Paflyfish

Second part of the Rio video on line cleaning. I want to add the the folks at Tightline Productions in Califon, NJ produce this shoot. You may recognize some of their video in others blog posts including Fly of the Month: Olive Woolly Bugger and Meet the Hendricksons.

To all PAFF members, family, and friends:

It's time to announce the 2011 Trico Mini Jam on the Little Lehigh River in Allentown, Lehigh County. It will be held Saturday, July 9th and will be centered at the new Heritage Fly Shop (at the site of the former Little Lehigh Fly Shop). Gathering time is 7AM - yeah, I know that's early, but the hatch doesn't allow us to sleep in. We'll fish until noon, or so, and then head over to Cali Burrito for lunch. There's parking available at the fly shop, and overflow parking will be in the lot opposite the hatchery on Fish Hatchery Road.

Newcomers to fishing the trico hatch will be paired up with experienced fishermen - should be a good learning experience. Remember to bring your wading gear, as wading is now permitted on this stretch of water.

Refreshments will be available at the fly shop for a reasonable price - one dollar per bottle. Remember, the Allentown parks system doesn't allow alcoholic beverages, so plan accordingly.

Please post and look in the forum for more details here.
Looking forward to seeing old friends, and meeting new faces from the board!

Heritage Angler


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"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." That was the first thing that ran through my mind when Bill Dryflyguy shared with me his fly floatant. See we were on the Little J and Dryflyguy was kind enough to put me into a good spot on the water. He even shared with me his sulphur fly that he matched with the hatch coming off at the time. The big treat was the addition of some of his fly flotant.

He broke out this little bottle and offered to give the fly a little extra life on the water. I am always up for something new and took him up on the offer. Bill quickly explained that this was based on old recipe of lighter-fluid and Mucilin Paste. I thought it may be prudent to hold off on that evening cigar until things dried off.

If you are not familiar, Mucilin Paste is a both a line and dry fly dressing that is found in most every fly shop in the world. A staple on its own for many.

I gave my sulphur a ride that night and my fly stayed up probably 4 times longer than with my normal choices of Gink or Frog's Fanny. It really worked well. The fishing was pretty damn good too.

Bill and I took a little time to discuss the recipe that actually has been around for quite some time. George Harvey has been closely connected to putting this together.

Quickly after the trip I rounded up some [d]napalm[/d] lighter-fluid and red Mucilin. It is pretty easy to put this together with about an ounce of lighter-fluid and Mucilin. Not much Mucilin needed and too much will just leave a white film on the fly. So start off with a 1/4 teaspoon and mix it up. It will mix in after a bit. A good container with a tight lid is a probably the most important part of the equation.

You can test a few flies before you go out flyfishing and as I did with Bill while on the stream. Comments and ideas welcome.

Light em up if you got em! Well only after your fly dries first.

I fished Ambergis Caye while on my honeymoon with my wife. First off, great place to visit and fish!! We chartered a bonefish guide and hit the flats and my wife caught one on a spin rod before I could connect on my fly rod, it was our first argument as a married couple to say....

So we are here now?

When I first saw this press release I thought the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) was offering scratch-offs at Cabela's. Seriously “Wanna' Go Fishing for Millions?” is this the same agency that promotes the Hollywood Casino?

Now I know fishing derbies have been around for a long time. There are many news stories of fishing contests in the 1800's. This is well before scratch-offs.

The more recent derbies in the U.S. have been set up for kids. Many are sponsored by local governments or sportsman clubs to raise awareness for fishing. I was at a derby a couple years ago at Brookville and there is no doubt the kids were catching fish and having fun.

This latest opportunity by the PFBC and Cabela's seems to prey on gamblers rather than encouraging young anglers. It looks like there will be eight waters containing "winning" fish. Sorry couldn't pass up a Charlie Sheen reference.To make it even more exciting the contest will coincide with the Fish-for-Free Day on May 30. This will make the shark hunt scene in Jaws look like a Longwood Gardens tea party.

Sign up here. I wonder if you can bring [d]dynamite[/d] Powerbait?

The JAM will be here before we know it. For those who are debating whether to come or not you really should. It's by far one of the most fun things I've done in a long time. Can't wait till May.

Some intertesting artwork on the FGFF site! Might not want to click that link at work or when the family is around.

JEEZ! where's your hometown!? hahah

On November 12th through the 14th paflyfish.com had it’s 2nd annual Steelhead JAM in Erie, PA. There were close to 30 board members that attended from at least 4 states. The fishing was not all that great, but tossing some line with those who chat on the board daily is always well worth any trip.

I showed up on Friday morning at 7am at Folly’s End Campground. Folly’s has been very generous the past 2 years in letting us use their facilities. They have a fully stocked fly shop, and very friendly management which is always a plus. I was visited by no one at 7am so I decided to gear up and head downstream to one of my favorite runs. As I walk the stream, I realize there aren’t many fish in the typical holes, this became a common theme throughout the weekend.

Fifteen years ago on December 2, 1995 I turned an old Macintosh computer in my office into a web server. I stumbled my way through a bunch of HTML code and watched as about 200 page-views were served up that first month. My guess is that was about two people that kept coming back to look at the same ten lame pages about ten times that month. Fifteen years is not a very long time, but in Internet years it is like a look back to a Jurassic fossil. Now I realize we haven't solved world peace here so rolling out the self-admiration club band is only reserved for special days. I think every fifteen years or so you can fire up the way-back machine and dig up a stone or two.

Much of the inspiration for the site came from the authors Landis, Meck and Sanja. My friends Ron, Greg and I would travel around the state fly-fishing with their books by our sides as we explored new waters. At the time I was working for Apple Computer with their latest HTTP web servers. Being a tech geek it became pretty evident to me the future was going to have a new road with the world wide web. Being a Geography Major during college I immediately applied my cartography skills and made up 67 county maps of the state. I published each county with all the major fly fishing and trout streams. So then I had like 77 web pages.

Ryguyfi will post the detailed update this week. I wanted to share a brief trip report to get the week started. Fishidiot and I made our way up to the Steelhead Jam on Friday morning. Nothing like some Sheetz coffee and a Tastycake cupcake to help start a fishing trip. I am used to taking most of my trips alone so having some company for the six hour ride was most welcomed.

We made a brief stop at an unnamed wild brook trout stream in Centre County. I didn't even have my gear on and Fishidiot already had a trout.

We arrived in Erie late Friday afternoon. Again I will let ryguyfi provide the details, but in general the weather was nice, the water was low, and the fishing was slow.

As always it was a great opportunity to meet up with over 25 Paflyfish members during the weekend. We had frequent chances to get together at Folly's Campground or at dinner during the weekend.

Fishidiot and I had enough of the Erie skunk on Sunday and headed towards Spring Creek. Very nice afternoon with some time at Fisherman's Paradise. Still many fish on the redds spawning along the banks.

Fun weekend to get caught up with everyone. Thanks to ryguyfi for putting this together. The guys at Leland provided some of their Red Truck fly rods to try out. It was nice to have Fishidiot as my navigator.

There has been a lot of interest in a variety of Paflyfish swag since we ran out of hats a few months ago. Maurice took care of our last order and a big thanks to him for championing that cause over the last year.

I have found a online store that provides us a lot of different logo products including mugs, steins, hats and more. I have started with a few of the more requested products and will add based on requests. Let me know your feedback.

A special thanks to David Weaver (Fishidiot) for donating one of his fantastic pieces of art work for the coffee mugs. It features the new Paflyfish logo on one side and his beautiful trout on the other side.

The Paflyfish Zazzle store can be found here.

I will have to admit the prices are a little high, but I don't want anyone to have sticker shock. They charge a little more than some places, but mostly because they make these item one at a time. Discounts for bulk orders which I highly encourage. 10% of every order goes to help support the site.