fool when it threw my hook.

It was a great morning. My first carp almost landed on the fly since May of 2011. I would have rather made money to pay the bills and get diapers for the baby but life isn't always so easy.

I took this picture the day before on the mud flats. These 'pock marks' are from the carp feeding at high tide. Some of them have some huge mouths. Use the oak leaf below as a sign of how big the mouths really are.

Road Music | Throwback

2012-01-20T11:34:00.000-05:00

Here is one of my favorite bands to listen to while in the car. The band broke up a few years ago so you won't find anything new. Search them out on the internet, find their albums, download their live shows. The song that got me hooked was 'Border Crossing.'

I got into Throwback just as they called it quits. Their harmonies were so well laid out you'll try to sing along with them thinking you've nailed it. I'm a huge fan of the high hat. Their percussion was spot on. Lots of cymbals and bongos thrown in. I first heard about them through the o.a.r. message board and by the time I got around to wanting to see them live, it was too late. Here is a brief biography of the band:

"The group came together as a trio in 2002, when singer-songwriter Erik Lind teamed up with lead guitarist Mike Libis and drummer/percussionist Micah Shapiro at McGill University. Excited support soon spilled off campus as they kept up a regular concert schedule in and around the Montreal area. After bassist Lisa (Dee) Perusse joined in 2003, the quartet expanded their enthusiastic fan base to the United States.

Citing a difference in musical direction among members, Throwback announced in March of 2006 that the band would be separating indefintely."

They have yet to make it on Spotify.

Listen on Amazon
Download a taste from Now Thats What Ed Calls Music
Listen to them on their Myspace page
You can find them on the internet archive HERE

Two Steps Closer

Black Coffee

Should Have Stayed In Bed

2012-01-16T17:06:00.001-05:00

The plan today was to meet up at Gravelly Point and head south on the river to Blue Plains. I had been tying up carp flies all week and even had a few carp-filled dreams over the past few days.

Dalton, David, and I were set to meet up at 10am at the boat ramp. The outside temp was 24 degrees. I couldn't have been that cold as my neighbors still had their windows open. They must be from Saskatchewan or Lapland or someplace cold.

I layered up.

Feet: Smartwool socks
Legs: Patagonia silk weight --> 686 mid layer --> Patagonia puff pants
Torso: Patagonia silk weight ls --> Patagonia mid weight --> Barbour wool sweater --> North Face Nupste down vest --> Kokatat paddle jacket
Hands: old Orvis fold over mitts
Head: Turtle Fur neck gator --> Smartwool balaclava --> Patagonia platypus hat
Skin: The little exposed skin covered in Dermatone Z cote.

I wasn't planning on going in except to launch the boat. Those layers were just for the cold air temps!

The tide was low and incoming. There was ice on the ponds as I passed the golf course and ice on the edges of Roaches Run. Ice formed on the boat ramp.

The wind was howling, blowing in from the south at what I later learned was 23 mph. We loaded up the boat and pulled out into the main channel.

The water was brown from the wind. Whitecaps surrounded us. Water was blowing into the boat. Dalton was not wearing waders and quickly getting soaked. We putt-putted into a rising tide and a southern wind with major gusts. It was 70 degrees warmer last time I fished with David! Today was cold, and windy, and wet.

As we passed the southern end of the airport I noticed we had taken on a lot of water. I cut the engine and we started to bail the water. Emptied Nalgene bottles and Gatorade jugs worked ok. I started up again and went a bit slower to achieve a more even plane with the boat. We stopped taking on water and sped up a bit. We could see the point approaching. I thought my spine would stab my brain from the boat bouncing up and down.

As we pulled in we were surrounded by a massive school of gizzard shad. They darted this way and that to get out of the way of the boat. We could see just their backs sticking out as the water had virtually no visibility.

I cut the engine and dropped anchor in what is usually super clear water. I couldn't see a thing. Dalton and David strung up their rods. I decided to focus on safety and bailing of the water we still had. So at this point my hands are about 4" deep in the water pooled at the stern of the boat. My fingers are numb. Good thing I brought my dry top to prevent water from soaking up my sleeve.

The waves were relentless. Water was splashing all around. The boat rocked back and forth and up and down. I had to keep my eye on the horizon to keep from getting sea sick. The wind was pushing the boat up stream!

The anchor was dragging on the bottom. We were drifting back up toward the monuments. The boat usually faces downstream, it was now pointing and moving up. Dalton sort of dead drifted a fly. I think he realized it wasn't worth it. David tied on one of my carp bugs and was tossing it with a sink tip. There were gizzard shad all around us and a few carp bounced out. We drifted around the point and got a break from the wind. David landed two oak leaves. We decided to call it a day. It just wasn't worth it.

After maybe 10 minutes of fishing we pulled anchor and motored back up. The waves going up were HUGE. Whitecaps rolled around us. The boat went up and down, as the wind was at our back it was much easier traveling.

We pulled into the boat ramp around noon. The docks were almost covered in water. Lots of water moving upstream from the wind plus the high tide. We pulled the boat out, packed our gear, and got the heck out of there.

My hands still hurt. I took a hot shower and just had a mug of tea. Still hurt.

I offered the lads a rain check to go out again when its warmer and not as windy. I'll keep y'all updated.

Look Who's Fly Fishing | Scooter Store Edition

2012-01-10T17:08:00.002-05:00

This commercial came on the other day. I usually don't pay much attention to the scooter commercials. There is the one that is owned by a Tom Cruz which made my chemistry co-worker and I laugh when we ate our lunches and watched the Price Is Right.

So I was looking at the pepaw in the scooter and noticed some fishing gear in the room. I took a further glance to figure out what junior was doing in the background. Turns out the kid was tying flies. He had one of those Orvis rotary vises.

There is a nice grey vest hanging up. A big reel displayed for us to see, is that a toy pole horse behind pepaw? Can't figure out what the kid is doing. Looks like he's brushing out a fly or a barbie's wig. The blue pole in the background is quite blue.

Or is that kid sharpening a knife? he looks shifty. That hair helmet and all, pepaw need to watch his back.

Does anyone else think this kids hair looks like a Lego

There's Something About Mary | Have You Seen My Barbed Hook?

2012-01-09T11:08:00.000-05:00

We always reference this great movie when discussing barbed hooks in people. There really were not any good screen shots of Ben Stiller with the hook in his face from the movie. Until now!

The movie came on last week and I watched and waited with camera on and waited.

If you ever need another reason to de-barb your hooks, let this be one:

Winter Carp Update

2012-01-08T20:03:00.001-05:00

Trent, Damon, and I went out on the drift boat to Blue Plains today. Had a bit of a delayed start as the engine would not start up. We finally pulled out of Gravelly around 10ish and headed straight down river. The ride down was uneventful. The views of the monuments (Washington, Jefferson) and Capitol building made for great scenery.

It took probably 20-30 minutes to pull into the fishing spot. As soon as we came across the mud flats we spooked a myriad of carp. Enough that the crystal clear water turned brown from them taking off. We dropped anchor and started fishing.

I hooked into a monster of a carp which proceeded to run toward the boat and then take a sharp turn toward the water treatment facility. The outgoing line burned my index finger. I think its time to invest in one of those goofy stripping guards for my finger.

The last fish I hooked that was this strong was a salmon. Some people call the carp a trash fish and not worth of catching on a fly rod. You can disregard their opinion. You know what they say about opinions? They are like arse holes, everybody has one.

The fly I hooked the carp on was a purple dragon. I don't have any pics to show you at the moment. Its a hybrid between my Snowhite Hellgrammite and my Bacon fly. In purple. I then tied on a rubber legged stonefly on the back.

We got into some gizzard shad. And by getting into them, I mean the water was black. Black because the school of them was so dark it blocked out the light. We foul hooked the filthy creatures. We pulled anchor and moved over to the water output. It stank. We didn't stick around there too long. We were able to distinguish the schools of shad down below in the clear water by the koi/goldfish mixed in. A bright orange beacon mixed in with black fish.

With air temps in the 50's we thought the place would be crowded. We saw 3-4 other bass boats on the water at the spot. Maybe everyone was at home watching a Paula Dean marathon or the NFL playoffs.

We rowed back up to the schools of carp. Some of the carp were monsters. They looked like tarpon or small sharks coming up onto the flats. Some solo, some in schools of easily a dozen or more. They would come by the boat unfazed, some would pass by and get spooked by us. No luck. We pulled anchor and fished along the parking pier. We saw some monster fish under the pier. Trent had a shad take his Clouser. Not sure if it was foul hooked as the fly was right near the mouth. We passed the pier without a hookup.

It felt good to be behind the oars. Its been months since I rowed. Good excercise.

Damon hooked into a fish on his Clouser along the rocky shore. Nothing was producing, I pulled anchor and we moved back up to the carp spot. Trent and I each got a bite. The water was one giant school of carp. Muddy. The carp were mudding all around us. The only thing I landed was some stick fish.

We pulled anchor after a few hours at Blue Plains and headed up to Four Mile Run. This is the last time I do that. Its a pain in the arse to get to . The mouth is one giant mud flat. Its very hard to get through there with out dragging the motor on the bottom. Once up there we saw lots of shad and Trent hooked into some bluegill. I spotted one carp and a few goldfish. It wasn't worth staying. It was now past 2pm.

The old coal plant.

We were all hungry. We floated from the Rte 1 bridge to the mouth by the end of the airport runway, lit the engine, and headed back. The wind picked up and we were headed straight into it. I was wearing fingertips gloves and my fingers are burning. The ride back sucked. You have to go down through that mud flat, then south toward the Wilson Bridge, then make a U-turn about a quarter mile south of the airport. Once you do that its all an upstream battle into the wind.

Some guys powered past us with a 250 horsepower outboard. They rubbed it in our faces as we had a 9.9.

Still have not found a safe way to store the rods in the boat.

The view of the monuments on the way back up river. Brrrr

We got to Gravelly around 3pm. It was easy to unpack the boat and pack the car with the help of the lads. I can't wait to tie up some smaller and heavier flies for next time we go out. We'll figure out the carp and get some pics of them in the boat. We'll bring some snacks too.

Fly Fishing for Ohio Steelhead | Chagrin River

2012-01-05T17:30:00.003-05:00

I have been making the drive to Columbus, Ohio several times a year since May of 2001. That is where the wife grew up and where her parents still reside. They all speak Russian at the house and I don't. I don't understand the conversation so I decided to have a fishing adventure instead. Unfortunately, Russians don't come with subtitles.

I have known about the Ohio steelhead fishery 'Steelhead Alley' for several years but never made the foray into that realm. I have fished Alum creek and some random pond in the past. This year I decide to finally go north and wet a line in the lake Erie tributaries.

I did some basic research on the internet about where to fish. I came up with the maps on the Ohio DNR website. I sent out a request for information on the Itinerant Angler forum. The guys there sent me private messages with loads of good information. Now all I had to do was pack my bags and gear in the car. This was the first road trip with the baby so I had the car packed to the ceiling with her stuff. I dedicated the space between her car seat and the drivers seat for my gear. Patagonia waders, Korkers boots, Orvis Helios switch, Temple Fork Outfitters switch, large arbor reel, back pack of fly boxes and leader material. Patagonia rain jacket, hats, fingertipless gloves, and neck gator.

We drove up on Xmas eve. We stopped at Cabelas so I could return a shoulder bag that fell apart and to return a net that was too big. I replaced it with the same model that kid dropped in the Potomac during the shad run in 2011.

I drove over to Dublin, Ohio on the day after Xmas to Mad River Outfitters. I have been shopping at this store for years. I had planned on picking up some tying material while there. I walked in and was greeted by Lou behind the desk. Before I could start shopping I was deep in conversation about the steelhead fishery. I inquired where to go and got a plethora of information. I always support the local fly shops, especially when they give me information. I was given a fishing spot before I had even bought anything. Kudos to the employees here.

Lou told me to head north to the Chagrin River. He told me to look for Todd Field. His preferred method is to throw an egg with a streamer trailer. Apparently the fishing would be awesome around Easter. I'll have to make a trip if I can get away from snakeheads and shad this spring.

I wrote Lou's info down on a little pad of paper. We then discussed muskie fishing and 'walking-the-dog' type flies. He told me to check out Apex Flies and you should too. I picked out some purple zonkers, some barbell eyes, and some orange McFly foam for micro eggs for the trip out west next month. If I wasn't needed back at the house so quickly I would have stayed around and chatted some more. I had to get back to take over baby duty and start my internet and map research.

I got home and hit up the maps page I found on the DNR site. It let me to the maps for the Chagrin River.
I found Todd Field and put that into Google Maps and found it to be 2.5 hours away from Bexley. I was going to get up early and drive north. I organized my fly boxes, ensured my gloves, hats, and other warm gear were in my bag, and purchased my fishing license.

I woke up around 0730 to a dark and absolutely dreary day on the 27th. It was raining like in Forrest Gump. I threw on my layers of Patagonia fleece and my trusty Orvis cable knit sweater. I threw my bag in the car and punched the address into my phone and was on my way.

I'd never been toward Cleveland before. I don't know much about it other than that is where Howard The Duck landed. I have heard about the Great Lakes Brewing Company Xmas ale and was hoping to find it up there. Anyway, the roads sucked. It was dark and raining with occasional snow and sleet mixed in. I had the heat cranked up and the wiper blades working overtime.

After a few hours and several Orvis and FishSchtick podcasts later I finally arrived at the town of Willoughby, Ohio. I was hoping the rain would turn to snow. It was cold out. I just found out my car has an outside thermometer. It would have been nice to have known that at the time. My smartphone would only display the D.C. temp on my phone.
I went through residential neighborhoods and came out in the Old Town section. Lots of mom and pop shops, pubs, art galleries, etc. I was scouting out a place to eat for the drive back. I made the turn down to the river and passed a sub shop with 3-4 dudes outside. That is a good sign. I made a mental note to eat there on the way back.

I pulled into the parking lot around 11am. It was still pouring and now a bit windy. I pulled up my waders and got my gear together. There was another guy suiting up. He didn't say much. He had a two-handed rod. I strung up my rod and headed to the river. It was about 50 yards away.

The first thing I noticed was the huge wall on the far bank. It was a really cool geological feature that I have never fished next to.

The water here was fast. I fished the riffles but it was too shallow. The water was off color too. Not so much a muddy color but more of a milky chalk. The shoreline was all shale, flat or round pieces from quarter size to dinner plate. I moved up stream and passed the guy from the parking lot.

He was nuts deep and tossing out some nice casts. He had a deep looking pool and fished on the far side. I didn't stick around too long, I had some exploring to do. I moved up stream and fished a two-fly rig in the deep pools and riffles. I had on a purple and orange egg sucking leech with a sucker meth trailer. I made cast after cast. I moved on up. There was a well beaten trail along the shoreline. I had trouble getting off the bank as everything was so muddy.

I started up the trail which soon turned to muck. I mean nasty, filthy mud. No cleats on any boots would have helped me. I trudged through it, slipped in it, slid down embankments, fell, etc. My fingertipless gloves were all muddy.

I arrived at a beach and slipped on the mud. Luckily I didn't hurt myself. I sort of hurt my back which is always a scary thing.

So I get to the beach and start swinging my flies. I begin to get hung up on the shale bottom. I loose a few tandem fly rigs. I work each and every pool. I hook into a tree on the other side and luckily free my rig. A sign that others fish this hole- there are flies broken off and dangling from the same tree. I move up river. By now there is all sorts of broken glass on the shore. Blue, turquoise, green, brown, white, etc. I start finding all sorts of shards of ceramic too.

I pass a dead steelehad on the shore. I move up and keep fishing. The water is cold. My toes are numb. The rain has not let up. A few flakes mixed in. Not a single fish other than that one -->

I get to a deep hole. I mean deep. I was worried that my back pack would get wet as I walked along the shoreline. It was a sandy bottomed hole. There were lots of footprints on the shore so I figured there would be fish here-others had spent some time here.

All I did was hook the trees behind me and lose another tandem rig. I walked up and around a slight bend only to find another wall. The water was fast and shallow. The reason the pictues are so dark is that it was really this dark out. I was wearing my yellow polarized sunglasses I picked up on Amazon. They were $21 and do a great job.

I decided the wall was as far as I wanted to go upstream. I found a spot where the water was shallow. It was rather fast but this was my best option for crossing. I wanted to fish the other shoreline back down. I did so. This side was deeper and I had some better access to the holes. Not a single bite.

I returned to fish the water above the guy who was fishing the long rod. I lost a couple of rigs in the hole above. I met two other anglers who agreed that the weather sucked but it's better than not fishing. They fished the water above me, from the beach where I fell down from the bank. I continued down and got to fish some water I could not reach from the other shore. After losing two more tandem rigs I decided to pack up and head back. I fished one more spot, under the bridge near the parking lot. I lost a fly there too. What is it with this river?

I returned to my car. As soon as I opened the doors the rain turned to snow. Really! Why could I not have had snow when I was fishing. I was soaked. My bag was soaked. I got the car started and the windows all fogged up. I headed straight to the sandwich shop.

This was a no frills place. I didn't know what to expect. The menu had a dozen or so options. I really wanted a hot sub--like a cheese steak. The place is called What About Bob's.

I ordered the #8 Bob's Ultimate Roast Beef Sub

Juicy roast beef, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, mild peppers, garlic, provolone, Bob's horseradish & sub sauce. 12" long. It was ready in about a minute. I got a big fountain drink with some caffeine for the ride back. I sat in my car and took a bite. Are you kidding me? The first thing I noticed was the bread. I had not had a baguette like this since Paris. Crusty, chewy, and flavorful. The roast beef and toppings were exactly what I needed after four hours of casting. I devoured 3/4 of the sub on the spot.

With a belly full of awesomeness I looked up the local fly shop. Chagrin River Outfitters was only about 18 minutes away. The drive there was beautiful. Huge houses on Pepper Pike with snow covered yards. The snow was thick and heavy and coated everything. About a mile from the shop I saw a bunch of turkeys on the shoulder. As I approached they decided to fly right in front of me/over my car. That was a first. I was scared they would hit me. These were some big birds.

I got to the shop around 4pm. I was in need of some Thingamabobbers. The only one I had brought broke. I figured If had had more I would not lose so many flies the next time. I had the map I printed off and walked into the shop. I was greeted by Bill. I was picking out my items when I was approached and we started talking about my day. I had the map and he told me some spots to fish the next time. Chargrin's shop was very cozy. They had hard wood floors, wall decorations, all sorts of colorful tying materials, and were pushing American made reels to the other guy.

He circled the spots and told me where deep holes were, logs, bends, etc. I picked up some tying thread and sniffed around some more. I spoke with another customer who has family this way. We discussed how great the living prices are in Ohio compared to Northern Virginia. The shop had some very unique patterns. I made my purchase of a handfull of pink strike indicators and headed back to the car.

The snow was dumping by now. I found the GPS unit in the car and entered my in-laws house. It was about 2.5 hours away.

Little did I know the snow was going to continue to dump for 2 of those hours. The road back sucked. It was a total white knuckle drive.

The rods were not getting plowed. A few inches were piling up. The left and right lanes were covered with snow. Changing lanes proved to be a slippery ordeal.

Every truck that went by in the right lane threw chunks of snow and ice onto my car temporarily blinding me. I got back to the house in a few hours. I had the remainder of my sandwich and more podcasts to listen to for entertainment.

I walked into the house in the rain. Poured a pint of Guinness and took a hot shower. I then unpacked and started planning my next trip for Thursday to the spots Bill suggested. The only problem was I left the map with his directions at the fly shop.

I called the shop on Wednesday and spoke to another dude. He said the map was still on the desk. He told me where it was marked and I printed off another map and re-created those instructions. I was told not to fish on Thursday as all that snow had melted and the water was too high to fish. I was told not to fish until the levels dropped below 4,000 CFS. This saved me a nearly 6 hour drive. Many thanks to the guy who answered the phone.

I spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning watching the water levels drop. I made the call on Thursday night to get up early and drive to the new spot.

I pulled out of the garage around 0645 and headed north. The weather was cold, dark, and dry. I didn't see any sun on the horizon for at least 2 hours. Only a slight pink hue glazed the horizon over a barn. It would have made a great picture. I stopped and filled the tank at a BP with $3.16 gas. It was cold.

I passed the Cuyhoga river and there was a cool bridge. I remember this is the river that once caught on fire.

I arrived at the new spot or at least what I thought was the spot Bill suggested. Ice was all around. The ponds I passed on the road in were frozen. Ice puddles filled the fields.

The parking lot was covered in ice. I had to put on my layers right away. It was frigid. The wind made it worse.

I met a guy who was suiting up. He has spin gear. He was amazed I didn't have a wading staff. He said that pockets of sand and silt will fill in gaps between the shale and you can get stuck. I made a mental note to grab a branch when crossing. He said there is a little bit of fishing above the bridge and a little bit below. I chose to go downstream.

I think I found the fallen tree Bill told me about. I fished over it and in the holes created by the current underneath. Nothing. Probably better fished from the other side. I found a big crayfish in the sand.

I moved down to the next deep hole. There was a wall on one side with a cut out bank. A stream flowed in. I saw some guys in the middle. I went back upstream to cross as the wall was a dead end for me on this side.

I crossed and began to fish some deep holes below a cut bank. No fish. I was getting my line and myself all caught up in the trees. I can't remember the species. I have my guide books in storage. I know they have crenate leaves and white pendulous flowers in summer (I'm a nerd). The stems are hollow. They don't grow more than 6 feet tall. As they were hollow, I used my boots to crush them as I made my way down stream. I was now sweating and had to open up my jacket and lose the hat.

I arrived at the hole and said 'how's it going' to one of the fly anglers. He had looked up from his fly box when I arrived, he looked at me when I greeted him and then put his nose back into his fly box. Rather rude.

Those guys looked to be camped out. Two were waist deep in the middle of the outside of the bend and tossing flies into the deep current. I moved on.

I found some riffles and some deep pools. I fished and hiked for another hour or so. Nothing. I saw lots of wood peckers.

One more guy joined in on the fishing. He had a big net. I hope that was an omen. I talked to him and watched him for a while. I was now getting cold from the sweat cooling off. I had moved far enough down that the water was wide and shallow. Time to turn around and head back. I was hankering for a sandwich and maybe another spot to fish. It was noonish.

I asked if he would mind me crossing upstream from him and he gave me permission. I tried but it was too deep and too fast. I noticed the three fly guys were leaving that deep hole. One was fishing below and the other two were on the other side. I moved on up and tied on a red/orange/white popsicle with a chartreuse egg on the front. I had on a pink sucker spawn as the dropper. I made some casts and not much was going on. The guy below me started to walk up. And here is when things got good.

I made a 60+ foot cast to the head of the pool. Mend after mend, I got that fly down. On this, the fifth of casts, I got a tug. My line went straight and the rod tip started to bend. I had a fish. I reeled up the slack as soon as I could. The guys were now watching. They had fished all morning and nothing. It gave me some confidence that I came in and got a fish right away.

I fought the fish on the reel and go it to the shore. I handed the fish to the guy and asked if he could snap some pics. I took out my camera. Took some pics of him with the fish to adjust the light-with what ever light there was on this overcast day. We switched and I had the fish. I knelt down in the water, wet the fish, and lifted it up. I told him to hold down the shutter. We got about half a dozen pics. I put the fish back in. I was in an adrenaline rush. The fish started to swim away and I grabbed the tippet. The fish broke it off. I'm hoping the barbless hook came out easily.

The fish had all of its fins, looked more like a wild fish than a hatchery. The pectoral fins normally are rubbed off in hatchery fish from them swimming in circles against concrete pens.

I'm going to name the fly the 'tennis ball sucking popsicle'

I tied on my last popsicle fly and lost it on the bottom. Turns out the guy who took the picture had never been fishing before. His first time out was fly fishing. He turned out to be the nicer of the three. We chatted and I gave him some flies. His buddy came over and he started to talk. However the original guy I greeted was still standoffish.

I was now hungry. I decided to end on a high note. It was now raining. I walked back to the car and headed to Bob's. I got there in about 20 minutes. I went to the front door. It was locked and the store was empty. I was confused. There was a sign with an arrow to the left. <-- use other door.

Turns out they expanded in the past two days. I walked in and immediately slipped on the floors-still wearing studs. The old place had rubber mats on the floor. The place was huge. And sold pizza and burritos.

I ordered the #6 Bob's Ultimate Turkey Sub
Oven roasted turkey breast, turkey ham, turkey pastrami, mild peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, garlic, provolone, Bob's ultimate sub sauce.

As I waited for my sub I noticed a guy in waders! I chatted him up. He said that the rain had been strong all morning and the water was rising. They hooked some fish but didn't land any (Todd Field).

My sandwich and fries were ready. I headed back to the car and drove down to the parking lot.

I used my hemostats to open a bottle of Moosehead lager. A clean and crisp beer. Its been a favorite for years.

I stood in the rain under the awning of the trunk. I ate in the cold. I watched a guy string up his rod and gear up and head to the water. I ate my food in a few minutes. I was fueled up and the fries warmed me up. The beer on the other hand made me cold.

I told you this place was close to the parking lot. That building at the top of the hill, that's it. This is the view from my parked car.

I made it down to the river. The guy who was gearing up was in the first section of riffles. He said he hooked a few earlier in the day. I managed to get a picture of the river's mondo huge squirrels.

I started to fish the first bend. I was immediately greeted by two anglers with a huge steelhead on a stringer. That breaks my heart. I know people have to eat and their tax dollars and license pay for their fish so what can I say. They crossed below me. I started to lose flies again. Another angler walked down with another stringer full of steelheads. These were much bigger than the one I caught.

I was getting bummed out now. I made a few more casts, then decided I should get back to Bexley. I missed the baby lady. I cut off my fly and packed up. While the last drive back was all snow, this was pouring rain.

I stopped at the GoAsis. A combination Taco Bell x Starbucks x Pizza Hut x convenience store x tchotchke shop. I filled up on gas and headed out. This place was great. Of course, I was still wearing cleats and I almost wiped out on the floor.

I got back to Bexley around 6pm. I was tired. I caught my fish. I was proud of myself. What a way to end the year.

Next time I'm up I hope to get out and do some steelhead fishing. I'll be sure to stop in to Mad River to thank Lou and to Chagrin River to thank Bill.

On a side note, there were some HUGE clams in the river.

O.A.R. @ 9:30 Club
Download The Show Here
9:30 Club 11.27.2002 - Washington, DC With: Matt Nathanson

Set 1:
1. Night Shift
2. Ladanday
3. Whose Chariot?
4. About An Hour Ago
5. King Of The Thing
6. Destination (Fire On The Mountain Tag)
7. Conquering Fools
8. Risen
9. Toy Store
10. Hey Girl
11. Road Outside Columbus
12. Get Away
13. Earthward
14. That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker
Encore:

Road Music | Washed Out

2012-01-05T12:56:00.002-05:00

This is unlike most music I listen to. Not sure how to categorize it either. I came about this artist accidently when watching one of the MTV channels that actually plays music.

You could say I first heard Washed Out on the intro to Portlandia the TV show.

Then one day last September we were on MTV and came across this video. It wasn't so much the song that caught my eye but the scenery and story. A kid backpacking/bumming around Iceland. He goes from house parties to taking a bath with a hottie, building camp fires, walking on volcanic sand beaches and hithchiking. I was intrigued by the story line and kept the station on as background noise for a day or so until I saw the complete video from the start and learned the artist.

Click Here For Link To Video
If you are at work and just want to listen to the music, click below.

I listened to a lot of Washed Out on the recent drive to the steelehad water of north east Ohio before the new year. It makes for some good driving tunes. Check him out on Spotify and then download some to take on your next road trip (along with my podcasts)

Fly Fishing Blue Plains

2012-01-04T09:39:00.001-05:00

Dale and I went out on an exploratory trip on my boat a few weeks back. It was the first venture out in the boat on and down the Potomac with my Mercury outboard. I was a bit nervous taking my boat out into the middle of the river with an engine. There were no major issues except when a black trash bag in the water wrapped around the engine prop. We had to stop the boat in the open and I had to de-tangle the engine in the frigid water.

There was a plus to this day, it was in the upper 50's in late December, a week before Christmas. We didn't wear gloves or winter hats!

We cruised down river with ease. The winds were coming from the north west at about 10mph. The trip down to Blue Plains was took about half an hour.

What is Blue Plains you ask? It is D.C's sewer water treatment plant. All the sewage goes into the plant and is cleaned and processed somehow and is then dumped back into the Potomac. I've heard about this place for years. The water is discharged into the Potomac crystal clear and warm. Thus you can see all of the fish that congregate there to warm up. You can only get there via boat.

We were not able to immediately find this warm water output. We first noticed something large on a rock sticking out. Turns out to be a huge bald eagle feasting on a fish.

The bird spooked and flew off.

We motored down and around the parking pier. A mondo huge carp lept out of the water next to our boat and made a huge splash.

We dropped anchor below the pier and started to fish. The wind was picking up. We saw several gizzard shad moving around.

We pulled up the anchor to try and find the warm water discharge. We dropped anchor below the big treatment building.

The water was stained from the recent rainstorms. We did not get to experience the clear water. We found where the water was bubbling up. The entire area smelled like a combination of a fish market x port a potty x cheap bathroom aerosol spray.

Dale foul hooked a gizzard shad. Before long the wind picked up to 25mph. I was having trouble tossing an 8wt with a 10wt sink tip line. It was getting a bit scary out there. Throw in the fact that we are in a boat for the first time down here, I made the call and after only 20 minutes of fishing we pulled anchor and motored back up river. I was in the stern and was getting splashed by all the waves coming over.

There is not a whole lot of information on fly fishing at Blue Plains. I hope to further my research and share images and video for you here. Stay tuned. Learning to fish there is a work in progress.

2011 Fly Fishing Year In Review

2011-12-29T17:08:00.001-05:00

If one picture could be used to sum up the entire year, it would be this:

Thank you all for reading this in the past year. I sit here in Columbus, Ohio with a pint of Guinness on my in laws desk. We just had a sleet storm roll through. I spent the past day out on the Chagrin River swinging flies for steehead, my first Ohio fly fishing trip. I hope to go back out tomorrow. By the time you finish reading this text, all the images should be loaded.

I'm going to tell the year of 2011 in fly fishing through the pictures I have taken. Some may be new to you if this is your first foray over here, if not, hope you enjoy them again. It was a great year. I spent over 300 days guiding, became a dad, taught hundreds how to fly fish, caught several new species on the fly rod, and we'll start fresh in a few days.

Remember that over 90% of my clients this year had never picked up a fly rod before meeting me at the water. They caught some huge fish, some medium sized fish, and some ridiculously small fish.

January was cold. We spent that time on Four Mile Run in Arlington Virginia. The carp, shad, bass, crappie, and bluegill hang out there in the winter due to the warm water discharge from the sewage plant. I consider Arlington County's number 2 as my number 1 business.

Hanging out under the bridges to escape the brutal wind

Crappie caught under Rte 1

Largemouth on the fly in the middle of winter

The end of January brought me to the Fly Fishing Show in Sommerset, NJ. I volunteered my time to help out Project Healing Waters raise some money

The "Purple Heart" fly

This show is great due to the amount of fly tying material you can pick up

I grabbed A LOT of material from this vendor. I tie a lot of flies as we loose and destroy a lot of flies. I'd say we lost well over 300 damsel nymphs this year.

Look at all those capes. Before the hair extension fad

I met Dave Whitlock

Cold winter nights were spent building up the fly inventory for the year. Starting with shad flies. Trent and Dalton came over to tie one night. Plenty of booze was on hand.

And shenanigans

Frank and I fished one bitterly cold day. I think it was his birthday. He caught this stinky gizzard shad at Four Mile

We then went up on the old overpass to check out the carp, goldfish, and catfish below

Frank waded in

Stocked rainbows on Holmes Run during a 45mph wind

Some macro scud pictures

Back to Four Mile. This was foul hooked. Look at the size of this fish

Valentines weekend at Holmes. We fish chartreuse buggers here as the stream is so dark in winter. You can't see any other color fly

Back to Four Mile. Look at the density of winter carp. Can't wait to get out there next week

For real, this is what happens when the main stem of the Potomac is cold and there is warm water in Four Mile. Look at the koi on the top right. Bright orange

And Holmes again. Its now mid February

Tiny bluegill were all we managed on this warm day. By early March the surface action started to heat up

The koi just would not take any flies

I dammed up this section of Holmes Run one day. I made the stream deeper and more favorable to the trout. Little did I know we would get 5" of rain the next few days and it would all be washed away.

Up to Philadelphia for more volunteer work at the Fly Fishing Show. This is my old friend Bill Skilton

His hellgrammites are inspiration for mine. It took me years of looking to find the right material. Which I found a few weeks later

We had plenty of beer back at the hotel that night

Tom Baltz is a guide and great tier. He is out of Pa.

Check out the guy on the floor watching Bob Clouser

I got back to Holmes after the Pa trip to find the dam I made was blown out. We still fished the creek and found some trout.

No waders required here. Just walk on the posts

By mid March the frogs are out and spawning. This is an indication that we need to start focusing on shad

One more nice trout before we head back to Chain Bridge

We managed to get a close up of the frogs on the way back

St. Patricks day weekend brought us to the D.C. Fly Fishing Show. A generous donation to Project Healing Waters in the way of tying material

My first look at Tenkara rods. I really want one.

March 26 started the shad season on the tidal Potomac. Some winter stoneflies came out once the temps reached a balmy 50

The first stinky gizzard shad of the season

As soon as the shad arrive, the Tidal Basin lights up

Rob with a big gizzard shad. We were called snaggers by a guy down stream this day. He went on the message boards to bash us saying we were snagging fish left and right and photographing them. This was the only fish we photographed and it was hooked in the mouth. We are not snaggers

One of the last pics before a client's kid dropped this net in the river. I just replaced it on Xmas eve

The new net, me and Tom's salmon net. A father and son taking pics. Love it

Notice the hook in the mouth

The first of 6 full beers found this year

On a beautiful Friday we caught this smallie

These fish stink

April 7 was the best shad fishing day I have ever seen. I got in on the action as my client ended his day. We got a bite on every cast for at least an hour. Holt caught more shad on double rigged shad darts on his spinning rod. It was insane. Rain came the next day and ruined it

Dan and Trent at the Casting Call

A Potomac river sturgeon. We couldn't take the boats out that day as the river was flooding. Little did we know the next day (VA Fly Fishing Festival) we would get 6 more inches!!!

Me in the flooded tent. I was hoping to make more sales and book trips but when its cold and torrential raining, people don't come out

As the river rose to 15' we had to fish the creeks

First flesh hook of the season

The next day these clients were out there with their own rods and reels. They purchased a set after our trip

A few more stockies as the river levels were receding

This hole is now gone after tropical storm Lee and river bank construction. It was known for always producing a fish

Back to the river. Perch, shad, etc. This was the day after Easter. The day the snakeheads showed up

Herring

White perch

This snakehead was caught with a cast net

Holt holding a sand covered fish. It made enough slime that it washed the sand off itself. Gross

The fish then was clubbed. It took 7 hits to kill it

This fish was next. It fed 20 people at a BBQ hosted by Holt

First schoolie of the season. First week of May

Rebecca outfished everyone during the shad run. We later discussed how the pictures didn't do justice to the size of what she caught. We were caught up in a torrential downpour and had to leave

And then we got another flood. This is the river at 9'. We were fishing from the staircase down and fishing where we normally walk. We were in the trees. One big crappie was all we got. I called it after a few hours and after loosing a half dozen flies in the trees

Mid May. We start taking out the drift boat in Reston.

Dominic with the biggest bass of the year. This was taken on a 1" foam bug

Plenty of strong bluegill

This pregnant female bass swam through a six pack ring and was stuck. She kept growing until she could not open her gills enough. She was dead only an hour or so

Miles out on the boat after my clients

A break from rowing and a trip to Holmes for some bluegill. Trout don't survive this late into the season due to less Oxygen held in warm water

Yay the river has dropped. I caught this snakehead with my net. It was just sitting in the shallows. I got really good at catching them. I was then informed by the US Park Police that it is illegal to harvest them without a rod and reel

Thus this dude with a home made spear is breaking the law

This day was full of schoolies

And perch

Home made spears

Back to the lake. Its hard to fish the river on weekends now with the crowds. So we hit the suburbs

This was actually a Friday morning. We fished for 3 hours and covered most of the lake

Two fish on two flies. Bass nun-chucks

Scott with a hog of a bluegill

I managed to sight cast to this bass in the shallows. I thought it was hot out. It was in the 70s

The river had dropped enough that this client was standing on dry land which was where we were casting flies a month ago

One of the smallest fish of the year

Her first time with a fly rod

And her sister. But wait, its bass nun-chucks

Monday morning after my wife's baby shower. This was the last day of double hook ups for every client on the lake

I had some time off so I went to the Tidal Basin

I was fishing for carp when I hooked the biggest fish I've ever landed. A 34" snakehead

I took out Basil the next day. He landed somewhere around 5 carp in 2 hours

I was fishing with him. I landed a few of these. And lost 3 gar

A beautiful Saturday on the lake

Their dog was a recent family addition. She went on the boat with us and had to lick each fish

Double hook up, bluegill nun-chuck

Miles, Trent and I went exploring Belle Haven Marina. Miles wacked this fish on his spoon fly. It was 91 degrees out. We all were dying

Some big Potomac channel cats on the fly

Nick with a small bass. This kid doesn't catch small fish. He then got into needle fish. The one fish stinkier than a gizzard shad

No complaints with this striper

I had a break between clients and caught my biggest Potomac striper to date

A fun loving couple out on the boat. They were preparing for a 100 mile bike race.

It was in the 90s and we talked micro brews as we didn't have any beer to cool us down

Sunday May 29. We are fishing Lake Anne in Reston. I get the call from my wife to get to the hospital, its time! I went to work not expecting to be a dad until Thursday. What a surprise

Matt with a 'foam depot' trolled bass. The last of the big bass of the season. This is when the heat started. Love the beer can lanyard

More couples on the boat. We were supposed to go out again in October but we got a cold rain and snow event

2nd hook in the flesh of the year

The little one said to the big one 'there aren't any fish here' and then the older one hooked this beautiful smallie

And a son hooked his father in the neck (no. 3) before dad caught a nice smallie. By now the summer heat is starting up and its probably 96 out on the river

The son not only hooked his dad, but he hooked this spinning rod which still had a worm on its hook!

My first client hook up with my Snowhite Hellgrammite

He caught two two in one minute. A bluegill and then a tree

The ladies were the last clients of the day. They tore it up

Megan with a fun sized largemouth

A father and son double hook up

These guys pulled in a lot of bluegill

Even by the end of the year, I maintained my record that everyone on my boat in Reston has caught a fish since I started taking people out there in 8th grade

These clients were awesome. They wanted to learn to fly fish before they moved to Oahu with 'waterfront property on a bay with two ocean kayaks out back' Rough life. My military clients always have great stories about places they get stationed. I have an open invitation to fish that back yard if ever I get back out there

These sisters caught plenty of fish

A family from Utah (get me two-a Point Break reference of course)

The Snowhite Hellgrammite next to the real thing. I think this one I found inside my shirt after wet wading on July 4

My last dragonfly sunvisor

French clients

We continued to catch fish on the lake well into September and even November!

Now that I am a dad, I wanted to fish closer to home so I could be back and help out. We moved from Reston to Burke. The days on Burke were windy and temps hovering around 100

The Potomac on the weekends started to taper off when the water level got to 97 degrees. We were joking that one could pee in the water while wet wading too cool off. After the water got hot and the visibility never cleared up, I called it. We were done fishing the middle Potomac. Here are some last shots from the river

Some SLHS students.

A rainy evening in August. We met at Gravelly and got into stripers. My clients have lived in Patagonia, Pacific northwest, Scotland, and some tropical place. So jealous. She caught a couple nice schoolies

A weekend trip to Reston.

This client lives in my old neighborhood down the street on Glade

Roaches Run. The water was cooling off by mid August. This guy caught a yellow perch on his second cast

Gravelly on a weekend in early September. He caught his first fly rod fish. Some schoolies. While he was talking to me he had his fly dangling in the water. A perch ate it. He and his dad were in the 6'6" range and I felt very, very short

What a better birthday present for a 7 year old than to go fly fishing

Greg not only put a hook through his middle finger, but he caught this nice bass. It was the night before hurricaine Irene

I finished with clients early and my wife dropped off the baby lady with my parents. We went out on the lake and drank some booze and caught some fish

Me and Scott first tried to catch some wild chickens living at Roaches Run. When that failed, we tried for some snakeheads

Summer was over and its mid September. My focus (you know this because you listened to my podcast on annual periodicity right?) was on striped bass. We got into some schoolies. Victor was out and used this method to photograph himself with his schoolie

I had time before meeting a client so I fished with some friends one night. Notice my net. Tom built that for me from scratch!

Scott with a mondo huge smallie at Gravelly. I was down stream with a client and we watched him fight this fish in at dead low tide. I ran to him to get the pics. Love the smell of his pipe

Crappie on the swing

A late September Reston trip. It was a surprise for his birthday

Everyone got into some nice fish this day on the lake

I took out the guys from GoFishn for snakeheads. We saw one snakehead in the shallows crashing bait. We got a nice catfish behind it

October. It was cold and rainy this day. We all wore waders to protect against the 25mph wind and 49 degrees. The fish were biting though

She dropped the fish before we could photograph it. It was that big....

I took a trip up to New York for some salmon and steelhead. My 3rd Saturday off since Valentines

Salmon spawning. Note the dorsal fin sticking out. The color on the water is the reflection from the leaves

Love this picture

Back to work in late October. Taking the baby lady with me to work.

Mother and daughter on Holmes. The stream was completely changed after tropical storm Lee

These are out of order, they are middle Potomac pics from summer.

Burke lake, it was 101 degrees this day

Her first fish on a fly rod, on a dry fly!

This is way out of order. This is Scott with a nice schoolie at Chain Bridge

July 4th.

Just realized why these are out of order. They were taken with the point and shoot

This was the client I was with when Scott caught that smallie at Gravelly. She site casted this fish, first fish on a fly rod

Fishing with David at night at Gravelly. Probably the best night we ever had out there size wise.

By late November the sun was setting around 5pm. We were casting into the sunset

Lowest tide I have seen at Gravelly. Last set of clients there with waders for the year

We found this huge crayfish

Off to California. Baby lady enjoying some In-N-Out

We caught a stingray, corbina, and halibut

Back to winter fishing. Our focus until the shad arrive is carp and bass on Four Mile

Grass carp

Black Friday bass in Reston

Yellow perch

Four Mile bass taken on a bead head nymph

Crappie on bead head nymph

Bluegill on dry flies in December

His first cast ever fishing!

More grass carp

Los Angeles pictures

And thats it.

2011 Lost & Found While Fly Fishing

2011-12-21T14:19:00.000-05:00

It has been a long year on the water. The more you are out, the better chance you have of finding stuff. Here is a consolidated list of crap I've found (and yes, I've literally found that too. Some people have no manners to go close to the water). I recorded a podcast on the matter which is being tweaked by producer Jason. In the meantime, here is the list.

I'm sure there is more but I can't think of them at the moment:

· 20+ soccer balls

· A car

· A locket

· Bag of zoom brand salty fat albert watermelon seed grubs
· Bass that swam through a six pack ring and died

· Bobbers

· Broken rods

· Budweiser can

· Bud light

· Birthday Cake

· Camera
· Cast net new in box

· Canoe paddle
· Chickens

· Clothing: shoes, flip flops, hats, sunglasses, bras, underwear, jeans, shoulder bag
· Coolers (3)

· Crankbaits

· Dog leash

· Fly rod fighting butt

· Leather Foot ball

· High life

· Kayak paddle

· Lamp shade

· Long handled net

· Motorcycle helmet

· Mountain bike

· Picnic table

· Pink plastic flamingo

· Pliers

· Pocket knife

· Pool noodles

· Purses (2)

· Reel -saltwater size

· Rod reel

· Rubber worms

· Sinkers

· Skeleton glove

· Skis- cross country

· Spinner baits

· Stetlla bottle

· Strap on dildo

· Thingamabobber

· Weights

· Fish stringer

· Fly rod tip

· Dog toys

· Random shoes and flip flops

Lost

· Couple hundred flies

· Landing net

· Fish bat

· Protective glasses

· Wader straps

Wading Jackets Podcast

2011-12-19T15:10:00.001-05:00

Blog post on the subject matter with pictures

Here is the text to the recent podcast:

S01E30 Wading Jackets – piggy backing on layering podcast

What is a wading jacket?

-term used by anglers for a jacket worn while fly fishing. Typically worn while wading out in the water. Catered and built to suit the needs of the angler.

Form vs. function

Shell vs. insulated

· Is it just a protective barrier against the elements

· Or is it built for warmth

· Material- gore tex, breathable, waxed, down

· Protection from what: rain, wind, snow, ice cold,

Fishing company vs. outdoor company

· You will pay more for a brand name

· Made by fisherman or other outdoor company

· Is it catered to fishing needs, hardcore angler vs. weekend warrior

· What is it built for: Ski, fishing, hiking, hunting, kayaking,

· Brands: Loop, Patagonia, kokatat, simms, reddington, orvis, barbour, frog togs, hardwear, north face, ll bean,

Packable –

· store in your vest if you wear one of those

· If its raining, if its going to rain, just in case

Layering underneath

· Get an extra size

· Extra zipper for base layer

Anatomy

· Arm length

· Articulations- freedom of movement

· Beverage holder inside

· Cuffs – Velcro, latex, keep rain out if arm elevated. Keep water out when submerge

· D rings – on pockets, arms, back

· Draw strings

· Height – deep water vs shallow water

· Hood –articulated, zip off, hat cover, moldable over hat

· Pockets

o fly boxes, sandwich, keys, drain holes

o mole skin lined

o put hand warmer packs in there

· Reflectors – so people can see you. Find on kayaking jackets

· Rod holder

· Stitching vs welded

· Taped pockets

· Weight – do you want to be wearing a heavy material all day

· Ventilation pockets – let out body heat

· Ventilation zippers – let out body heat from arm pits

Winter Carp Fly Fishing

2011-11-30T18:30:00.001-05:00

Its that time of year again folks. The main stem of the Potomac is getting colder. The fish are going to be less active as their metabolism drops- remember they are exothermic ("outter" "temperature") meaning they do not generate their own body heat, they are the same temperature as the water they are in. Colder organisms slow down-which is why I had the window open in the winter time in my classroom when I was a teacher-trying to get those crazy kids to be cold and less active.

I've had the stomach flu the past couple of days so I've sat up at night and read some carp fly fishing articles and scrolled through carp fly patterns. I had to cancel my clients on Sunday as I was still chundering in the morning. I'm upset that I let them down. One was a 10 year old who has his own fly rod! I'm jonzing to get out and put clients on a carp.

My go to spot for fishing with clients, friends, and solo is a little place called Four Mile Run. Read the link and know why its called that.We fish the red rectangle area to the right -->

We have not caught a carp since the spring so I'm looking forward to the winter months. The fish come into the stream as there is a sewage plant that releases the clean water in the upper 60f temperature range. All sorts of fish come up there: koi, common carp, bluegill, largemouth bass, catfish, crappie, yellow perch, and gizzard shad. One can stand on he bridges and look down on a sunny day and not see the stream bottom for all of the carp cover the bottom. I'm not kidding, carp as long as your leg that cover the entire viewing area. The gizzard shad jump all winter and the bluegill will take bead head nymphs with relish.

There are some drawback to fishing here. A lot of people do not appreciate and respect the resource. Litter can pile up. I spent last Saturday cleaning only about 30 feet of shoreline and filled two of those giant leaf litter bags. It was gross. Lots of discarded beer cans and bottles, nightcrawler tubs, and cans of corn. Throw in the fact that this section is tidal and what ever washes in at high tide is left on the shoreline-you get some dirty shoreline. There is graffiti under the overpasses and I think someone was living under the first bridge last year.

We'll be tossing 5wt-8wt rods from nine feet long to eleven. Floating lines or sinking. Sometimes there will be an indcator. The shad will go after the thingamabobbers. Most flies will be bead head nymphs with a flash back. Rubber legs on the carp flies. Soft hackles on the bluegill flies. Bass and crappie flies will be white streamers. I'm going to try midges nymphs for the koi.

I try to keep it clean as possible for my clients. Who wants to pay money to go fish in filth? The one thing to remember is that I'm an urban fly fishing guide. We are not fishing in the headwaters of streams at 10,000 feet above sea level. Dealing with this stuff is what we do on a daily basis. Its right off the highway. There are overpasses with trains, the Metro, and cars. Helicopters and planes from the airport (the runway ends at the mouth of the stream) fly overhead- its loud. But there are fish. And the fish bite. And they bite in the cold, windy winter.

This stream is right in our backyards. We don't have to drive several hours to central Pennsylvania, western Maryland, or past rte 81 in Virginia. We fish this spot because its close and consistent. If you could hook up to a 20lb carp during your lunch break you would probably want to no? Catch a crappie on your way home from work or after you pick up some Festivus presents at the Pier 1 Imports or Target next to the water.

You can fish from shore- wear shoes with good traction. There is no room to overhand cast so be prepared to roll cast. There is a lot of metal fencing to walk on. It can get slippery. You can fish from a boat. Drive one down from Gravelly Point or put on in at the boat 'slide' that is up by the baseball field. Brave enough to wade it? Its tricky, its a soft mud bottom and the mud stanks. And its windy. So be prepared for that.

Tomorrow is the first official day of winter. You are going to see a lot of blog posts about this section from now until spring.

Want to learn how to fish here? Send me an e-mail rob@robsnowhite.com and we can set up a trip. We'll then go over to Cheesetique for a grilled pimento sandwich and a glass of Rioja.

Links:

Fly Fishing & Eating In Los Angeles

2011-11-22T17:48:00.001-05:00

We spent last week in Los Angeles. Our base camp was the Ritz in Marina Del Rey. Lucky for us! THW and the baby lady flew into LAX with out an issue. We had brunch at my parent's house in Reston and they dropped us off at Dulles. As THW checked us in and had the luggage shipped, I chatted with the sky cab people. I asked if they had seen the naked man the other day and they confirmed. We then got on the new tram system -no more of those odd people movers! We landed at LAX in the afternoon and went to pick up my brother in law (BIL). We shuttled to the rental car and off to the hotel. Baby lady had her first breakdown a mile from the hotel. She didn't cry once on the plane. Not bad for a six month old baby that happens to be a lady. Jump straight to the fly fishing section by searching 'tuesday'

In the previous blog post I stated this was a business trip for THW and that I was baby siting. I would try to balance babysitting with fly fishing. The trip turned out to be 1/3 fly fishing 1/3 eating and 1/3 family time.

We checked into the hotel and got a watermelon cooler from the front desk. Yum. Then headed to Cha Cha chicken. We heard about this spot on the Food Network. However when I saw the following segment it was the right side up.

Based on the above clip, I ordered the coconut fried chicken. It was not as I had expected. It was crunchy and tasty but no coconut flavor to it. Maybe its because I live across the street from a Korean fried chicken joint and my standards have been elevated. Its a BYOB eatery so I went across the street for s 6 pack of beer. The dipping sauces and sides were good and I had a full belly. We drove back to the hotel.

Sunday:

We ventured over to Santa Monica for the farmers market. I had hoped to be dropped off at the beach and wet a line.

We parked across the street from the farmers market and walked around. The produce was awesome. So fresh and local. Not only were there vendors, there were people cooking meals. We were able to sample all the great fruits and veggies and get a late breakfast.

On display were some hilarious birds, goats, and sheeps for the kids.

Check out the fro on this bird

This chicken was hilarous looking. I wanted to pluck it to tie some flies.

i love ducks. I get to see a lot of ducks in my line of work. I find them funny creatures. These two Indian Runners were hilarous. They were very upright and ran around all of the other animals. Very charasmatic.

The artichokes

Asparagus

Some killer samples of what you could order

Fresh pesto. Killer

One of the lanes in the market

More samples of food

Some pepper and okra sides for your entre

This chef had some intriquate tat sleeves. He was slinging eggs around.

Aquacultered mussels

Berries, berries, and more berries

The selection of greens was outstaidning.

This is The Chargeman. Listen to him, he knows what he's talking bout. He likes crepes and whipped creme.

Persimmons.

Raddish?

You can skip ahead to fishing. Its not till Saturday night.

One thing about traveling is no kitchen to cook all this great stuff.

Bil eating a sandwich.

My torta. It was awesome. Made by former gang members, learning to cook, and cleaning up their lives.

Baby lady

Back to the animals, the funny bird is now sitting on top of a goat. Really?

Then the funny dark chicken gets pissed at the funny white one and it starts to pluck out its feathers and EAT them?

Off to the Santa Monica Pier. This is a group of volunteers that sets up crosses for service men and women killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. This lady was playing a wooden flute.

This lady had an outfit made out of hackle feathers!

Plasti

Some type of merganser?

Went to check out the people fishing on the pier. This lady caught a white towel.

Some of the fish, the only fish, caught off the pier that day.

I start to see our fly fishing feathers used in earrings. Guinnea fowl, pheasant, chicken, peacock, etc.

These were in a store window

We find a Korean BBQ fusion truck. Awesome. I'm parched. I forgot my Nalgene so I didn't have anything to drink all morning. And the baby was up at 4:30am as she was on eastern time. So I had been up for a very long time and was parched.

Then its time to drive around. Not toward a fishing spot mind you. I was not in charge. When you are travelling with twins, they make the rules. We did a drive to Rodeo drive near Beverly Hills. Nothing major going on until we spot this lady being photographed. Notice anything strange?

Ok. I'll enlarge this next picture.

She was topless !
Back to the hotel for a sundowner ( cocktail for watching the sunset )

I have some time before dinner and the baby lady is taking a nap in the hotel room. I set off to Mothers Beach to wet a line. We by now have discovered free vodka drinks behind the hotel's front desk. BIL and I down two before we get a 3rd for the short walk. I have not fished the Pacific in a year so it was nice to be back in. I put on my waders and tossed out a tiny shrimpy clouser made with a bunny strip wing. I was distracted by all the birds: egrets, pelicans, gulls, ducks, merganser etc. I was stripping my line through the water when I felt a tug. I set the hook and pulled in the following:

A tennis ball with a mussel on it. Really? That was my first catch. I was using an 8wt switch rod with 10wt sink tip, a 30-20-10 pound leader.

Some dudes on paddle boards. Seein these things everywhere I go

So we are walking to the beach now as the beach kind of sucked. I looked at the map and it didn't look to far. However we left the map from the front desk at the hotel. On a side note, I met a lady who was jogging. She has a husband who fly fishes. I gave her my card. Her husband texted me some spots to hit up. However, my phone kind of sucks and I had to delete all text messages to save room so I don't have his contact any more. He suggested I contact Gary Bulla for information about fishing around LA. Small world, I used to share a cubicle with his sister Elizabeth when I worked at Booz Allen.

After an hours walk and a diminishing sun on the horizon, we get to some water. I spot something in the channel spouting water. Some sort of cetacean? Its as grainy as a loch ness monster shot but you can see the dark circle in the below pic. We hang a right and head straight to the beach. Its been about a 2 hour adventure so far.

The birds have gathered on the sand. I love getting birds on the shore with a silhouette. Just couldn't get close enough tonight.

I managed to get in a few casts and got one tug from a fish before it was too dark to fish. I got to fish at least for a few minutes so far. Our feet hurt from that long walk so we called THW who refused to pick us up. We called a cab and were amazed at how fast the direct route back was. Maybe a 2 minute drive ! The cab driver told us we were his worst customers of the day. That was not nice.
.

We head over to the classic California burger place. In -N- Out burger.

Just getting out of the car made me drool. The smell of onions and chow in the air. It was a rush.

I ordered a double double animal style with well done fries and a fountain drink (root beer). As for the baby lady, she just about ordered and ate everything. BIL ordered animal style fries. Steller.

Monday:

A beautiful day. My plan is to get some breakfast and be dropped off where I had fished the night before. We head out to Santa Monica again to the street of Abbot Kiney.

I took a look at the map from the front desk. Lo and behold it was NOT TO SCALE which is why we though we could walk to the beach from the hotel.

Off we drove to Santa Monica for breakfast. We saw a line outside a little take out counter and lots of people sitting around on milk crates eating.

We had to park and find out what this place was. It was Gjelina. here are some of the pictures of what we ate. I ordered the egg sandwich and a biscuit with quince paste. Best biscuit I have ever eaten.

We grabbed some milk crates to sit on and watched the funny dogs and their owners pass by and grab some food and eat. It was a phenomenal breakfast.

THW scouting out the place

Biscuit and THW's huckleberry scone

BIL's breakfast

Then we stopped off in Venice beach. This is some art outside a bathroom. Tom once told me that Venice was full of freaks. He was correct. What a strange place.

Plenty of feather merchants with all of the other chotchkeys and junk being sold.

One happy fly fishing family

There was a lot of equisetum growing all over Los Angeles.

We stopped off in a hat store. I picked up a new tweed driving cap. This is BIL with a funny helmet.

This guy played some songs for the baby lady. His name is David Alexandrou and he is really talented. His album which BIL purchased for the baby lady was highly produced and sounds great.

More feather extensions. They didn't want me to photograph them. I had to wait till they were smoking pot and or not looking. There was a lot of pot smoking going around. I was getting a contact buzz just walking around.

This guy must be a regular in Venice. He is in the new Red Hot Chili Peppers video. Its amazing now that I've been to just a few places in LA and am already recognizing them in tv commercials, shows, and videwos.

My plan was for now to be dropped off at the beach to fly fish and let the kids go somewhere else. But no. BIL wanted to see Hollywood and there was another restaurant that was famous in the foodie blogosphere.
Joans on Third.

It is a combo of a lunch take out, gourmet food provisions shop, and bakery. We got the Brussel sprout salad.

I got the pressed chicken sandwich with bacon and avocado.

Baby lady was all eyes. She was jealous.

We drove through Hollywood. This is the LA Ink shop from the tv.

And back to the hotel to take a break. BIL had to pack to fly back to San Fran. However he got to the airport and realized he forgot his keys to his car and house. So we left the hotel lobby sundowners and headed to LAX.

We called a friend 'J Bob' who went to UCLA and asked for a place to eat near by. He suggested the Manhattan Beach Brew Co.

One of the best if not the best burger I have ever had. It needed no condiments or sides. A side of curly seasoned fries, a pint of Lagunitas and I was in gustatory heaven. Here is what I ate:
FUCH’S OFFICE BURGER
USDA PRIME ground chuck topped with Gruyère and Maytag blue cheese, caramelized onions, Applewood bacon, arugula, Japanese tomatoes and a garlic aioli served on a toasted French roll.

There are more bumpers tickers on the east coast.

There are a lot of crows in LA. I wonder if they have West Nile Virus.

Tuesday:

Baby lady and I drove up to Malibu and to Leo Carillo State Park. Someone in the lobby told us to go there.

The drive up was awesome. I was looking for the house where the guys stayed in Entourage. I passed a Topanga Canyon, made me think of Boy Meets World.

At some point I want to do the entire length of the Pacific Coast Highway. I'll probably need someone else to do the driving so I don't drive off a cliff.

I was not familiar with the park so I purchased a $12 day pass. Turns out you can park on the Pacific Coast Highway and walk in. Oh well.

It was low tide. I parked baby lady in the sand next to me and made a bunch of casts. No luck. It was very pretty. If you didn't already know, I hate sand. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. We looked at the birds and rocks and some stuff that washed up on the shore. We then packed up the gear and walked up the coast. Baby lady probably had the best view of anyone getting their diaper changed that day.

The view from this vantage is in a new Subaru commercial.

Baby lady enjoying the view.

Along with all the birds, we saw a rabbit and some tiny birds. There wasn't much fishing to do so we doubled back to another spot that I saw on the way up.

We drove back and at least one of us was able to nap on the way to the Malibu Lagoon Park. According to the name and this image, the area was a lagoon at one time. The river has since broken through.

I found some piles of kelp along the shore that allowed me to cast above the waves. There was too much vegetation in the water to fish. We took pics and headed back to the hotel.

Lots of shore birds here. They were eating flies on the kelp.

Like I said, lots of shore birds.

Lizard.

Water going out of the lagoon. It was once dammed up.
Hummingbird. I spotted some red flours before I saw the bird. Birds were the first organisms to see the red color of the light spectrum, pretty much any red flower is going to be bird pollinated.

Some ducks taking off. Lots of them on the Pepperdine campus.

Wednesday found us in Long Beach. We started fishing the lagoon without much luck. This is the spot where I caught that corbina in 2007.

A couple was walking by and wanted to take out picture for the local news paper. They took my camera to get some shots of me and the baby lady together.

Tossing some line with the baby lady.

For reference if you want to fish this spot, here is what you should look up.

Next images are NSFW a bit, so be careful. Scroll past quickly if Lumberg is watching.

The things you find/catch when fishing.

The lagoon is so close to these houses. I would love to live here. I'm on a golf course. Meh.

We cross the street and head to the beach. The waves are barely there. Just lapping up against the shore. I put the stroller in the sand and we wade out to my knees. I tie on a shrimpy Clouser.

This is my flats fly box. It started on my honeymoon in 2003 and has grown and decreased over the years from flats trips to Hawaii and Florida.

About 20 min in I feel a subtle tug on my line and set the hook. I come into contact with a corbina on the other end. It was very exciting. Baby lady's first fly caught fish. A tough one to get on a fly rod. We pull it in and the thing throws the hook before I can get a picture of it.

I switch up flies to a white Turneffe crab. I toss the fly out again on a sinking tip and slowly strip. After a half our or so (with the baby lady now napping in the stroller behind me in the sand) I feel another subtle tug. I set the hook and pull out a small halibut.

Honestly, I never thought I'd catch a halibut on a fly rod. I put it in my twitter @robsnowhite and facebook but never thought it would happen. Can't tell you the thrill of catching a fish on a fly that you never thought you could get. Wish it was on one of my own patterns.

I had to wake up the baby lady to show her my catch.

Time to pack it up. I was hungry. We drove up the beach to the Yard House ($7 just to park!) and had an awesome meal

.

I ordered the truffled fried. Holy crap these are good. Then I got a club sandwich. I had to get it because I love club sandwiches, and it had bacon and avocado. I took my time eating as Kirsi was napping. I was looking out over the water.

A bunch of helicopters started to hover above and it was really loud. Glad that I had finished eating by then.

I ordered a Firestone IPA and a Lagunitas Pils. Too many beer choices so I got what I can't get back here in Virginia.

I also like the club soda so I had one of those.

Kirsi napping. It was a bit chilly. Glad she was not complaining. I think this is the first time the two of us had gone out to eat together.

The beer menu. You thought I was kidding right. This is when I wish THW was there to enjoy some pints with me. I'm glad I've gotten into craft beers. It gives us one more thing to bond over and enjoy together.

I still had some time left before I had to be back at the hotel. I decided to go to one of my favorite fly shops, Bob Marriott's. I plugged in the name to my smartphone and got the directions. Kirsi and I drove over there and it was awesome.

The guys

Extremely Low Tide @ Gravelly Point Today

2011-11-11T14:40:00.001-05:00

Factor in the 30mph winds and the full moon and you get some crazy amount of water draining from the river. I drove past Roaches Run and could see the banks exposed and the mud flats dry. There were white caps from the wind blowing from the west.

I circled through the airport and pulled into Gravelly. It was too windy to wear my cowboy hat. I met my three clients and we geared up and walked down to the water. The first sign of the low tide was all of the exposed gravel and clam shells. We walked in and barely got our knees wet. I had everyone tossing 8wt lines on 6 or 8 weight rods. To overline and add more mass to their line and thus 'cut through the wind'.

There some important things that I can get done at low tide:

Show clients the structure of the bottom so if/when they return to fish they will know where to throw their flies
Pick up all of the lost flies and lures from the river bottom and clean up lost monofiliment
Turn over rocks to find out what lives in this area.

Here are some of the pictures. We found loads of spinners, crankbaits, rubber worms, and lead weights. We pulled out enough mono to shock you. We found some giant clams and mussels. Under the rocks we found shrimp. I found one gigantic crayfish too.

The fish were not there. The wind was gusting at 30mph and there was no water to fish. Regardless, it was a great learning opportunity to fish with some biologists and kayakers.

Check out the gravel.

These are the rocks that you have to cross to get to the deeper water. I moved a bunch out of the way to make a clear entrance to the deep water.

Took this picture just a a plane was taking off.

I'm pretty sure this is one of the non-native crayfish species that was introduced to the Potomac.

Look how low the water was. Lowest I've ever seen it.

Ok, time to start packing for California.

Fly Fishing Marina Del Rey Part 1 & Dad Duty

2011-11-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

THW has a conference in California next week. This is going to be a learning experience for me as my priority is being a dad and not fly fishing. Say What!

I have not been to California since 2007. I was fishing for halibut off the beach when I caught a corbina. It was huge. Apparently its a difficult fish to catch on the fly rod, I had some beginners luck. So it would make sense that headed back to Cali for a week would want me to fish for that species again. However this time I am a dad. The baby lady and I will explore Marina Del Rey and up to Venice Beach during the day while THW is at work. My brother in law will be coming down from Oakland and wants to go inland to see Hollywood. I've been there before and I know traffic sucks between the ocean and tinsel town. I'm hoping this will be my escape to wet a line.

Just look at this place. There are more places to fish in this image than you could shake a switch rod at:

My biggest dillema is how much gear can I take with me while having to take things for the baby lady. I have to take formula, diapers, outfits, sunglasses (she has some now for when we are guiding), car seats, pacifiers, stuffed animals etc). Things I need to bring for fly fishing are switch rod, stripping basket, boot foot waders, fly boxes, reels, chest pack, tippet spools, and a lanyard. Unless I wear the waders on the plane, I probably wont' be able to take them. That means wet wading. I did it last time I was out there and it was cold.

But again, fly fishing is not my priority on this trip. Remember my trip to Oahu this time last year? The baby was still a bun in the oven. I had sunrise to sunset to play around while THW worked. This time its baby lady entertainment. It will be great for her to see the ocean for the first time. It will be awesome for me to gorge myself on some In-N-Out Burger. There is a place that makes coconut crusted fried chicken in Santa Monica. There is a Hawiian place near the hotel that has plate lunch and saimin. Both things I didn't get a good fix on in Oahu.

Of course one of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit the local fly shop. There really are none in this area. The closest is Bob Marriots.

Ever been to Marina Del Rey? Have any suggestions for places to eat? Places where I can wet a line with a baby in a Baby Bjorn? Places for me to wade out while THW and Mike are inland?

I'll keep you up to date and will have posts and pictures when I return.