This past weekend was the six month anniversary of the Wooly Bugged blog. It is incredible how fast six months can go by. I was reading over some of my posts and watching videos from the spring of 2016 and it felt like a lifetime ago. A lot of great memories captured online for as long as the internet will exist, or in the case of my blog, as long as I pay my website hosting bill. The idea for Wooly Bugged started back in May of this year after I decided to take a trip to the Yellow Creek Trout Club to christen my Orvis Recon. I caught more fish than I could count on that trip and I haven’t had bad luck on the Recon since. It seemed fitting to celebrate my six month Wooly Bugged anniversary by taking a day trip back to the Yellow Creek Trout Club.
Read moreGUEST POST: Fall Trout On The Tulpehocken
On Sunday, my brother and I wanted to take the boat out one last time before it needed to be winterized. The Susquehanna River had risen about three feet over the past week or so and looked like chocolate milk with who knows what being washed from its banks. We decided to try Blue Marsh Lake since it would be a lot safer and close to one of our favorite creeks, the Tulpehocken (“Tully”).
Read moreGoing To Combat For Lake-Run Brown Trout
One fish that has eluded me on the fly rod is the Great Lakes brown trout. Both New York and Pennsylvania now have thriving Great Lakes brown trout stocking programs. The program in New York is more mature and in late October, these brown trout that commonly grow to 30” and larger come into the Lake Ontario tributaries to spawn. Last week I was doing some research on where I’d have the best shot at catching one of these giants and the two bodies of water that kept coming up in my research were both located in western New York, the Oak Orchard and 18 Mile Creeks. I found a video on YouTube that was posted in 2015 by Holsinger’s Fly Shop, and in it, they discuss the great run of lake-run brown trout, steelhead, and salmon that comes up the 18 Mile Creek through Newfane, New York. After watching several other videos, I decided I had to head to Newfane to see if I could hook-up with one of these brown trout.
Read moreLow And Clear On The Erie Tribs
Early Friday morning I drove to Erie, Pennsylvania to kick-off my 2016 steelhead season. I met my buddy Jon at the Green Roof Inn in Girard and we decided to start our weekend of fishing on lower Elk Creek below Uncle John’s Campground. I had been watching the fishing reports out of Erie for a few weeks and the reoccurring theme was few fish and low and clear water. After fishing the Salmon River for a month, I was familiar with drought conditions and low water, but Erie has not been experiencing drought conditions, simply low water. I wasn’t sure what the Erie tributaries would look like but I was expecting conditions similar to the 2015 season. When Jon and I arrived at the state lot below the campground, we got geared up and headed down to the creek. When we got to the water, my jaw hit the ground. I couldn’t believe how low the water was. Our favorite riffle water was down to a few inches at best and there was little to no water movement in areas where it traditionally flows strong.
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