O'Neill's Fly Fishing
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Store
  • Presentations
  • Instruction
  • Schedule and Events
  • Local River Conditions
  • Blog
  • Media

Proposed rule changes for the "dhalo" section of the white clay. 

3/19/2015

5 Comments

 
Picture
Below is the PDF that describes the proposed rule changes for the Delayed Harvest Artificial lures Only (DHALO) section of the White Clay Creek's Middle branch. If I understand this correctly the Fish and Boat Commission's proposed rules will allow kids under 16 to bait fish the DHALO section year round, it will allow all anglers to bait fish during the "harvest" season and lowers the size limit of harvested fish from 9 inches to 7 inches. If you would like to comment, and I hope you do, please click here. 

I have already made my comments to the Fish and Boat commission and hope everyone reading this will do the same. Till next time...

                                                                                                                        Tight Lines 
5 Comments

A few days on the White Clay

12/28/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
Well, here we are a couple of days past Christmas. I hope everybody has had a safe, fun Christmas Holiday and that everyone received all of the fly fishing gifts from Santa they were looking for. My Christmas was great and the best "fishing" gift for me came from my son Tyler. The Fishpond Nomad net will be out to good use, trust me. Thanks buddy for a great, and needed, present. With the hustle and bustle of Christmas not what it used to be for my wife and I (our kids are 21 and 19) and being SEVERAL years away from grandchildren the holidays, for us, are a simpler time. After the big day I got to spend a little time the White Clay on Friday and Saturday. I was hopeing to take advantage of the Holiday Stocking that the White Clay Fly Fishers have been doing the past several years. Things were done a little differently this year. In the past the club would do one stocking of several hundred to sometimes over a thousand fish typically right before Christmas. This year the river will be stocked three times; once in October, December, and February. Knowing the river was full of fish had me rigged and on the water by 11:30. 


I have been playing with a winter time rig that I learned from my buddy Eric Stroup www.ericstroupflyfishing.com in fact during his last Face Time Fly Fishing show he spent a little time discussing this very subject. During the winter take 3 flies (the maximum number allowed by the state DNR) and place them fairly close together. The Idea is to grab the fishes attention with a smorgasbord of food in close proximity to each other. A single Zebra Midge needs to bump them in the nose sometimes before they will eat it. Certainly they will move no more than a few inches, maybe a foot, to eat such a small meal. That is why you need to be extra diligent to be sure you have covered 100% of the hole you are fishing before moving on. On the other hand a fish is more apt to move several feet if it knows it has the opportunity to fill his gut. I usually will fish a big attractor like a Walt's Worm or a PFN and trail a small Nymph and a Midge, or 2 Midges of different color. This technique has worked quite well for me in the past, especially on stocked fish. One word of caution, be sure to cast an open loop or you will have a mess of tangled spaghetti in short order and be sure to use barbless or de-barb all of your hooks. With 3 flies no more than 18" apart the opportunity to hook the body of the fish with one of the other flies is heightened. 


I hit the river solo on Friday and fished from about 11:30 till they shut off at about 4:15. Water temp was 36 degrees and at the warmest part of the day there was a pretty steady Midge hatch coming off. Steady enough for me to switch to a dry and stick a couple before the bugs shut off causing the fish to follow suit. With the water at 36 degrees I decided to fish the deeper pools and cover the water thoroughly before moving on. I pre-tied two rigs, the first had a #14 PFN on point with a #20 Black Mercury Midge and a #22 olive Al's Rat as trailers. The second rig was a #10 Walt's Worm on point with a #18 Flashback PT and a #20 Frostbite Midge as trailers. I have done well with all of these flies on the Clay in the past ant Friday waI no different as I landed fish on all 6 flies.       

Picture
This guy ate the PFN
Picture
That is the Mercury Midge in his jaw
Picture
Swimming away to be caught again
The highlight of the day came at around 3:30 when several fish started to rise on the far bank from where I was fishing. It stopped as fast as it started, lasting only about 20 minutes. I had just enough time to switch my leader to a dry on 6X. I chose what is quickly becoming my favorite Midge dry, the CDC Puff. This is my buddy Rick's pattern and it is as effective to fish as it is easy to tie. A hook, thread and 2 materials. 
Picture
That is a size 22 Puff in his mouth
Saturday was to be much different than Friday. First off I was fishing with 2 good friends. Jim Stephens whom has been taking private tying lessons for some time now and has become a good friend and my partner in crime Ed "one boot" Hays. We met at around 11:30 and quickly realized there were MANY more people fishing today, the weather was beautiful, the temp was in the 50's and everybody had the same idea. Ed had a few new streamer patterns he wanted to fish so he decided to fish down. Jim and I were Nymphing and fished up. I had already decided to spend the bulk of the day in the area I had the most luck the day before...stake my claim if you will. I don't normally like to do that, but I knew there were fish there and if I was not fishing over them somebody or many somebody's would be. I started with the same rig I had the most success with the day before. In the beginning I actually spent more time talking as several of my old customers that were on the water. Conversations with Dennis, Ray, Bill, Rob, and Adam were a good way to rest the fish in "my" hole and it was nice to catch up with these guys. The fishing was tough and I was having no success with any of the flies that worked the day before. At one point I watched a fish move 6 inches to his left as my rig drifted past him. When the rig was safely past him he moved 6 inches to his right back to his preferred lie. I sent a text to Ed to ask how he was doing and received this picture in return.   
Picture
At this point I had been fishing for 3 hours and only had one fish landed and another LDR (long distance release). I have switched flies to every combo imaginable and just couldn't get the same results as yesterday. Finally as a last ditch effort as I blankly starred in to my nymph box I decided to do something I NEVER do. I picked a single fly, one I rarely if ever fish, tied the single fly under the indicator and cast it out. 
Picture
Second row from the bottom, second fly from the right. There is only one in the entire Nymph box!
On the first cast I was tight to a good Brown. I had just enough time to fish my way up through the run one more time, which I did landing 3 more fish. Who would have thought, fishing technical all day and the Green Weenie was the top producing fly! 
Picture
Picture
At the end of the day we all compared notes and it turned out to be not too bad of a day. When you are on the water with good friends is it ever a bad day? Off to tie Weenies. Till next time


                                                                                                                         Tight lines...
2 Comments

Thank you White Clay Fly Fishers!

11/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I had the opportunity to attend the White Clay Fly Fishers November meeting last Tuesday night. My purpose was to announce the "Irish Flies" winter fly tying classes at the Christiana Cabelas store. While at the meeting I got a chance to re connect with many people I have not seen since my parting with the local fly shop back in June. Current club President, Dick Prettyman, and the board allowed me to make an announcement during the "club business" part of the meeting. Other discussions centered around possible regulation changes on the Tully and how that may affect the White Clay. Until you attend one of these meetings it is hard to appreciate all of the work that these clubs do. I can say that I will be re joining the club as a member in 2015 and encourage everyone that fishes the White Clay to do the same. After the business part of the meeting Ken Prager, from Vintage Rod, gave an insightful presentation about Tenkara fishing and the in's and out's about the gear used to perform this simple, but elegant style of fishing. Who would have thought that in a sport dominated by gadgets Trout fishing could be so simple. To Dick and all of the board members I would like to extend a big Thank You. If, in the future, Irish Flies can be of service to you please don't hesitate to ask.  For more information about this great club click their logo below to reach the club's website. For more information about the Irish Flies winter fly tying classes at the Christiana Cabelas store click here. To visit "Vintage Rod" click here. 

Picture
                                                                                                                                            Tight Lines...
0 Comments

    Archives

    May 2017
    March 2017
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    Al's Rat
    American Shad
    Articulated Flies
    Articulated Green Weenie
    Attractor Nymph
    Beastmaster General
    Blane Chocklett
    Bluefish
    Boogle Bug
    Brandywine River
    Brookie
    Brook Trout Fishing
    Brown Trout
    Cabelas
    Cabelas Captains Weekend
    Camp Honey Creek
    CDC Puff
    Central Pennsylvania
    Christiana Cabelas
    Cinnamon Toast
    ClakaCraft
    Clawdad
    Clouser Swimming Nymph
    Cortland 444 Classic
    Crittermite
    C Spey
    Dame Juliana League
    Deer Creek
    Delco Manning Trout Unlimited
    Delco Manning TU
    DHALO
    DHALO Rule Changes
    Dohiku #302
    Dohiku Hooks
    Double Spey
    Dry And Dropper
    DT-4-F
    Dynamic Nymphing
    Eastern Trophy Fly Fishing
    Eric Stroup
    Face Time Fly Fishing
    Fishpond Nomad Net
    Fly Color Beads
    Flymen Fishing Company
    Fly Tying Classes
    Fly Tying World Record
    Fractured Weenie
    Frostbite Midge
    Game Changer
    George Daniel
    George Harvey
    G Loomis NRX
    G Loomis Roaring River GLX
    GoPro
    Gorge View Lodge
    Green Weenie
    Griffiths Gnat
    Gunpowder
    Gunpowder State Park
    Hareline Dubbin
    Hero 4
    Hickory Shad
    Hot Thorax Pheasant Tail
    Indicator Nymphing
    Irish Cross
    Irish Flies Shad School
    Jake Villwock
    Jon Strand
    Juniata River
    KF Flasher
    Lamson ARX
    Lance Egan
    Lefty Kreh
    Light Spey For Local Waters
    Limestone Waters
    Little J
    Loon Outdoors
    Loon Rigging Foam's
    Masked Avanger
    Matt Zudweg
    Maxima Ultragreen
    Micro Clouser
    Midge Magic
    Mike Schultz
    Modern Midges
    New Zealand Strike Indicator
    Norvise
    Nymph Fishing 101
    Nymph Head Beads
    Nymphing
    O'Neill"s Fly Fishing
    O'Neill's Irish Flies
    O"Neill's Irish Flies
    Outcast Fat Cat
    Outcast Fishcat IR 10
    Outcast Fishcat IR-10
    Penns Creek
    Pennsylvania Fish And Boat Commission
    Performance Flies
    PFN
    Pheasant Tail Nymph
    Philadelphia Flyers Nymph
    Rainbow Warrior
    Rakes Dock Lights Special
    Ray Neirle
    Redington Butterstik
    Rehoboth Beach
    Rio Powerflex
    Rite Bobbin
    Ross Momentum 5
    Schultz Outfitters
    Senyo's A.I.
    Senyo's Laser Dub
    Shad Dart
    Shad Fishing
    Simms
    Simms Waypoints Sling Pack
    Smallmouth Bass
    Smith Creek
    South Jersey Chapter Of Trout Unlimited
    South Jersey Coastal Fly Anglers
    Spey Cast
    Sprout Midge
    Steelhead
    Steelhead Alley Outfitters
    Stimulator
    Striper
    Sussex County Fly Fishermen
    Synthetic Quill Body Wrap
    Tacky Day Pack
    Tacky Fly Fishing
    T-Bone
    TCO
    TCO Flyshop
    TCO Reading
    TFO Esox
    The Harvey Leader
    Troy Pennsylvania
    Umpqua Indicator Tippet
    Umpqua Overlook 500 Chest Pack
    Valley Creek
    Valley Forge State Park
    Water Works / Lamson
    White Clay Creek
    White Clay Fly Fishers
    White Wulff
    You Tube
    Zebra Midge

Services

Fly Tying Lessons
Casting Instruction
On The Water Workshops

    SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe

Contact Me
About
Affiliations

© COPYRIGHT 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Store
  • Presentations
  • Instruction
  • Schedule and Events
  • Local River Conditions
  • Blog
  • Media