Blog Archives

Fishing report 3-26-14

3/27/2014

Well, as promised I was going to try my new favorite streamer, the River Minnie, on a wild Trout river this past Sunday. We made the plans and Rick and I pulled up stakes at around 10:00 and headed to our favorite spot. The drive up was filled with stories of past trips, flies, fly tying, and many other things. These driving discussions are something I have really come to enjoy, it is part of the whole fishing experience for me. A little cooler than we thought, but an overcast day is usually a good thing and the anticipation of a good day was high.

As if we needed any more excitement on the way up we saw this on the side of the road. It is funny that just the other day a customer was in the shop and we were talking about this very thing. I cant remember the last time I have seen one of these, but I bet it has been at least 20 years ago.

If this isn't a sign I don't know what is!

We arrived at our spot and hatched the plan that I would walk up river a good ways and fish back down. Rick would fish the lower section, fish up and we would meet in the middle. (this isn't really a plan, we do this just about every time we fish here. It just sounds better when I say we "planned it out").

On my walk up I was taking note of the water, It had that green look of Winter water, running high and a little turbid. Perfect streamer water I thought to myself.

I did come across an interesting sight on my walk up. At first I thought it was a Turkey, as I got closer I realized it was not.

The bottom picture is a little crappy, but it is the skull a mature Red Tail Hawk. With the exception of an Owl I am not sure what could kill a mature Red Tail. Rick seems to think it succumbed to the cold, another indication of the Winter we have had this year. At any rate I don't think I have ever found a dead one before.

Well boys, this is the point in each report where I start to put up fish pictures, talk about the fishing and say what a great day we had. Not this time! I fished the Minnie for almost 4 hours. I had one fish on for about 3 seconds and saw another flash at the streamer, and that was it. I was sure things were going to change any minute so I stuck with the streamer. I swung it, twitched it, stripped it and even dead drifted it and NOTHING! I knew Rick would be nymphing and was confident he was "tearing it up" When we met up he was sitting on the bank taking pictures. After our debriefing it turns out I had the banner day with one take and one flash.

It is not too many times I am forced to report a double skunk, especially when fishing with Rick, It was just one of those days. Oh well, we did what any good fishermen would do. We admitted defeat, tipped our hats to the fish and and drug our cold, shivering beaten bodies back to the truck. "That's ok" we said. we'll get em next time! Until then...

Loose Lines...Tim

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Name That Fly round #2

3/27/2014

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Congratulations to Ed Hays for coming up with the winning name for our latest round of "Name That Fly" This is a fun thing we did during two of our winter tying classes this year. Here's how it works. When we design a new fly we hold off on naming it right away. Once we teach it in class we ask each class member to come up with a name for it. A week or two later all of the submitted names are put on a ballot and the class votes on which name they like the best. The winner not only has the distinction of naming the fly, but they receive the prototype's that were tied while we were designing the fly. Kind of a fun thing we did this year to keep the classes fresh and interesting. Ed's winning name...
"Chewbacca"

Yeah, I can see that...

Tight Lines...Tim

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!!!!!!!!!!Customer Appreciation Weekend!!!!!!!!!!

3/22/2014

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It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since A Marblehead Flyfisher Inc. opened its doors. That's correct, opened for business in April of 2004, this spring will mark our 10th year serving our local and not so local fly fishing community. This land mark anniversary could never have been possible without the support of our loyal customers. As a way to say "Thank You" for 10 years of support we are planning the Marblehead Flyfisher
10th Anniversary Customer Appreciation Weekend

The fun will start on Wednesday April 23rd. We thought what is a great way to give back to all of the people that have supported us? Well Mrs. Marblehead Flyfisher came up with the idea of "Movie Night". Not your average ho-hum "lets get together and watch a cut rate movie on a little screen while crammed into a small space" movie night, no no no! A joint effort between the law offices of MacElree Harvey and A Marblehead Flyfisher Inc. we have rented Theater N in down town Wilmington. This 221 seat, full blown auditorium is the last movie theater in the city of Wilmington.

Doors will open at 6:30 and the movie will begin promptly at 7:00. Complimentary all you can eat popcorn and movie candy will be provided and if you choose to indulge a cash bar will be available. For your viewing pleasure we will be presenting the critically acclaimed motion picture "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" Here is the bio of the movie...

From the director of Chocolat and the Oscar-winning® screenwriter of Slumdog Millionaire comes the inspirational comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. When Britain's leading fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) is approached by a consultant (Emily Blunt) to help realize a sheikh's (Amr Waked) vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert

Check out the trailer!

Please stop by the shop for more information and to get your invitation to the show. This should be a fun night for all and we look forward to seeing many, many of our loyal customers at the theater. We will be doing some fun, interactive things with the movie, so pay close attention. There may be a trivia question or two at the end.

Customer Appreciation "Spring Fever Open house"

The fun doesn't stop when the credits roll. A few days after the movie The shop will host our third annual "Spring Fever Open House" Focusing again on customer appreciation we have several things planned we think you will like. First off we will have several items up for raffle.

Check out these Items!

That's correct, you will have a chance to win one of FOUR grand prizes!!!!!

Item one is a Redington Prospector light Spey rod
The second item is a Redington Rise fly reel
and for the ladies...
a Redington Marquesses Hoody
and a pair of Redington Tideland shorts.

$5 a ticket with no limit on purchase gives you a great chance to win one or several of our grand prizes. tickets will be available at the "Movie Night" on Wednesday.

Check out these flies!

If big articulated "meat" flies are your thing than we have a treat for you. Shop manager and G Loomis Pro staff member Tim O'Neill will be at the vise turning out some of his favorite patterns. This is a great time to see up-close and personal what goes into making these jointed works of art. Two sessions will take place from 11:00 to 12:00 and from 2:00 till 3:00. Who knows, after this you may be throwing a single or double jointed flies on your next trip!

Check out this Cast!

That was a 100 + foot cast! Shop owner Terry Peach will host two separate Casting Demonstrations with mini Clinics for your enjoyment. It is truly a pleasure to watch an accomplished caster and Terry is very accomplished! These one hour Demos will give you a chance to ask questions and have your cast diagnosed by Terry. It is not often you will have an opportunity to get the type of intimate casting instruction as you will get here, we hope you will take advantage of this. The first demonstration will take place from 12:30 till 1:30 and the second from 3:30 till 4:30.

Check out this Art!

Bart Gelesh is an award winning local artist that specializes in fish and underwater paintings. If you attended our spring open house last year you saw first hand the type of work Bart can do. He will have original paintings as well as prints for sale. If you have that bare wall that is just begging for a painting stop by on Saturday and pick something up, you will be glad you did. To see more of Bart's work check out his website here.

Check out these books!

Local author Sean O'Donnell will be on hand with copies of both of his books. As an active member of the White Clay Fly Fishers Sean is well versed on our local river and the fly patterns that are most successful. His first book; "Fly Fishing Delmarva" "Flies for the White Clay Creek and surrounding waters" is an in-depth look at the "Clay" and tried and true patterns for fishing this fabled creek. His second book "Let's Cast" is a beginners look at fly casting, the do's and don'ts.

Sean will be autographing copies all day. Stop by and meet the author and pick up a copy of each.

As always, Mary Ann will put out a spread of great appetizers, sandwiches and deserts and we will have plenty of free raffles and door prizes.

That is a lot of stuff packed into a short period of time, but we don't mind the work. After all this weekend is for all of you, our customers. Without you there would not be a 10th anniversary celebration.

From all of us here at A Marblehead Flyfisher
Thank you!
Here's hoping for 10 more!

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Fishing Report 3-16-14

3/20/2014

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The River Minnie

Well, I fished the White Clay again on Sunday afternoon and had a pretty fair day. The river was crowded, but there are plenty of fish and many of them were willing. I will get to the report shortly, but first I want to share a new streamer pattern with you.

Eric Stroup is a central Pennsylvania fisherman, writer, photographer, fly designer and one of the areas most sought after guides. He is also a good friend of A Marblehead Flyfisher. Eric spends many, many days a year on his home water the Little Juniata chasing the finicky Trout that live there. His fly patterns are time tested and that brings us to his "River Minnie" streamer. I have been looking for an effective streamer pattern that I could use and swap out quickly for a dry or nymph rig without having to change leaders. You all know Galloup's Zoo Cougar is my all time favorite, but swapping between a leader system and a sink tip can, at times be a pain. This pattern fishes well with just a few shot on the leader and with one quick blood knot I can go from a streamer on 3x to a tandem nymph rig on 4x to a dry on 5x assuming you pre-rig your tandems. Anytime you put Rabbit fur in a pattern you instantly get my attention. This pattern looks great in the water and moves like crazy!

I started my day at the top of the "reg's" section and fished down to the "Big Buttonwood Hole" and back up. scratching out a few fish along the way. In the second hole I fished I spotted this guy hiding in the back corner. I threw to him several times with the Minnie and a nymph rig, he showed absolutely no interest!

4 hours and several fish later I was back at my truck gearing down realizing I have found the staple streamer pattern I have been looking for. This weekend I am gonna give it a workout on a wild Brown Trout river. Stay tuned...I will post the results here next week.

If you would like to see the River Minnie stop by the shop, I will have one there for you to look at. Better yet, check out Eric's site here. I am a member of his Facetime Flyfishing program and can say he does a great job with it and it is well worth the investment. Check it out, you will be glad you did! Until Next week.

Tight lines... Tim

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Fishing Report from 3-9-14

3/16/2014

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The reports section has been a little dead lately. We have been fishing when the weather allows, but the results have been lack luster at best. A few semi productive trips to Valley resulted in nothing to report. Well, the weather finally let up and I was able to get out for a few hours on Sunday. After checking the weather it looked like the afternoon was the best choice so after watching a little Spring Training Baseball I headed to the White Clay.

The river was high and a little off color, perfect indicator nymphing water so I decided to give one of my favorite new products a try, the New Zealand strike indicator. I am really excited about this product and will be writing a post about it soon.

I rigged up a triple fly rig, something I want to do more of this year, and headed to the first run. My rig consisted of a black Zebra Midge tied off of a dropper, a Rainbow Warrior used as an anchor fly and an Al's Rat. I figured one of these three flies should get the attention of something. I fished the first run with not so much as a tap. I moved to the next spot and again, nothing. I was starting to wonder what was going on. I was getting a good drifts and was covering each section thoroughly, just no takes. Then, in the third run things started to happen. The first fish in to hand was a nice, healthy Brown.

Well I fished till about dark and landed 3 fish and had another long distance release. The highlight of the day was this nice thick Rainbow. All 4 fish took the the Rat. My guess is the Warrior got their attention and they then ate the Rat. I snapped some pretty cool pics of him swimming away.

All in all a great day to be out on the river. We are only a few weeks away from some of the best Trout fishing of the year. Now is the time to knock the rust off and get your game on. Till next time.

Tight lines..

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Fishing report 3-26-14

Name That Fly round #2

!!!!!!!!!!Customer Appreciation Weekend!!!!!!!!!!

Customer Appreciation "Spring Fever Open house"

Check out these Items!

Check out these flies!

Check out this Cast!

﻿Check out this Art! ﻿

Check out these books!

Fishing Report 3-16-14

The River Minnie

Fishing Report from 3-9-14

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