Been painting some spawns for steelhead lately

Merry Christmas! poon and bone candy

Stripoon fly: have proven to work for striped bass and caribbean tarpon!

Croton Watershed Carpn'

Orvis Friday Film Festival 

Landing in a pot of gold

Mola Mola in western Long Island Sound

bonefish patterns

Been creating some new bonefish patterns. Psyched to have them tested in the Caribbean after X mas! 

Steelhead video teaser coming soon!

Been floating some lake ontario tribs and filming with Tony Gugino from http://www.salmoncountryguide.com/ the past few days. It was an epic trip full of great footage. Planning on getting back up there in January to get a few final shots. The video should be completed in the Spring of 2012! Here is a few pics and clips to tease the avid Steelheader.

  

Spring Vermont Steelhead -Lake Champlain Trib

Vermont Steelhead fishing at its best. We must have thrown 20 diff. flies at this fish. With a slight rain we flung a San Juan and bam! 

Lake Ontario Tribs: Egg day all day!

two days till lake ontario tribs!

Connecticut atlantic salmon have been loving black/purple patterns. Jumped a fish in 15 lb range (easily) on monday which saw flow of 3 ft usgs in Beacon Falls,CT. Also talked to a local who has landed an 18 lb fish this fall. We both witnessed a monster roll at the Pines Bridge Road bend.  On a different note swinging intruders has not been producing in salmon river area. Instead eggs and more eggs are the way to go...with weight. 

Beautiful phone shot of steel at Saugatucks 1st dam in Brackish water! 18 inches. If anyone has heard of a steel caught in CT let me know. 

Had stripers on my mind earlier. Why not tie something up for the spring? 

Turkey Day Report

An epic day on Thanksgiving. Went to the Saugatuck in hopes of a searun brown. Instead I hooked my first ever CT steelhead in brackish water! I was swinging the same fly tied below for the Salmon. I also hooked up in fresh water a beautiful native tiger trout. Will get pics up second I get a new camera usb cord. Tied up an interesting pattern for these sea run brownies, a pattern that just might imitate a sea lamprey. Check out the stinger fly and the two purple bucktails. This is to imitate a lampreys arching back as it moves through the water. Youtube sea lamprey swimming and you'll see what I mean. 

Heading to Naugatuck in the morning to best my salmon of last week, see you out there! 

tight lines

Brown trout season

November 23,2011
SW CT saw 2 1/4 '' last night! Its about time mother nature got the ball rolling. Those prospecting for browns 20'' and above now is the time. These are the best conditions we have had yet this fall. Get out their before turkey day and swing some large streamers (white and black patterns). I know I will be out after dark/work tonight. Good luck out their and tight lines.

a tasty morsel

Pot of Gold:Bonefishing in the Croton Watershed

A below average fish for this river but plenty big to drag me around with a 4x tippet!  Some might disagree but I have always felt that Carp on the fly is trickier then bone fishing. Feeding carp can be an endless search through your fly box. Last time I went carp fishing the carp was sticking his head out of the water and feeding on some weeds a couple inches off of the surface. Perhaps tie a fly imitating a brown/green kelp like weed with a brown parachute? 

Connecticut Salmon on the swing

The simple pink fly in the upper right corner was the go to fly this past July in Alaska. A good bet for these Atlantics. 

November 22,2011 Atlantic Salmon

Has an epic day on a Connecticut river yesterday. Blue skies with a prolific midge hatch early afternoon. Did not come up on any trout sipping but  I am sure they were around. Instead I worked some long runs with the spey. When I first arrived at the run I saw a roll about 100 yards down river. With a lot of good water to work it took me about an hour to swing my first fly into the fishy section. On the third cast I switched actions with a wiggle motion rather than a little tick tick and ZZZZZzzzzz! It was amazing to see the fish attack the egg sucking leech with such violence. The feed on flies such as these or say an intruder are incredible. I believe that many times the attack is out of self defense rather than hunger. How would you like a lamprey swinging into clamp on your face? The Salmon jumped and danced multiple times. I usually do not like to boga grip freshwater fish however, I took a quick peak and the hen turned out to be just under 7lbs. A true brute!

She wanted a sweeping left to right wiggle motion...not the tick tick. Fly has beautiful action and is tied on a 2/0 gamakatsu, black bunny strip, 2 strands of purple flasabou, black marabou,with orange dubbing as an egg/head. Simple but effective. Especially with this current rain we are having!

November 23, 2011 

On the saltwater scene I just got off the boat with no luck. We stayed in Riverside harbor and found some schoolies. Are true target however, was a searun brown at the Mianus River confluence. Maybe with some real rain we will get a chance. Snapped my 11 foot switch today...here is a clip of what happen....

Bad luck on the water today. No sea run brownie to be had and a left over banana peel in the car to deal with. No wonder. 

On the upside we did see a beautiful push of stripers. The Cormorans' were also hydro planning in the shallow mud flats for minnows. Maybe with this rain that we so desperately need we will soon move the shy and temporarily acclimating sea run fish here or on the Saugatuck River.