Birthday Fishing with a Poet!

Matt Smythe - AKA the fishing Poet - Holds a beautiful post spawn female brown trout.

Last week I had the opportunity to get out and fish for my birthday.

I also had the opportunity to meet up with a friend of mine Matt Smythe AKA the Fishing Poet.

Matt is a writer and a darn good one at that. In fact it is his profession. But over this past year he has taken his passion of the outdoors and slammed it head first into that professional world of writing. He left his desk job, for the unknown and unproven grounds of the freelance world. A brave man indeed!

A nice lake run rainbow/steelhead taken on the swing.

Our goal for the morning was to search the waters of a local tributary and try and tempt its finned inhabitants into taking a fly or two. Lucky for us it was more of the latter.

Matt was running a little late, so he encouraged me to venture out before his arrival. I did, and found two fish willing to take a streamer. One of which was taken on the swing.

Upon Matt’s arrival I was very excited as I had already hooked two beautiful rainbows, landing them both, and had seen at least another seven or eight fish on my walk down to our meeting place.

A bright female steelhead that ate an egg pattern. Photo by Matt Smythe

We set up shop at a favorite pool and began to put our flies to work.

Matt hooked up within that first half hour, and I ran down to help him land his first fish of the day, a gorgeous post spawn female brown trout. A few photos later and she was released.

My last fish of the day. A nice big male with two beautiful red stripes. Photo by Matt Smythe

Over the course of the next couple of hours we each hooked a few more fish, landing only one. But before we left for the day, I had the opportunity to hold one more fish. A gorgeous male rainbow that displayed not one red stripe, but two! A fitting end to a great morning birthday fly fishing session. 

Thanks Matt for joining me on a very memorable day….although I doubt I had to twist your arm very hard to get you out there!

Until next time…………

Late Fall Tributary Trout With Joe K

Joe with his first of the morning

Trying to catch up!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to get out with a new friend from Pennsylvania – Joe Kayafas.

We made plans to meet up at some local water, and do our best to put a hurtin’ on some big lake run trout. The only problem was the large amount of angler traffic that had continued to pick on the fish day after day. So when Joe called me saying that there were already eleven cars parked at the pull off to our “Plan A” spot, we quickly came up with a “Plan B.” And as it would turn out, “Plan B” worked out just fine. 

We found our own little spot upstream, and in it, plenty of big lake run trout to throw a fly at.

My first on the swing

I started off the morning by trying the egg pattern that I still had rigged up from the last outing, but after a few drifts, a snag, and a lost fly, I switched it up and re-rigged with a big old rabbit strip streamer. With the brown trout starting to come off the spawn I thought this would be a good change of pace from the constant dead drifting that we had been doing for weeks now. Ten minutes later I was glad I made the change, when mid way through the swing, toward the tailout of the pool, I got rewarded with a big pull and a flash of gold. A few minutes later I was on the board with a small but feisty hen brown trout. 

My first steel on the swing

Joe was up next, and he did not disappoint! A few drifts into his rotation he hooked up with a very nice fish, but it broke him off. He switched up flies and another five minutes later was again into a very nice fish. This time the angler came out on top, as I helped put my hands around the tail of a very nice female brown. I took a few photos for Joe, and he released her.

 

Over the next hour or so, we each hooked up with a few more fish. Mine came on the swing while Joe kept pace with nymphs. And I am happy to say that I was able to hook up and land my first and second steelhead on the swing for the fall. 

All in all a great morning of fishing.

You can check out Joe's website here whatsajob614.blogspot.com