Fly Fishing
Blue Liner Flows Review | USGS Stream Gauges
All water level data originates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Surface-Water Data, which monitors over 13,000 stream gauges across the U.S. and more than 350 in Pennsylvania. The USGS has been transitioning to a new online interface over the past five-plus years. The updated look and feel have left some old features behind while adding new ones. I hate it.
So, I’ve been on the hunt for a desktop and mobile app that delivers USGS backend data through a clean, easy-to-use interface. Blue Liner Flows offers a solid solution for iPhone, iPad and Mac users, with apps built for both platforms. Most importantly, favorites and preferences sync across devices. There’s a free version, but I’ll be reviewing the $6.99 annual paid version.
Key features include: favorites, state selection, map view, latest data overview, discharge in CFS, discharge in feet, average annual discharge, various time views, weather forecasts, alerts, temperatures (station-dependent), turbidity (station-dependent), and other data specific to each gauge.
I found the app very easy to set up on my Mac. Once configured, all my favorites and alerts synced automatically to my iPhone. You don’t need both devices—an iPhone alone works just fine. I especially liked navigating between the state, favorites, and map views. It’s fast and intuitive. Most views display the key information I’m looking for, including directional arrows indicating whether water levels are rising or falling.
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My Montana Trip September 2015
I’m fairly new to fly fishing and found the paflyfisher.com site about 4 years ago I began reading everything on the forums, posting questions and taking advantage of what the site had to offer. I attended my first newbie jam in spring of 2012. Then a brush up jam that summer and another fall brush up the same year. Since then I have been attending the mini jams and have attended the main jam the past two years. In this short amount of time I learned so much, met many people who spent time answering questions and taking time to show me how to fly fish.
So this past winter I felt I was ready to plan a trip to Montana. Not that I would consider myself an accomplished fly fisher, but still thought I was ready to fish Montana with some success. Searching our forum for information on where to go and when to go it seamed like July was the best time to go but I couldn’t make this July and I found hints of information that were saying fall was also a great time to go. So fall it was. Now knowing when I could go it was time to find a guide service. I did more research on our forum and the internet and decided on using our very own site sponsor “Montana Angler Fly Fishing”
My experience with Montana Anglers was perfect right from the beginning. In August I filled out their web form and was immediately contacted by Brian McGeehan, the owner of the guide service. We spoke about my fishing experiences and what kind of trip I was looking for. Within 20 minutes I booked my trip on the phone for late September. We confirmed and finalized all the details with a couple emails, including my lodging. A coupe weeks prior to the trip I was contacted again to confirm everything, make sure I had any questions answered and to obtain my guides name and contact information.
On September 27th I left for 3 days of guided fishing in Montana. I stayed in the Murray...
My experience with Montana Anglers was perfect right from the beginning. In August I filled out their web form and was immediately contacted by Brian McGeehan, the owner of the guide service. We spoke about my fishing experiences and what kind of trip I was looking for. Within 20 minutes I booked my trip on the phone for late September. We confirmed and finalized all the details with a couple emails, including my lodging. A coupe weeks prior to the trip I was contacted again to confirm everything, make sure I had any questions answered and to obtain my guides name and contact information.
On September 27th I left for 3 days of guided fishing in Montana. I stayed in the Murray...
2015 Mid Atlantic Fly Casting Championships
The Cumberland Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited will be hosting its Annual Mid Atlantic Fly Casting Championships on June 20th, 2015 at Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs, PA. The competition will be conducted in conjunction with The Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum 13th Annual Heritage Day Celebration. The Heritage Day event is a full day of celebrating the fly fishing heritage in Pennsylvania with over 60 vendors and exhibitors, hands on demonstrations, special seminars, instruction, raffles, auctions and the always popular Fish Swim Race on the Yellow Breeches for a chance to win $500! More information on Heritage Day is available on the Museum website: www.paflyfishing.org.
Article by Dave Weaver
Photo courtesy tomitrout
The Fly Fishing Show 2015
For those of you that have not made the trip before it is a three day event that includes a very large exhibit floor, fly tiers, retail shops, educational programs and more. Many members from Paflyfish make their way to the show every year. Here is a link to a video and recap of the show in 2014. If you are looking for trips, rods, reels, flies, waders any gear or tying materials this is the show to hit. There are many outstanding presentations about fly fishing techniques and locations to attend as well.
I enjoy going to the show to see a lot of good friends that end up there every year. Justin and team from Allen Fly Fishing can always be found at the show. Tom "afishinado" Ciannilli at the Orvis booth on Saturday. Guides and tiers from the site like Mike Heck, Dave Allbaugh, Rick Nyles & Nick Raftas are there at booths.
Details can be found on the Fly Fishing Show website.
Somerset dates: January 23-25, 2015
Show Hours
Friday: 10am – 6pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 5:30pm
Sunday: 9am – 4:30pm
If you can't make it this weekend there is the Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster on February 28 and March 1, 2015. A little smaller venue, but a good very good show as well.
Show Hours
Saturday: 9am – 5:30pm
Sunday: 9am – 4:30pm
Join The “Fish Eye Guy”, Patrick Clayton, on a Patagonia fly fishing and photography dream trip
For those adventurous anglers with a penchant for photography our sponsors at Montana Angler are offering a unique opportunity to join photographer Patrick Clayton at their partner lodges in either Argentina or Chile in April for the upcoming 2015 South American fishing season. Patrick is better known as the “Fish Eye Guy” and his dramatic images of wild trout and salmon in their natural environment has captured the imagination of fly fisherman and conservation groups alike.
Patrick’s work has been featured by Patagonia, Field and Stream, The Drake, Orvis, The Flyfish Journal, and Catch Magazine, among many others. His work has also been used extensively by conservation groups across the country including national and local Trout Unlimited chapters, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation,American Rivers, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Trout Magazine, California Trout, Western Environmental Law Center, and Western Rivers Conservancy. His photography was also featured in the movie “The Breach“, an exploration of the decline of salmon in the Northwest.
Patrick will be basing out of two Orvis endorsed lodges in Patagonia during the month of April, the Carrileufu River Lodge in Argentina and Magic Waters Patagonia in Chile. He will be at Magic Waters in Chile the weeks of April 4th and 11th and at Carrileufu River Lodge the weeks of April 18th and 25th . Guests can join for as short as one week or as long as two weeks - combining both countries can also be arranged by Montana Angler.
Patagonia is famous for its aquarium clear rivers and will provide the perfect backdrop for Patrick’s work. Guests on the trip will have...
Patrick’s work has been featured by Patagonia, Field and Stream, The Drake, Orvis, The Flyfish Journal, and Catch Magazine, among many others. His work has also been used extensively by conservation groups across the country including national and local Trout Unlimited chapters, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation,American Rivers, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Trout Magazine, California Trout, Western Environmental Law Center, and Western Rivers Conservancy. His photography was also featured in the movie “The Breach“, an exploration of the decline of salmon in the Northwest.
Patrick will be basing out of two Orvis endorsed lodges in Patagonia during the month of April, the Carrileufu River Lodge in Argentina and Magic Waters Patagonia in Chile. He will be at Magic Waters in Chile the weeks of April 4th and 11th and at Carrileufu River Lodge the weeks of April 18th and 25th . Guests can join for as short as one week or as long as two weeks - combining both countries can also be arranged by Montana Angler.
Patagonia is famous for its aquarium clear rivers and will provide the perfect backdrop for Patrick’s work. Guests on the trip will have...
A Thanksgiving Fly Fishing Outing
By Salmonoid
For the past eight years or so, I've managed to make it out to fish on Thanksgiving Day. I guess it has become a bit of a tradition, made possible by our decision to no longer travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. Spending a few too many hours going nowhere between New Stanton and Breezewood on the Turnpike will eventually lead one to that conclusion.
This year, I was looking forward my outing, but the forecast was calling for snow the day before, so I started to temper my expectations as the week went along. Wednesday, the snow started falling around 9AM and continued to fall for the next eleven hours. While the ground is still relatively warm, we still ended up with four or more inches, but by evening, the outside sounds were filled with constant dripping. Overnight temps were supposed to dip below freezing too, and I did not have the luxury of waiting until afternoon to fish, since Thanksgiving meal was scheduled for 1PM.
So I told my wife that I would enjoy my day anyway, just thankful that I have the ability to be out walking around in the snow. Since I've never really had stellar outings on Thanksgiving Day, and since the conditions were far from ideal (snow melt, air temperatures below freezing, water levels low, and I added crystal-clear when I arrived Thursday morning), I really wasn't expecting much.
I only managed to fish the stream I was at one other time this year, in mid-January. It must have been a temporary thaw from our Arctic blast, or I was starting to go stir-crazy and needed to get out then. As I was walking in, I noticed quite a bit more blowdown of trees and I remembered the ice storm we had. I've seen the effects of the...
For the past eight years or so, I've managed to make it out to fish on Thanksgiving Day. I guess it has become a bit of a tradition, made possible by our decision to no longer travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. Spending a few too many hours going nowhere between New Stanton and Breezewood on the Turnpike will eventually lead one to that conclusion.
This year, I was looking forward my outing, but the forecast was calling for snow the day before, so I started to temper my expectations as the week went along. Wednesday, the snow started falling around 9AM and continued to fall for the next eleven hours. While the ground is still relatively warm, we still ended up with four or more inches, but by evening, the outside sounds were filled with constant dripping. Overnight temps were supposed to dip below freezing too, and I did not have the luxury of waiting until afternoon to fish, since Thanksgiving meal was scheduled for 1PM.
So I told my wife that I would enjoy my day anyway, just thankful that I have the ability to be out walking around in the snow. Since I've never really had stellar outings on Thanksgiving Day, and since the conditions were far from ideal (snow melt, air temperatures below freezing, water levels low, and I added crystal-clear when I arrived Thursday morning), I really wasn't expecting much.
I only managed to fish the stream I was at one other time this year, in mid-January. It must have been a temporary thaw from our Arctic blast, or I was starting to go stir-crazy and needed to get out then. As I was walking in, I noticed quite a bit more blowdown of trees and I remembered the ice storm we had. I've seen the effects of the...
2014 Pennsylvania Fly Casting Champions Crowned
The 2nd Annual Pennsylvania Fly Casting Competition was held at the Carlisle Events Outdoor Show at the Carlisle Fairgrounds on September 6. Contestants were challenged for accuracy and distance events in several different skill categories. In the distance component, casters earned points for the length of their casts and had to place their flies within a narrow 10-feet wide lane. Accuracy casting required contestants to land their flies within 30-inch and 54-inch target rings at random ranges between 25 to 60 feet.
Derek Eberly of East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, was overall high scorer as well as champion in the Expert Division. Eberly also achieved high score in accuracy casting.
Dave "Old Lefty" Rothrock of Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, earned second place in the Expert Division and also made the longest cast of the day at 100 feet. Ranking third among the Expert casters was Eric "stenonema" Richard of New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania.
Angler Division first place went to Tom Miller of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Darren Wishard of Hagerstown, Maryland, took second place among the Anglers, and Rod Cross of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was third.
Two contestants competed in the Youth Division this year. DaCota Leader of Everett, Pennsylvania, was the Youth champion. Second place went to William Sweger of Landisburg, Pennsylvania. Congratulations to these two young fly casters for competing.
The competition was organized and conducted by the Cumberland Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the Chesapeake Council of the International Federation of Fly Fishers, and the Antietam Fly Anglers.
A special thanks to Chris "Artifishal" Haag (pictured above) for help getting some of the photographs and event info together for me. Photo by Ken Tidy.
Dave "Old Lefty" Rothrock of Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, earned second place in the Expert Division and also made the longest cast of the day at 100 feet. Ranking third among the Expert casters was Eric "stenonema" Richard of New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania.
Angler Division first place went to Tom Miller of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Darren Wishard of Hagerstown, Maryland, took second place among the Anglers, and Rod Cross of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was third.
Two contestants competed in the Youth Division this year. DaCota Leader of Everett, Pennsylvania, was the Youth champion. Second place went to William Sweger of Landisburg, Pennsylvania. Congratulations to these two young fly casters for competing.
The competition was organized and conducted by the Cumberland Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the Chesapeake Council of the International Federation of Fly Fishers, and the Antietam Fly Anglers.
A special thanks to Chris "Artifishal" Haag (pictured above) for help getting some of the photographs and event info together for me. Photo by Ken Tidy.
Fly Fishing the Aisen Region of Chile Photo Essay
By Brian McGeehan
The Aisen Region of Chile is located about the same distance South of the Equator as Montana is North. On a recent trip to the Coyaquie province we targeted wild browns and rainbows while fishing a remarkable diversity of fisheries including large float rivers, huge crystal clear lakes, spring creeks and wilderness mountain streams. We stayed at the Magic Waters Patagonia Lodge which is tucked away in remote valley with 5 private lakes filled with wild trophy fish.
The lodge is right on the edge of the Cerro Castillo National Reserve and the wilderness lakes and rivers within but is also within easy striking distance of the fertile spring creeks and valley rivers of the dryer pampas region. The mountain rivers are free of sediment and are gin clear with an emerald green hue. The pampas areas near the Argentine boarder are dryer and it is a similar landscape to the Dillon Montana area (without other fisherman!). I have been hosting trips to Patagonia for the last five seasons and this area blew me away in every way: amazing diversity of fishing options, big trout, few other anglers (we didn’t see any), and exclusively fishing huge dry flies. As a Montana fishing outfitter I pride myself on a nice collection of big rubber legged attractor dry flies but when I showed up to the lodge and showed Eduardo Barrueto, our host, my box he asked “do you have anything bigger?”. We spent the entire week throwing the biggest dry flies we could handle including huge size 2 beetle patterns and even larger mouse patterns.
Big dries. One of the reasons the trout in the mountains of Chile love such big dry flies is because they love to eat Cantara beetles. These massive beetles look like hummingbirds when flying and are a huge meal for a hungry trout. A size 4...
The Aisen Region of Chile is located about the same distance South of the Equator as Montana is North. On a recent trip to the Coyaquie province we targeted wild browns and rainbows while fishing a remarkable diversity of fisheries including large float rivers, huge crystal clear lakes, spring creeks and wilderness mountain streams. We stayed at the Magic Waters Patagonia Lodge which is tucked away in remote valley with 5 private lakes filled with wild trophy fish.
The lodge is right on the edge of the Cerro Castillo National Reserve and the wilderness lakes and rivers within but is also within easy striking distance of the fertile spring creeks and valley rivers of the dryer pampas region. The mountain rivers are free of sediment and are gin clear with an emerald green hue. The pampas areas near the Argentine boarder are dryer and it is a similar landscape to the Dillon Montana area (without other fisherman!). I have been hosting trips to Patagonia for the last five seasons and this area blew me away in every way: amazing diversity of fishing options, big trout, few other anglers (we didn’t see any), and exclusively fishing huge dry flies. As a Montana fishing outfitter I pride myself on a nice collection of big rubber legged attractor dry flies but when I showed up to the lodge and showed Eduardo Barrueto, our host, my box he asked “do you have anything bigger?”. We spent the entire week throwing the biggest dry flies we could handle including huge size 2 beetle patterns and even larger mouse patterns.
Big dries. One of the reasons the trout in the mountains of Chile love such big dry flies is because they love to eat Cantara beetles. These massive beetles look like hummingbirds when flying and are a huge meal for a hungry trout. A size 4...
Trip Report - Fly Fishing in the Grand Cayman Islands
This past year was my first year fly fishing and most of what I've learned has come from the help of members of this forum. I've had a blast getting to know all of you and just wanted to say thank you for all the events put together and willingness to help out the newbies.
This January I had a family vacation scheduled to Grand Cayman. I've been there one time prior but never fly fished there. This time was gonna be different though!
After some research and talking to a few members on here I decided to book a guide early on in the trip then take what he taught me and fish on my own the rest of the time. From a members recommendation I contacted a local guide Randy Parchment. Randy was a great guide and super knowledgable and helpful. He kept in contact with me during my whole trip giving me tips on where to fish and who to purchase some local flies from. He also helped with other touristy things on the island. For our guided trip he took me to the flats of Rum point and definitely got me on some bonefish.
I wasn't able to connect on any fish that trip but not for lack of trying on both Randy and my part. With the knowledge I gained I was ready to hit the flats on my own. I mainly fished at Rum point due to the wind directions of the week. It was the calmest portion of the island and the fish were definitely there. After a few hours on my own over the next couple of days I started realizing why bonefish are referred to as the "gray ghost". They are very difficult to spot moving across the flats. Once you manage to spot them and stalk within casting distance you had to be spot on and delicate in your presentation. I busted many a group of feeding fish by casting too close or plopping my line down too hard on the water. Once that wrong move was made those fish scattered! I stuck with it though and on my third outing finally landed my first bonefish! They are every bit as...
After some research and talking to a few members on here I decided to book a guide early on in the trip then take what he taught me and fish on my own the rest of the time. From a members recommendation I contacted a local guide Randy Parchment. Randy was a great guide and super knowledgable and helpful. He kept in contact with me during my whole trip giving me tips on where to fish and who to purchase some local flies from. He also helped with other touristy things on the island. For our guided trip he took me to the flats of Rum point and definitely got me on some bonefish.
I wasn't able to connect on any fish that trip but not for lack of trying on both Randy and my part. With the knowledge I gained I was ready to hit the flats on my own. I mainly fished at Rum point due to the wind directions of the week. It was the calmest portion of the island and the fish were definitely there. After a few hours on my own over the next couple of days I started realizing why bonefish are referred to as the "gray ghost". They are very difficult to spot moving across the flats. Once you manage to spot them and stalk within casting distance you had to be spot on and delicate in your presentation. I busted many a group of feeding fish by casting too close or plopping my line down too hard on the water. Once that wrong move was made those fish scattered! I stuck with it though and on my third outing finally landed my first bonefish! They are every bit as...