JWTrout Fly Fishing

06/21/2019

jwtrout blog 2 - Every once in a blue moon, someone will ask, "what was your best day on the Delaware River?". Good question - 'cause we all know that the Delaware River and it's east and west branches can be very difficult. Plus or due to the fact that the majority of the trout in those blessed waters are Native Trout. So it just so happens that an odd good day is in my mental bank of good days. It was a clear bright day in mid September, the West Branch was low and extremely clear. I tied on a Quebec Trude size 14 dry fly and started blind casting the lower section of a fine wide riffle. The casts were more across current, with line mends to keep the fly drag minimal. I did not think much was going to happen based on the several cast that I made. I would put out several casts and do the mend thing, move down stream five steps and start over, etc. One of my casts I noticed a wink from a trout refusing the fly. I started to concentrate more on each cast and sure enough, started taking trout. The afternoon fishing was wonderful - caught and released nineteen - my best day on the Delaware River system. Check out my book "Fly Fishing - An Affair with Mother Nature". by JWTrout. Book is available at Barns and Nobles and Amazon. jwtrout.

06/18/2019

JWTrout Blog – Bridge Pool

It’s a fine spring day, the sun is shining, been poured on for two plus days, and the wet spring keeps on coming at us. In addition, my fishing has been very minimal since my wading a stream is becoming a swimming event. Dr. Ma identified a few Yoga exercises to build up my balance. With this all in mind I ventured out to my local spot to cast a few flies at the Bridge Pool. (The bridge pool featured in my recent book – “Fly Fishing – An Affair with Mother Nature”).
I ventured out with renewed confidence that I would not fall in the river. It was a mid morning event with reasonable water level slightly on the high side with an uncommon sun shining day. My stream approach was usual, start at the upper portion of the bridge pool and the wall run. I settled in by sitting on the grassy bank to tie on a fly – a #14 Quebec Trude pattern. The tying on a fly has become a challenge – takes twice as long for me due to hand tremors and poor vision. But a day on the river is always a pleasure. In the process of getting ready, the sound of a rising trout or two signified that the fish were ready before I was.
The wall run produced several small trout some of which were wild trout and a few were stockers. The trout fewer than ten inches were wild trout and the ones over ten inches were stocker.
The approach to the bridge pool will in most cases get a fly fisher’s adrenalin going – and sure enough there were several surface feeding trout. The trout were moving and feeding and not sticking to a feeding lane. The best approach is to try to get a drift of the fly ahead of the moving trout. And hopefully a trout will take the fly. The dark shadowy setting under the bridge does not allow you to see the fly at times. Sometimes a take of the fly is not seen or a take was not a take but just a refusal. So you watch for awhile. Then you look over the back cast area for tree limbs. You pick out an area that has the most feeding commotion. And you realize a side are cast is need to place the fly about ten to twenty feet under the bridge
It takes many casts to get the fly in the right place, but every so often you hook up on a bigger trout - something in the seventeen to eighteen inch range. They put up a difficult fight from under the bridge. In many cases they may have rejected the fly before you even realized that the fly was taken. Or you realize that the line is tightening up as the trout moves away. A set of the hook sometimes is not in a solid location and as the trout swims away you can feel the hook pull out as you set the hook. The feeling of a slack line lets you know you lost a trout.
Always appreciate the time you spend on the river – JWTrout.

12/10/2018

Looking for feedback review on a book "Casting a Spell" by George Black. If you read the book, let me know what you thought about it.

10/31/2017

I have several books in stock, message me if you want one.

New fly fishing book on the market, by JWTrout.

Titled - "An Affair with Mother Nature - Fly Fishing".

An enjoyable read.

Message me if interested in a book - I can provide PayPal invoicing - free postage.

$20.00 - signed.

08/15/2017

Not a major work on fly fishing - but an interesting read, try it you will enjoy it.

New fly fishing book on the market, by JWTrout.

Titled - "An Affair with Mother Nature - Fly Fishing".

"An Affair with Mother Nature - Fly Fishing" by JWTrout

An interesting read of on the stream situations with some ideas to make your river visits more enjoyable and productive. JWTrout has been a trout fisherman for over 60 years. Visits to trout rivers have been a learning experience and still is a learning experience. One of the items that keep people involved with trout fishing is the continuous learning that goes on and on. Fly fishers learning is never complete.

The first chapter explains the title well. The remaining chapters are tails of experiences on the river fly fishing for trout.

Buy a copy, you will be pleased. Free postage.

Send me a message if interested.

All copies are signed.

$20.00 a copy.

07/25/2017

New fly fishing book on the market, by JWTrout.

Titled - "An Affair with Mother Nature - Fly Fishing".

"An Affair with Mother Nature - Fly Fishing" by JWTrout

An interesting read of on the stream situations with some ideas to make your river visits more enjoyable and productive. JWTrout has been a trout fisherman for over 60 years. Visits to trout rivers have been a learning experience and still is a learning experience. One of the items that keep people involved with trout fishing is the continuous learning that goes on and on. Fly fishers learning is never complete.

The first chapter explains the title well. The remaining chapters are tails of experiences on the river fly fishing for trout.

Buy a copy, you will be pleased. Free postage.

Send me a message if interested.

All copies are signed.

$20.00 a copy.

08/25/2016

01/02/2016

JWTrout Custom Fly Rods:
Custom Fly Rods on Thomas and Thomas Blanks.

Available T&T Blanks:

All currant production blanks.
Horizon II all Models.
SSS Series.
Switch Rod Series.
Double Handed Rods.
Whisper-Lite Series.
Heirloom Series.
Helix Series.
Horizon II Series.
TNT Series.
Check out the Custom Rod you are intersted in and email me for a proposal. We will need to talk blank, guides, cork grip, thread color, etc. I will be able to present the buyer with a reasonable cost proposal. Warranty same as T&T.

06/14/2015

A Fly-Fisher’s Snack
For hungry fly-fishers when on the rivers;
“As soon as I stepped into the river, a mayfly disengaged itself from the surface film and flew waveringly by me. I snatched it from the air, saw that it was a green drake, and ate it. Mayflies taste a little like grass stems, and have a similar crunch. Once, I was fishing the Sturgeon River, in Michigan, with my friend Don when the drakes began to hatch, and the trout fed so eagerly, chasing insects five feet across the surface and coming clear out of the water and slapping logs with their tails and gulping and splashing, that we got hungry, too. We began to grab insects from the water and the air. They were like hors d’oeuvres, little winged shrimp. They left a bitter aftertaste and a dryness, but no other ill effects.
The Fish’s Eye by Ian Frazier

01/03/2015

A December Day on the Oak
JWTrout

With the cold weather setting in, any day above freezing is a good day for fishing. Any day with temperatures above 40 degrees - you have to find a place to fish. I did say find, some rivers may be too high for fishing.
Well along comes a day with 40 plus degree temperatures - Sunday 12/28/14 - Oak Orchard water levels were low but overall good fishing conditions - got to be there.
So off I went to Oak Orchard River. The section below the Junction Pool - junction of the overflow section and the turbine section, fished slowly. This section down to the cliff pool was thin water. The Cliff Pool looked go, but no hook ups swinging spey flies.
The bend pool water was not bad looking - decent depth but slow current. I fished this are down to the log jam with no results swing spey flies. It is always good to watch other fishermen, especially if there were hooking up.
The fish were there, but they would swim for cover if they were disturbed. Two fishermen below me had a few hookups in the straight run from the end of the bend down to the log jam section. Once that section was rested, the fish would be back in there - it took about 30 to 45 minutes for this to happen.
I needed some food so I rested and eat by my backpack just straight across from the bend in the river. As I ate, I observed a trout chase a small fish to the surface and disturb the river surface a few times. The other observation I made was that the other two fishermen were using black wooly buggers - weighted. The splash that the fly made hitting the river surface indicated a heavy fly. Now with the slow current, the only way to fish a heavy fly was to start stripping it in about mid water column location. If you drifted the fly or stripped too slow - you would be snagged on the bottom.
I tied on a black bunny with a black bear head - the fly was about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long. As I was getting ready, two fly fishers were walking into the area I wanted to fish. There are still fly fishers that know stream etiquette. They asked, “Are you fishing the water in front of you?” And my response was "yes." They moved down below me - never expected that.
I moved out to where I saw the trout chasing the bait fish. I made a short cast to get my line set up for a cast to the shore line. My second cast hit the water just short of the other side. I quickly set up to strip in the fly. I was moving the fly well, not hitting bottom and swimming it at mid water column depth. There is normally a log located in this area, been there for years. I did not see it today. But, I did see some big logs on the beach; I thought somebody dragged the logs out.
As my fly reached mid distance of the river width, I stuck my fly into something - thinking the log snag. But as I lifted my fly rod to pull on the snag, it started to move. Hook-up. A heavy trout was on and quite aggressive. It took awhile, but I was able to beach the beauty - 30" magnificent hen brown trout.
The sun had set - everyone was on their way out. I moved into the straight section from the bend to the log jam - three more hookups. Another brown in the 30 inch size.
A pleasant day on the Oak.
JWTrout0115

10/29/2014

Memoir


A Meal for a Great Blue Heron
by JWTrout (USA)
Picture
Great blue heron
For many years the Delaware River watershed has been the home of wild brown and rainbow trout. On the east coast, you can catch (and, hopefully, release) a wild brown or rainbow trout in the 20 to 25 inch plus range. But, along with the many fly fishers of varying levels of ability come the predators.

“Predators?’’ you might ask.

That’s right, predators.

“Like what?”

When you spend time on the river during periods of trout population expansion, you see the predators showing up. Where were the bald eagles, ospreys, blue heron and otters before that? If the food is there those creatures will appear, sooner or later. It is not unusual to spot a bald eagle every day; blue herons have always been creatures of the river, but more so now. The osprey and the otter are also more present now than in the past. So, predation is a common, routine event during that particular time.

The great blue heron loves trout of any size. You can see their predation efforts in trout sporting beak spear marks or wounds in their backs. Some trout will be bent in a sideways position because of a spear wound from a Big Blue. It is great to see a bald eagle, osprey or otter while on the river. But watch out for Big Blue – that bird is always up to eating another trout.

Big Blue’s diet is normally small fish. However, it can differ depending on the geographic location they live in. They can feed on a wide range of creatures: shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and small birds. Whatever is in abundance becomes their staple.

People might tell you they have a fish pond on their property. But their next statement will be, the blue herons have cleaned out the pond – eaten all the fish, or most of them. You will see netting over the raceways at trout hatcheries – Big Blue has been there and eaten up many of the trout. So, Big Blue is an interesting bird, but also an efficient predator.

I was guiding Charlie on the West Branch of the river a few years ago. We were having a fine day there – it was “bug week,” the first week of June.

As we floated into the Upper Game Lands Pool, I spotted a Big Blue on the southern shore line, but up on the grassy bank, about 20 feet away from the river – which seemed a little odd.

As we moved closer, Big Blue aroused my interest. He kept looking down in the grass. Other than that, there was not much other activity from him and we were also scanning the river for rising trout. A nice Hendrickson hatch was in progress and providing enough food for the trout to surface feed. We spotted a few fish rises below us, so I moved the drift boat into position for a reasonable casting distance. I dropped anchor. Charlie started to work the rising trout. I was observing Big Blue.

A big “wow” escaped my mouth.

“What did you see? Another rising trout?”

“No, Charles, you need to see what this heron is trying to eat.”

So, Charlie stopped fishing and both of us watched. Big Blue stood up straight and kept looking down into the tall grass. The bird was taking its time.

“What is the bird doing?” Charlie asked.

“Just watch, you won’t believe it.”

After a few minutes, Big Blue dropped his head down and lifted up a brown trout of over 20 inches in length. The trout was dead, and hung out on each side of Big Blue’s beak. Not only did Big Blue lift up the brown trout in its beak, he tried to swallow it. The bird kept moving its head and shifting the position of the trout so that it could swallow it head first. Both Charlie and I gasped at the sight. We could not believe that the heron was trying to eat a trout of that size. The trout fell out of the heron’s beak and into the weeds on the bank. Big Blue began repeating the process of trying to swallow that trout, but we had fishing to do.

I pulled up anchor and drifted downstream to another pod of feeding trout. I looked back once and the bird had the trout in its beak and was again trying to maneuver it into a position to swallow it whole.

There goes another trophy trout due to predation by a blue heron, I thought. We hoped that the blue heron would swallow the trout because we were sure he would choke to death on it.

10/12/2014

The Trout Pool
By JWTrout

I arrived at the Hous (Housatonic River) about 11:00 AM with a pleasant day unfolding – partially sunny, no breeze and a warm day. The thought of walking through the “Gateway” to get to the “Trout Pool” was somewhat on my mind. The “Gateway” was the most worrisome part of getting to the “Trout Pool”.
I have fished the Hous in the past above and below the RR Bridge. The autumn fly fishing has always been productive. While big brown trout were caught in the pocket water below the bridge, I always enjoyed the “Trout Pool” above the RR Bridge. In most years, getting to the other side of the river and upstream to the "Trout Pool" was a problem. With high water and many slippery boulders, wading was too difficult. The RR Bridge became the “Gateway” to the “Trout Pool”. Trains still utilized the RR tracks. Their schedule has been very random.

The bridge was the width of what looked like the length of a standard RR tie. The ties were closer together than the ties on solid ground of the rail bed. Standing on the tracks and looking across to the other side presented this narrow bridge with no sides. With the mature growth of trees, the scene looked like a tunnel or gateway. The focus walking across has to be on the next tie that you are going to step on. The vision between the tracks was of the river and the many boulders 25 feet below. With the hope of no trains coming, you start out. Stepping on the middle of every other tie – it is an even 70 steps across. Once you hit that seventieth step, you’re on you way to the “Trout Pool” with BWOs(Blue Wing Olive May Fly) hatching and brown trout rising.

I had three days to fish the “Trout Pool”. The first day was a pleasure, my daughter and I fished the pool. The “Gateway” crossing was not the best. Some looking at the river and not the ties was giddily. We had to stop and refocus on the ties. We hit the seventieth step and were ready for the “Trout Pool”.
The BWO hatch that first after noon was heavy enough to get the trout up on top feeding. The trout were very active and cautious. They would spot a imitation in the last split second before taking the fly and refuse it – expel it out. We dealt with these picky trout all afternoon – changed flies many times. My daughter was about 30 feet below me - I would watch her fish at times to see how she was doing. We both had rising trout feeding in front of us. I want so much to take the guide position on her left side and provide any assistance as possible.. But, you know, it was not necessary. Her casting was very good - good distance, presentation and accuracy. Kir was dropping the fly gently in the feeding lane and getting a good drift over the feeding trout. I knew she would take a trout - just needed to be persistent. Sure enough, she hooked into a nice trout. The trout was played well and brought to the net. By late afternoon we were able to take a trout each – a brace of autumn colored beauties.
The second day I fished by myself. I moved the seventy steps with a steady pace and was ready for the “Trout Pool.” The trout were up on top feeding on the hatching BWOs. The take of the fly improved as the day went on. The refusal from two nice fish required several fly changes. I took a brace of trout and released them without harm. But, the two bigger trout were still a challenge. Sometimes it is best to just rest the trout and let them really get into feeding. A break for lunch and then a Black Pearl cigar would provide time for the fish to get to feeding comfortably.
Sure enough, there feeding became continuous. I concentrated on a trout in a current seem formed by an upstream log. I had floated many flies over this fish. But this time the trout grabbed the fly – the fish took a strong run to the far bank. Nice weight and strength was noted. The fight was short – the hook pulled out about 30 seconds after hooking the trout.
I reeled in the line and checked the fly – it was okay. I dried the fly as best possible and applied more fly floatant. A trout below a group of boulders twenty feet further downstream was still actively feeding. This one took the fly on my second float over its feeding lane. This trout was solidly hooked and proved to be a stubborn fighter. A few power runs and darting for cover movements that were unsuccessful tired the trout – the colorful beauty slide nicely into the net. While the trout was not a twenty incher, it was still an enjoyable fish to release. The hatch was slowing down and the lack of rising trout told me it was time to leave.
Once I completed the 70 steps through the “Gateway’ – I would be ready for the drive to my lodging.
Friday, the last day at the “Trout Pool.” I packed my stuff and went up to the Main Lodge and checker out. Back in the jeep traveling south, I remembered I needed gas. There was a station with $3.21 per gallon gas in the next town – sure enough, I found it. Back on the road to the river. Arrived at my parking spot about 12 noon. Got into my gear and started for the gate. Started my crossing and made the seventy steps without a flaw – The pool of trout was the next stop.
Entered the river where an old downed tree was part way out into the river. I hung up my backpack and watched the water. Not much happening. There were only a few BWOs flying around and no rising trout. I decided to nymph fish the riffle at the head of the pool. There was about a 2 foot high elevation change from the upper pool down to this lower pool – the river cascaded down over and around boulders and entered the pool with the heaver flow to the other side. I had not fished the riffle flow for some time now – based on past visits. It looked like nymph fishing would be the thing to do until the hatch became heaver.
A pheasant tail nymph was the call - the nymph of the BWO. So I tied on a small pheasant tailed nymph and started to fish the riffle. The process consisted of fishing close to me and then casting further out to cover the whole riffle. Ones the water in front of me was covered, I started to fish the same method about 5 steps downstream. The next process would do the same thing but in the deeper sections of the riffle, behind boulders and along any obvious current seems. The nymph worked well. I took two brace of trout in that thirteen to eighteen inch size – healthy and well colored brown trout.
By giving the main pool a look every once in a while, I was able to see a few trout starting to rise to the light BWO hatch. Moving into position to fish the main pool, I located a few more rising trout. The feeding trout were not too active. It was about 3:00 PM and the hatch was already starting to slow. I took one nice trout about in the middle of the flow. The normal risers on the other side were not active at all. There would be a rise or two than nothing for about 5 to 15 minutes, than nothing again for some time. It was looking like the day was going to end early. I took a break and watched the water for risers. Nothing. Had a snack and some liquid and noticed some fish feeding. I move into position and decide to change flies - bad news. My fly box with all my small flies was gone and no place to be seen – bummer. I looked through my other fly boxes and found several of my size #20 BWOs – good for the remainder of the day. I started to wade back to the old tree to tie on another fly and add a new length of tippet – slipped on a rock, took three wobbles and sat in the river. The water was at a good temperature for trout but not for me. So the bad luck was dropping on me – had to regroup.
With my leader in good condition and another BWO on my line, I was ready to finish off the afternoon. The rising trout were few and far between. You would spot a rise, fish to it with several casts and nothing. Another rise - several casts and nothing. I was ready to turn back to the shore and leave when it happened. I knew there was at least one twenty inch trout in this pool.
The splashy water noise triggered me to look across and downstream. And there, like motionless in the air and about 2 feet above the river was a 20 plus inch brown trout. My pulse picked up as the trout splashed back on the river surface and into the depth of the river. That beauty was in the pool all the time and decided to make its presents known. I am pleased that I was able to witness the activity - it was like the trout needed to let me know of its presents.
Well it was a pleasant three days of fishing – no “20 – 20”, but a pleasant three days. Fly fishing with my daughter was by far the most pleasant.
I will get a “20 - 20” out of this pool sometime in the future.