Autumn on a Pennsylvania Trout Stream

Over the past several weeks, we've made out transition into fall here in Pennsylvania.  While I missed the intense caddis action that I lucked into last season, I've managed to take a few fish on streamers over the past few weeks.  Despite those few catches, fishing action overall has been pretty disappointing for me this fall.  Luckily, I've been pretty good about bringing my camera along, so even a day of getting skunked usually isn't a total loss. Here's a few of my favorite shots from the past several weeks.  Please remember that, as always, you can click on any image to see a larger version.  Enjoy! I hope...

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MidCurrent 2011 Gear Guide Reactions

Last week, the folks over at MidCurrent published their 2011 Gear Guide, covering rods, reels, lines, and literally every other aspect of our sport.  From the looks of the guide, the biggest thing next year will be nano-silica resin in high-end fly rods.  I won't get into the science-y specifics, but suffice to say that its an (arguably) improved way to glue your blank together.  The other major trend seems to be toward fully-sealed, 'maintenance-free' drags in reels.  Unlike the nano-silica resin, this is a more directly observable change, and one that I suspect will be more of a game changer in the market.  I own a few reels with fully-sealed drags, and functionally, I notice little difference from other comparable disc drags in terms of performance, but the mechanism...

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Late Summer, Small Streams

Here's a few of the nicer photos I managed while on the water last month.  Most of these were taken during days of slow fishing, as I still can't seem to bring myself to put down the fly rod when the fishing is hot.  While there wasn't a shot among these that I'd consider spectacular, there are several that I'm really proud of.  All of the following shots were from my Pentax WS80 waterproof compact (10 MP).  If anyone would like the more thorough EXIF data for any of them, I'll be happy to provide it. As always, please remember that all of these pictures link to a full-size view of the shot. ...

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A Day With No Fish (Becomes a Photo-Walk)

I was out a few weeks ago on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to do some fishing.  Unfortunately, the fish were not at all productive, so after a while, I started to focus more on taking some photos.  Since I've been doing a lot of typing on Dharma of the Drift lately, I decided to change it up today, and give you, my readers, more pictures than words.  Please remember that clicking on any of these pictures will take you to a full-sized version. Hope you enjoy... ...

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Lake Erie Steelhead Fishing Primer (Part 5)

So here we are, at the last portion of the Erie Steelhead series.  So far we've separated fact from myth in Erie, learned about the proper gear you should outfit yourself with for trib fishing, how to determine the areas of the tribs where fishing is permitted, and finally tactics for catching fish as well as setups for using those tactics.  In this final installment, we'll talk about the flies that you should have in your box when you hit PEnnsylvania's Erie watershed in search of steelhead. In case you haven't been reading the updates as they were posted, you can find all previous installments at the following links: Lake...

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