The power of photography is a wonderful way we capture and share our perspective for fly-fishing. Those images are moments in our life we see forever. This year has been an especially fun and exciting year for sharing those memories.

We’re proud to recognize the winners of the first Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Photography contest. We announced the contest in July. Many wonderful pictures were entered over the summer and into the fall.



Our first place award goes to Tom Frank for his photograph "Early Morning Rise in Paradise.” Tom lives in Bellefonte and spends a lot of time in his neighboring stream of Spring Creek. The photograph was taken as he found himself on one foggy summer morning in the Paradise Meadow. Tom explained that as the fog began to clear and sun started to peak the trout were rising every so often. The one soft riseform captures the essence while keeping the balance of the reflections in the water. Tom’s picture can be found here.

Profile Overview: Chuck is an avid fly fisherman and fly tier. He is the sole director of the International Fly Tyers Symposium. He designs flies for Raineys Flies, and had developed a tying material made from leather called Bugskin.

Questions

1 - Dave: Please tell me how and when you got started into fly-fishing.
Chuck: I started in Fly Fishing seriously when I attended college, Penn State, and took the George Harvey fly fishing course in the physical education dept. It was the first Credited course offered at any University and it changed my life.

2 - Dave: Tell me what inspired you to create the International Fly Tying Symposium and The Fly Fishing Show.
Chuck: A fly fishing club of volunteers had a fly fishing show in Southfield, Michigan, that I attended. It was such a long drive I thought I could start one where I owned two retail stores at Seven Springs Mt. Resort. That was my first event that started it all for me. Now, after twenty years later, I’ve done many shows, none near by, so I’m traveling even further today.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) is encouraging local governments, community groups and sportsman’s clubs providing fishing, boating and water safety and aquatic resource education programs to apply for funding through the agency’s Education Grant Program.

Grantees can receive up to $5,000 from the PFBC. This funding can be applied to the purchase of equipment, materials and costs associated with field trips. Applications must be postmarked by January 30, 2010.

Please visit the PFBC website for more details.

Perkiomen Creek, the chapter's namesake is the main focus of the restoration efforts at the chapter, in an attempt to extend a growing wild trout population.

By working with landowners, state and local leaders, and other state organizations, Perkiomen Valley Trout Unlimited has had great of success in restoring key tributaries of the Perkiomen, through several miles of tree plantings, streambank restoration and structure, educating communities and landowners on best land management practices.

Now comprised of about 200 members the chapter is working hard to complete the major work of restoring stream banks and water quality. Water quality has already improved enough in the main branch that a noticeable difference has been recorded in the water quality of the Green Lane Reservoir.

The chapter has a fund raising raffle underway to support local Trout in the Class and stream restoration efforts. Details for the the raffle and prizes can be found on the Perkiomen Valley Trout Unlimited website.


Membership Meetings - Perkiomen Valley Trout Unlimited general Membership Meetings are held every 3rd Monday of the month between the months of September and May, starting at 7:30pm in the Upper Perkiomen Valley Free Library Community Room at the Upper Perkiomen Valley Library 350 Main Street Red Hill, PA 18076.

Photo by culmer

The first annual Erie Steelhead JAM was a huge success! We had a great turnout with people from all across the state. A special thanks to Folly’s campground for their hospitality in the usage of their facilities!

In an attempt in not embarrassing myself in not remembering everyone’s names, I will not give a list of everyone who showed up. We had an estimated 25 guys (and one spouse!) came to fish the famous steelhead alley in Erie Pennsylvania over the weekend of October 30th to November 1st. A few members filtered in on Friday and braved the wind and the rain, but the majority of people showed up on Saturday morning.

We all met at the pavilion at Folly’s and planned our attack from there. Elk is about 50 yards away from the pavilion so it was the logical choice as the water was rising by the minute. A few headed down to the mouth of Elk to “beat the flows”. The fishing did not last very long as the creek visibly rose in front of our eyes. A few people got stuck on the wrong side of the stream and some of us watched in anticipation as they slowly crossed the creek. Those of us who were there then joined up the genius “beat the flow” guys and had a small window of fishing before the flows hit the mouth. Our early morning success was very limited as there were a few hookups and maybe 1 or 2 fish landed.

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Most entomologist and anglers would agree that trout feed most of the time under water and mastery of nymphing can be a very productive.

Czech Nymphing has been discussed for a while, but recently brought to my attention by Ken Sperry over at Fly Fishing Reporter about this European style of fly fishing. The biggest difference in this method of nymphing is using up to four nymphs 18" to 24" inches off a dropper rig. Very similar to the often used tandem dry fly and emerger rigs used here.

Presentation is very similar to our high sticking a nine foot rod with an an arm outstretched with a very short drift. Strike indicators are often a part of a set-up.

These weighted nymphs are tied with gammarus hooks, lead wires and traditional natural and synthetic materials. Imitations are based on freshwater scud, larvae or swanky coloring in size #10-#12 hooks. Local nymph imitations with some Czech style modifactions would work best. The video below by Johan Klingberg demonstrates tying a proper Czech nymph.

We have some fantastic anglers on this site and many who have shared some wonderful images from their fly fishing experiences. Whether photography is your passion, your hobby, or just an occasional pastime, we invite you to participate in the PaFlyFish.com photo contest, recognizing the beauty and character of Fly Fishing in Pennsylvania.

There are just a few days left to enter a photograph for the PaFlyFish Photo Contest. There have been many wonderful pictures entered already. Please have all pictures entered before October 31, at 12:00 PM EST.

There have been some people having problems entering pictures. If you do encounter any issues please email me you picture at info@paflyfish.com . I reminder that only one picture may be entered per person.

Full details can be found here: http://america-promo.store/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=82

Perkiomen creek in spring

Perkiomen Creek in early spring.

The debut issue of a new on-line Internet magazine Fish Can't Read read appeared a few weeks ago. The site provides a nice mix of articles, stories, commentary and photography. Contributors on the site inlcude Adam Barker, Quinn Grover and Alex Landeen. Alex can be found on another blog which I enjoy Fat Guy Fly Fishing. The photography is worth the click. Good luck guys.

Do you have a klinkhammer in your box? Well if you don't Joe Mathis can show you how to tie one.

Joe has created FlyRecipes.com, a website for anglers to collaborate and provide instructions on how to tie thousands of different types of flies. His site FlyRecipes.com is an incredible resource for fly tiers. Some of the recipes include some amazing photographic instructions.

One of the amazing contributors to the site is PikeFFArticles from Finland (He has is own blog named Pike Fly Fishing Articles which I need to check out next). Take a look at his Widow Angel Pike Streamer it looks like a piece of artwork.

With the help of folks from YouTube, Joe is assembling an impressive video library as well. You really need to check out the site for some of these really cool flies.

Fly Recipes Site Contains: Over 2000 Recipes, Over 300 Videos, Trophies Photo Section and Forum.

I have not kept a trout in a few years now. I will probably keep a steelie or two this fall. I brought a smoked one to Christmas dinner last year and they loved it. I also try to bring one to our wild game dinner at my church in the spring. I might keep a fillet for myself or bring one home just for me. That's the max I will keep every year unless I think the fish is going to die.