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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2022 Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp
The instructors in the program often include leading experts including many from state agencies like the PFBC, DEP and DCNR. The Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited sponsors the program with help from the Cumberland Valley TU.
Every morning and evening the participants are given the opportunity to fly fish the catch and release section of Yellow Breeches where they stay for the week. June on the Yellow Breeches is an excellent time to be fishing. Lessons in casting, knot tying, fly tying and more are also part of the curriculum.
- Camp is held annually on the third Sunday in June, starting at noon running to ~2:00 pm on the following Friday.
- All activities will take place on or near the property of Messiah University in Grantham, Pennsylvania. Students will have dorm lodging, meals, and class time at Messiah.
- The majority of the time at camp will be spent in a classroom setting, but many sessions will also take place on the stream or outside. The curriculum covers various topics in conservation and fly fishing.
- Students are provided with 3 meals per day plus an evening snack. Meals are buffet style with several entrée selections available.
- Some classes are held in the evenings after fishing.
- Campers receive all course materials, a camp tee shirt, hat...
Montana's Mother's Day Caddis Hatch on the Maddison and Yellowstone
By Brian McGeehanThe annual Mother’s Day Caddis hatch in early May is one of the most anticipated events here in Southwest Montana. While it may not be quite as famous as the Salmon Fly hatch, the fishing can be every bit as good, if not even better. The sheer number of bugs that take to the air during the peak of the hatch is astounding. The oscillating clouds of bugs over the water can be mesmerizing, but the splashy rises of trout will quickly snap you out of it. The Yellowstone and Madison Rivers have the premier Mother’s Day hatches in our area, so let’s take a look at when to expect the hatch and some strategies to maximize your success on these rivers.
Yellowstone River
Timing is everything with this hatch, and we need several variables to come together at once for productive fishing on the Yellowstone. The heaviest hatch on the ‘Stone will take place as the water temperature begins to creep above 50 degrees, which typically happens sometime around the first week of May. This is pushing right up on the start of runoff, so the water clarity will be the determining factor as to how good the fishing is during the hatch. The Yellowstone will come in and out of fishable shape multiple times each spring, so anglers cross their fingers that the hatch hits during an “in” period.
If water clarity is good, expect about a week of heavy hatch activity. This hatch can literally explode overnight, going from just a few bugs to a full scale caddis blizzard. Again, the first week of May is average but it all depends on water temperatures. There are several tributaries in and just below the town of Livingston, MT that dump mud in the spring, so the fishing is concentrated from town upstream into Paradise Valley. While there are a few spots to wade, the Yellowstone is a large river and...
Spring Nymphing in Pennsylvania Webinar on February 8th, 2022
The spring kicks off the fly fishing season. Aquatic insects start making their move with warmer waters and anticipation of their emergence out of the water. Trout are equally actively feeding on nymphs for the vast majority of their diet.
In this webinar, Dave Rothrock and Dave Kile will have a conversation about some technics and approaches to spring nymphing. Dave Rothrock will discuss How to Set Up a Drop Shot Nymph Rig to get the best results as well as plenty of other ideas.
So join Dave and Dave for a fun and casual conversation about Spring Nymphing in Pennsylvania.
Topics
• How to Set Up a Drop Shot Nymph Rig
• Seasonal hatches and trout food
• Types of nymph patterns
• Wild vs stocked trout behavior
• Your questions and answers
Dave Rothrock
Dave has been fly-fishing across Pennsylvania for over 50 years. He is an accomplished angler and casting instructor. He is a passionate fly fishing educator that can be seen at fly fishing shows and TU meetings. Dave is a guide and member of the team with Sky Blue Outfitters.
Dave Kile
Dave has been fly fishing for over 35 years and is the founder of Paflyfish, an online community of fly fishing anglers in the Pennsylvania region founded in 1995. He was recognized in 2014 by the Cumberland Valley Trout Unlimited with the Charles K. Fox Rising Trout Award.
Audience: Novice to advanced anglers
Date: Tuesday, February 8, 2022, at 7:00 PM
Where: Live Online Zoom Presentation
Registration in advance is required for this event. The event registration is full.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Conquer the Cold: The theory of bigger being sometimes better
There are no absolutes in fly fishing and that’s why I refer to this approach as a theory. While this “theory” produces good results, there will be times you will have to adjust your way of thinking as there are no absolutes in fly fishing. What I’m referring to is trying to get inside the mind of a wintertime feeding trout. Think about it, wintertime is a period when these cold blooded critter’s feeding habits slow down as water temperatures drop. In many river systems, trout begin to drop back into the slower moving bodies of water in an effort to expend less energy. Although their metabolisms may slow down, feeding is still on their mind and the wintertime can be the right time for the angler to venture out to the river. Often the most popular sections are void of anglers and I’ve had several days where the action would rival a May sulphur hatch. A wintertime feeding trout may not always mirror its springtime foraging behavior, but trout still need to eat and a larger presentation may be the ticket. Sometimes all trout need is a little encouragement so I often call upon larger patterns to create that desire.
By larger, I’m referring to nymph patterns as large as #4 and small as a #10. Yes that big-even on spring and limestone streams. Think about this, trout feel sluggish and less motivated to continuously chase small food items down during these cold winter months. Instead, it seems logical that trout would be willing to spend less energy chasing down larger food items. Move less and obtain more calories! Large stonefly, caddis, egg and worm patterns are my usual wintertime suspects. Nymphing is normally my first choice as I can slowly present the flies. Streamer tactics also work well but only when trout are feeling up to the chase. The idea is to present a pattern that can fulfill a trout’s hunger with only one energy surge. In many...
Welcome to the Updated Paflyfish Website
The old Paflyfish forum was based on a platform called XOOPS and was a critical step for the website sixteen years ago. The XOOPS platform had not kept up with contemporary Internet protocols, security standards, SEO search engines, mobile user access and many other important features. I have migrated to a new forum platform based on Zenforo with the plan on improving our fly fishing community.
The new forum will provide all the new features that is needed as well as maintaining pretty much all the old features you have been familiar with over the years. The new forum will offer better community access and convenience to all the old information too.
If you are new to the site, new user registration is back on and available in the upper right corner of the site menu bar. We look forward to you joining our fly fishing community.
New Functionality
Mobile Access - designed to work with smartphones and tablets
Security - Secure SSL access, a secure certificate for the site, hChapta for new secure user registration, advance blocking for bots and spammers
Unlimited file storage - We can add more and larger images to posts
Pictures - easy to drag and drop images and no codes
Multimedia - simple YouTub video without adding codes
Intuitive authoring tools - what you see is what you get
Watched Content - Users can opt to receive email or on-site notifications
Conversations (formerly private messages) - Private messaging to one or more member
What’s new features
Alerts
Enhanced Search
What got Migrated
All the old forums, threads, posts and replies
User names, signature lines and avatars
Private messages - now Conversations
What didn’t make it
Embedded videos
Photo Album
Links referring to the old site
Old Polls
Coming soon and still under...
Dressing for Cold Weather Fly Fishing
Temperature, sun and wind can make huge variables when gearing for some winter fly fishing. Standing in 45-degree water can set you back pretty quickly too. You've heard it before, but I'll offer it again: layers, layers, and more layers. The most important way to keep yourself prepared is with the proper layers.
Headwear
I like wearing a ball cap for fishing because the visor helps me with my visibility while I’m looking at the water. But I’ll always have a wool cap to switch on if I find myself cold. One of the best and fastest ways to regulate your body temperature is what you are wearing on your head. I recently found a decent billed cap with earflaps that can be pulled down. Certainly, the Elmer Fudd look has its own calling, but I’m not a slave to fashion while on the stream.
Alright Captain Obvious we know cotton socks don't work, so the best bet is a two-layer approach with your feet. I first put on a thin polyester-wicking sock. Overtop of the polyester sock I use a classic ragg merino wool sock. Bigger can be better, but make sure you can still get into your boots comfortably. If your socks are too thick and your feet are too tight your feet will be constricted in your boots and make your feet cold. What you are trying to accomplish...
A Knotty Approach to Time on the Water
By Maurice
While sharing some time on the water the other day with Dave Kile (dkile) I experienced what seems to happen often during a decent hatch with some wind, you guessed it, a wind knot! Or as Lefty Kreh calls them, bad casting knots. Everyone gets them now and then, especially when combining a breeze, long leaders and fine tippets. Or for the chuck and duck crowd, of which I am often a member, weight and multiple flies. So as Dave stands upstream pondering my delay to cast to a rising fish, he asks, what’s the problem Einstein? I said I have a wind knot, and it reminded me of a tip I learned many years ago.
Back in the 80’s we were on a bus trip to the Breeches from the ‘burg and there was a video on the tube for those not taking the time to sleep. Being full of interest in sponging any and all info I could at the time, one tip in the video stuck with me. Terminal knot tying efficiency. Think about it, every time we tie on a new piece of tippet, a new fly, etc., we are out of the game. It stands to reason that the faster you can tie on a fly (improved clinch knot in my case) or a new piece of tippet (surgeons knot), the quicker you can begin flogging the water again.
The video stressed the need to get your knots down to 15 seconds each. Practice, practice, practice until you can meet that goal. This will put your fly change or tippet adjustments into under one minute if you include the spooling off tippet, picking out a new and returning the old flies. If you find yourself taking 5-10 minutes each to accomplish that task, you could likely be wasting an hour or more tying frustrating knots. Practicing on stream is KNOT efficient! (pun intended)Now it’s not a race, and I don’t suggest it to be. But it is practical to be as efficient as possible when enjoying your streamside time. Plus, when a hatch is on, the fish and bugs don’t wait until you re-tie, it goes on...
The Spring Jamboree is Back! May 20-22, 2022
The last couple of years has made it difficult to formally plan this event. With some good luck and modern science, we are planning for the Jam in 2022.
The pavilion at Seven Mountains Campground is rented by Paflyfish and is used as a meeting point during the weekend. Plenty of impromptu conversations, fly tying and meet-ups take place at the pavilion. The idea of the weekend is to provide a setting for a casual weekend of fly fishing in a great region of Pennsylvania. As with every year, we will be meeting up in the evenings at the pavilion to catch up on the day's fishing trips. Friday and Saturday mornings we meet for coffee and plan the day. Often plenty of opportunities for some fly tying and casting lessons being shared.
Please contact Sevens Mountain Campground directly if you would like to stay there that weekend. They have a limited number of cabins and campsites. I encourage...
Trip Report: Lake Ontario Tributaries November 2021
For me, this was a new location and had me rounding up some new gear for such a trip. My friends and sponsor on the site, Allen Fly Fishing, helped me out with a nice 8wt rod setup. AJ from Allen, got me going with a great-looking Compass rod and beautiful Alpha reel.
Some coaching from the crew helped me out with some fly ideas too.
Fly Fishing
Typically the salmon are slowly up by early November and the big browns and steelhead are becoming more prevalent. On the way up Albatross, Turkey, and Glenfiddch took on some early action, and each hooked into some salmon.
It was a bit of a hike for most of us while the rest arrived on Thursday, we didn’t all get started together until Friday morning on Oak Orchard. The weather was sunny and pleasant for early November. Casey got into a zombie salmon (fish that are literally rotting to death as they end their migration route) to spawn very early in the morning. The rest of the morning was pretty quiet with some salm
Turkey showed us all up with his tailing glove...