Allegheny River Brown

Check out this latest video of a Allegheny River Brown being caught.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt_C4mIBoy4

Allegheny River Fishing

The Allegheny has been another roller coaster ride this week with some days producing fish others being tough.  Yesterday was a monumental breakthrough day on cracking the Allegheny code for summer trout fishing.  Not only was it a day of figuring out what the big trout wanted it was a mixed bag of losing a huge musky on a fly and landing some nice smallmouth too!  After fishing without even a bite for the first couple hours of the day, I've been tooling around with some ideas in my head the past couple of weeks and finally decided to break out of the mold and put those ideas to work.  It wasn't three casts later into the backing and a huge fish lost from a hook pull.  A couple more casts, same thing big fish, big run, allot of current, hook pull.  After landing a few average size fish and loosing some monsters I feel confident tomorrow's results are going to be epic!  Check out the video of Chris and his nice Brown caught on Tuesday.  See you on the river.

Allegheny and Clarion fishing

Despite the warm weather this week the fishing still remains good on both the Clarion and Allegheny.  The fish on the Allegheny are targeting specific areas to hold.  They don't seem to be too spread out.  Once you find a run with a fish you are bound to find more.  The Corp is forecasting the release to go from 1900 CFS to 2200 CFS over this weekend.  There are areas that wade anglers can still fish a 2200, it's just going to be easier to access if you use a boat to riffle hop.  The Clarion is still running at or around 2.5-2.6 feet.  The East Branch Dam discharge is holding at 140 CFS, making the East Branch a nice choice for wade fishing.  The main stem of the Clarion is still producing nice fish early in the mornings and late in the evenings.  With the intense sun the fish start shutting down by mid to late morning.  Try starting your day as early as possible to hit the best fishing time.  Hopper Dropper rigs are the flies of choice and will continue to be until the weather or water changes.  Tight Lines this weekend and I look forward to seeing you on the river.

Spey Hook Up on the Allegheny

Spey Casting on the Allegheny

The Allegheny River, just below the Kinzua Dam, is a great destination during the summer months to tune up and catch fish using your two handed outfit.  I use an Orvis 12'6" 7weight with a Rio Line and Orvis x-tra fast sink poly leader to present various streamer patterns down deep.  One of my other favorite two handed rods is the Orvis Helios Switch rod.  Using the switch, I mostly nymph fish with it, it does allow for fast presentations using double spey and snake roll type casts.  In my boat I go armed with the spey rod for swinging streamers and the switch for dead drifting nymphs.  Using the combo throughout the day is allot of fun and mixes things up a bit.  Later this summer into early fall I will be putting together a switch/spey rod weekend for all to attend and learn a little about switch and spey fishing.  I look forward to seeing you on the river.

The trout fishing on the Allegheny and Clarion rivers continue to produce nice fish.  The summer is setting in and the bass and gill fishing is getting hot (don't forget golden bones too).  One of my evening destinations, just before sunset, is Quaker Lake in State Park.  Loaded with gills, pike and largemouth bass you can't beat it for a couple of hours of fly fishing action.  Just about every cast yields some kind of fish.  Lot's of fun, it reminds me of my childhood, sitting under the shade tree yanking in pumpkinseeds and gills all afternoon.  No matter what your schedule or time there is always some great fly fishing to be done.  Hope to see you on the water this summer.

The Fourth of July weekend is wrapping up to be a great time to be out on the water. Nice weather and great fishing. The Lake fishing for Smallmouth Bass on Erie is beginning to get good along with the great Trout fishing on the Clarion and Allegheny Rivers. Check out the link to The Lake Erie Ultimate Anglers website on my website to set up your Erie smallie experience. Streamer fishing for smallmouth bass on the Allegheny River is getting good as the summer heats up. As we float down the river getting out to wade fish the riffles and streamer fishing the deep runs and pools, from the boat, has been a great combo to catch trout and smallmouth. The dry fly action on the Clarion continues to be good with nice fish coming up to get a mouth full. I look forward to seeing you on the water.