Simms just released this incredible short video on the salmonfly hatch.  Enjoy!

 

  Rio Products, manufacturer of fly lines, leaders and tippet material, announces the addition of four new tippet materials to it's comprehensive range. 

 They include the Flouroflex Freshwater, Flouroflex Saltwater, the new Rio Saltwater & new Rio Steelhead/Salmon Tippet.  You can read all the details by clicking Here.

 

   If New Zealand is on your dream list, come with us February 9-18 to Owen River Lodge on the South Island.  ORL, New Zealand's premier fly fishing destination, is highly recommended and awarded, and is strategically located to take advantage of some of the best fishing on the South Island.  Owner & manager Felix Borenstein is an angler himself and also a wonderfully accomodating host.  We have visited here many times and always look forward to returning.  I'm including a few photos from our last trip but don't take our word for it, come  and see for yourself!  Details on our website.

 

        

As you can see from the photos, our guides and clients have had some great days on Fishing Creek so far this spring. We still have a few openings in June. Give us a call and come & see for yourself! Details on our website.

 

   Everybody is talking about the 17-year cicadas that are going to show up here anyday. From Connecticut to North Carolina, this is the year. It's an interesting insect, read more about it here- 17 Year Cicadas.

   Our Super Beetle works perfectly for the cicada. Actually in New Zealand the guides call it a cicada. So, in anticipation of what could be some of the best fishing in 17 years (let's hope so), we're offering our Super Beetle Selection for just $15.95 (regularly $21.95). This offer is good until Father's Day, June 16. Place your order here Super Beetle Selection. .

   Get ready for the Cicadas & Father's Day Too!

 

 

We recently spent 5 nights/4 days at Deep Water Cay for Frontiers with a few client friends for our first visit. Located on the east end of Grand Bahama Island, we flew into Freeport and were driven to the ferry dock and then a short 8 minute boat ride to DWC. We found big bonefish, superb accommodations, meals, guides,& boats.  What a great place for a non-angler &  lots of activities for families too. Bill & Lisa Culbreath do a great job as managers and Lisa and Cathy got to fish together. We hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Good Afternoon.  We hope you all enjoyed the weekend.  The weather was beautiful here in PA.  We also hope you had a chance to get out on the water and do some fishing.  Saturday was Cathy's first casting clinic of the season and it went wonderfully.  Everyone had a great time and the fishing was amazing.  If you're thinking about learning to fly fish or just want to brush up on your technique, we have added another clinic to our schedule.  It's coming up on the 25th of this month.  Check out our website for details and then give us a call at 1-877-278-5638.

 

    

With trout season here, I thought a clip on when to change flies and how to choose the right pattern might be helpful. Cathy's video clip from her "From First Cast to Double Haul" video is very appropriate. We hope you enjoy it.
Brooke

  Last Thursday we were at the Philadelphia Angler's Club where Barry gave a presentation on Streamer Tactics for Big Fish. Our trout season opened here in northeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday and after several weeks of below average water levels, we got much needed rain and for the opener the stream was a tad high and off color. Perfect water for fishing streamers.

  With Barry's talk fresh in my mind, I thought it would be a good time to talk a little about fishing streamers. Streamers represent things that swim through the water that a trout would like to eat - skulpins, minnows, crayfish, leeches and so on. Things that make a meal. Streamers can be fished unweighted or weighted using lead eyes, cone heads, lead can be wrapped on the hook before tying the fly, split shot can be added to the leader, etc. Unless the water is very shallow, we prefer a streamer with weighted eyes most of the time so we can get an effective jig-like motion when retrieving.

  Most of the time we think the secret in in the retrieve and the depth at which the fly is being fished. If the water is cold and deep the fly has to be deep. If the fish are dormant on the bottom, a slower retrieve may be needed because the fish are not going to move far or move quickly. The fly has to be

With trout season just around the corner (April 13) here in Pennsylvania, we thought it might be a good time to let you know about a tying video that we posted to YouTube this week, Cathy Beck's Super Beetle. This beetle is a fun, inexpensive pattern to tie and you'll be surprised at how well it works.

As soon as the weather warms up, terrestrials will become active and this is a great pattern to tease up fish. It floats well, is easy to tie, and is a great fly to trail a nymph behind. We've used it for trout all over the world and it never fails. 

The Super Bugger is another great eary-to-tie pattern to use when the water is cold, high, or off color. It's a good search-type streamer and it pushes a lot of water so it gets the attention of the fish even when they may not see it. Both of these patterns are also available for purchase from our store. We tie the Super Bugger in tan, black and olive.

Our water here at home looks very good. We haven't had any extremely high water this spring and now that the weather is warming up, we should have good spring hatches. If you haven't fished our private water on Fishing Creek, you might want to consider a day with one of our guides. We think our freestone water is pretty special and we think you will too. Check out the details and then give us a call to arrange a date. Wherever you are, if you're in trout country, we hope you have a great season!

As I look ahead to Barry & Cathy's trip schedule, I see that they are headed to Patagonia, Argentina.  This is a popular destination for many reasons and I am aware that most of our guests on this trip are repeat visitors.  They probably know what to expect and especially what to look forward to.  However I was reading over some of our past blogs that originally appeared on the RIO blog website and came across one that seemed to fit perfectly.  I think this will be a great resource for those of you joining the Beck's next month in Patagonia, but I also think that we can all learn something from it, no matter where we're fishing.

Enjoy!

Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut – By Cathy Beck

We transferred to Pluma Lodge, further down on the Secure River near the Pluma River. I have so many photos that I want to share but I'm having difficulty figuring out how to put photos in the blog from my ipad. What I thought would be easy is anything but! I will continue to try and hope that I don't have to wait until I get home.

Our guides and Indians loaded up our gear this morning and we took the dug-out canoes back downriver to the grass air strip, they lugged all of our gear up about 30 steps to the strip, and then we  took a 15 minute flight to the second camp, unloaded the gear and walked through the Indian village to the boat landing. New guides and Indians lugged our gear down the same number of steep wood steps to the river, loaded the canoes and took us about 15 minutes upstream to another village. From there they lugged the gear up similar steep steps and at the top we got into an ATV and rode for almost an hour into the jungle. We crossed small streams and stream beds, climbed hills and hung on as we went down the other side, strattled ruts and swatted flies. But the ride was beautiful through the jungle. We saw ancient trees that had to be 40 feet around, all kinds of flowers, plants, and birds. I'm thinking that the cure for a lot of diseases could be in these jungles.

We arrived in Pluma Camp, very much like Assunta. All of the buildings are built high off the land overlooking the Secure River. Pluma is also alive with birds. The rooms are very comfortable and the staff is great here too. We are so impressed with the staff, the guides, the villages, and the fishing. Tomorrow we fish from here.

I'm signing off now in hopes that I can figure out Wordpress! Talk to you again soon.

 

 

 

 




We finished up our week on the Bighorn with more incredible dry fly fishing. The second week we had several mornings of trico fishing. Tricos are very small mayflies. We haven't seen trico hatches like this on the 'Horn for many years. We fished size 20 duns and spinners every morning to rising fish. Marc Bale from the Sage Rod Company joined us for a couple days and it was non-stop for a brief time every morning. We used the new Circa in 4 & 5 weight and it was the perfect rod for this kind of fishing. When the tricos stopped, the tan caddis began. What a week. We found the hatch one morning with Matt McMeans at the Corral and a couple days later with Marc in Sneider's channel. For those of you who know the Bighorn, you know how special this year has been on the river. And, we found that if we used RIO Powerflex 4x tippet, we wouldn't lose any fish.




We talked to a lot of anglers who were using 5x, but with 4x we still had plenty of fish take the fly. We would lose one now and then when they got down in the weeds but the hook pulled out, the leader didn't break.

This week we're off to Bolivia with a Frontiers group where we'll be fishing for Golden Dorado at Tsimane Fishing Lodges, located in the tropical Andes between Peru and Bolivia. What a change it will be to go from 4x and size 20 tricos on 4 & 5 weight rods to size 1/0 and 3/o Tarpon Snakes and Andino Deceivers on a 250 grain RIO Outbound Short and 8 & 9 weight rods!




I think I can safely say the mosquitoes might be bigger than the tricos, but the fishing will be fast and furious. We've got a great group of anglers joining us for what is sure to be an adventure. We'll let you know how it goes!

 

 

2013 Angler's Wall Calendar and free Photographer's Handbook

Includes September-December 2012, 4 bonus months. Start using it now!

Large boxes to record dates and special events

Moon phases, US and international holidays

North American hatch dates

And while supply lasts we'll include a copy of our Photo Handbook free!

$13.99 plus $6.50 shipping

All Beck photos. Calendar By Willow Creek Press

“The fly fisherman's choice since 1975”

This item is not in our online store. We'll soon be introducing a new web site so we are not currently updating the present site. Please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 877-278-5638 to place an order.  Immediate shipping. Thanks for ordering.

Had a great trip to the Ponoi River, Russia, a few weeks ago. We're also getting closer to launching our new web site which will make photos easily accessible for those of you who are not "facebookers". We'll let you know when it goes live. Facebook Album

This is a beautiful video clip with Jerry Siem, chief rod designer at Sage. You'll enjoy the videography even if you're not looking for a new rod!

But while you're there, check out the Circa,  Sage's new slower action fly rod. Click the image to jump to the video.

This was the end result but we were off on a rough start. We're at Boca Paila, Mexico, this week and I was fishing with Sara, one of our guests.  She has traveled with us to many salt and fresh destinations, but at home she is a trout fisherman. So, while our guide was telling her what she did wrong to miss the first bonefish, I thought it might make an interesting blog.



As soon as the fish took the fly she raised her rod tip as she would for trout back in Ohio and I heard our Mexican guide say, "She trout it." Old habits die hard as she can attest. She knew she had to strip set but in the heat of the moment she lifted the rod tip. A strip set is made by keeping the rod tip low and pulling the line back with your hand instead of using the rod tip.



A strip set does two things. First it hooks the fish, but secondly if you miss the fish the fly has not been pulled away and you'll often get a second chance because the fish will continue to look for the fly. If you lift the tip the fly comes out of the water and the fish is gone. Strip setting also works very well for streamer fishing in freshwater for the same reason. Once the fish is hooked, then you can raise the tip to fight the fish.

 

We've had a wonderful week here at Boca Paila. We've caught tarpon, snook, permit, bonefish and a handful of other fish. The week started out wet but the clouds and rain cleared out, blue skies appeared and we've had a great week and look forward to returning next year.

Back home we're getting ready to launch a new web site. You'll hear from us soon about that. It will be much easier to navigate and operate for both you and us. I'll be posting more photos there very soon!

 

Two spots (or one single) just popped up in our Boca Paila departure, June 3-10, 2012. This trip has been sold out for months. Click through for details. These spots won't last long. Boca Paila is always a popular trip and a fun destination. Hope you can join us.

I've recently updated our web site for the 2012 Guiding and Casting Instruction season. 2012 is going to be our busiest year ever for hosted travel, but I've squeezed out a Saturday in May for a Fly Casting Clinic and will be giving private lessons throughout the season. We've geared up our Guiding here on Fishing Creek and have a lot of pretty special water available to our guides. If guiding or instruction is on your mind, please refer to our web site for details. We hope to see you in 2012.