Catch UP!

Hello Everyone!
     I have a bit of catching up to do!  Lets get to it. After the season finale in Pittsburg, my main focus quickly switched to hunting.  I was lucky and did actually tag a deer this fall with my muzzleloader.  I just put a few packs of steak on the counter to unthaw as I plan to make some steak and cheese subs later this afternoon with a friend.  But I digress... So mixed in with the hunting, I did get out one last time for some big land locked salmon.  What a great way to end the regular season!


Kev with a big boy!

Mr. Kyper

 

After our season closed here, it was off to the Salmon River in November.  This year was going to be a blast mainly due to the people who would be fishing with us.  My buddies Kev, Greg and Nate were all ready to get in on some serious steelhead mayhem.  This was to be my only trip out to NY this fall and I wanted to make the best of it.  It has really come to a point now, after fishing the SR for many years, that numbers are not what we need.  Instead, it is more important for some sort of adventure to take place, stories to be told and new catch phrases to be created.  With home made brews and "Electric Chickens" mixed together, it turned out to be a great trip.  As far as the fishing went, I would say it ranked right up there as one of my most successful trips ever. The hookup to landed ratio was great.  The water flows were perfect at around 1000 cfs the entire trip and the fish were where they were supposed to be.  Between Kev and I we went 24 for 50 on landed to hookups in 2 and a half days of fishing.  As always this just leaves me wanting more.  I hope to give it another go in the winter, but usually run out of time!  Either way here are some of my favorite fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Pittsburg "Thunk and Dunk"

So how is everyone?!  I am skipping the apologies and going right for the goods here.  Lots of people have been asking me to get on the ball and get this blog updated!  So here we go!  The past month has been the first half of my favorite time of year.  We are just starting the second half and I am really looking forward to it.  I spent almost all of my weekends in Pittsburg right up until the end of the fishing season up there and it was a blast!  The salmon showed up just about right on time and the anticipation of searching for the "monsters" drove us forward each day.  I mixed in guiding, fishing with my father and bow hunting and the balancing act was not a bad problem to have.  When October came around the "Cast and Blast" crew arrived and there seemed to be quite a few folks on the popular sections of river.  I decided to call my endeavor a "Thunk and Dunk" as I was not bird hunting with the gun, but rather bow hunting.  Unfortunately I have yet to "Thunk" my deer, but I have dunked many fly lines and clients were rewarded nicely.  I will leave the rest of the explanations to the pictures.  I am completely booked up for the fall and am starting to book for the spring and summer of 2015!  Let me know ahead of time if you are looking to get a trip in the books! I will continue to update throughout the fall with personal trips and hunting adventures, so check back and leave a comment anytime!   

Fall Colors on the Connecticut

Peter and his nice brown!

My Last Pittsburg Salmon of the year!

Fall in New Hampshire!

Sorry for the long delay everyone!  Things get a bit crazy when I return south and start a new school year of teaching!  We are in full swing Fall Mode right now!  Bow season starts on Monday and the leaves are beginning to change.  Salmon are around in a lot of the normal areas.  Brookies are getting colored up and starting to feed more aggressively.  I do still have a select few days left for a trip if you are interested, but the season end is fast approaching.  If you are a long term planner and want to get in the books for 2015 let me know as the "prime" dates are already starting to fill.  In the meantime, I will be guiding, fishing and enjoying the outdoors as much as possible in the next few months!  It really is a great time to live in New England!  Hope to see you around!  As always if you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me!

Patrick@fishstoryguideservice.com

End of Summer... Bring on the Fall!

I am almost wrapped up with the end of my summer guiding in Pittsburg.  I only have a couple of weekend days open for Pittsburg in the fall as well.  As much fun as it is to fish and guide in the summer, I am looking forward as always to what the fall season has in store.  Between guiding, fishing, hunting, running and teaching, I should be pretty busy.  If you are interested in my availability for the rest of the fall either up here in Pittsburg or down on the Three Rivers area, please let me know soon, as I am sure to be booked up quickly.  I wish there was more time in the fall to squeeze it all in!  We have been catching fish lately on dries: sulfurs, terrestrials, and all of my go to nymphs have been doing the trick.  I had a great evening recently where I found myself right smack dab in the middle of about a dozen, large, surface feeding fish.  The best part was putting the puzzle together and in turn having a successful last hour of light that evening.  Drifting dries to specific fish and watching their noses come out to sip in your fly, there is not much better than that.  Hope to see you all on the river! 

- Two things that popped into my head the other day: 

1.  If you see me on the river and we have met before, please do not take offense to me not remembering your name.  I am the first to admit that I have a horrible memory when it comes to adult names.  Give me a picture of one of my students from 8 years ago and I can name them, but with adults I just draw blanks!  The best thing to do is just come right up and say "Hey Patrick, so and so here, we met here, or we fished here together"... and so on.  I feel so bad when I am talking with someone and I know their face and even can tell you some of the fishing we did together, but can't remember their name!

2.  Feel free to comment on any of these blog posts!  I had someone tell me that they were not sure if they were supposed to comment on the posts.  I would love to hear your comments and or ideas about all things fishing!  If you have any other questions also feel free to shoot me an email anytime!

Patrick@fishstoryguideservice.com

The "Canoe" ...

Well, I finally went and did it.  I decided to buy a nice canoe to use for guiding and exploring.  I had a couple of days to try her out in the past week or so and it has been a blast.  The idea was to give myself another option for taking folks out if the rivers were too high.  This would allow us to check out many of the remote ponds for beautiful brook trout.  The canoe is a 14' 6", nice and wide, Old Town , Saranac 146.  It has three seats, but the front and the back seats have cushioned back rests.  It tracks well and is perfect for one angler to sit and fly cast out of the bow while I paddle and position you from the stern.  I was able to test this process out with my favorite "sport", (my father), and if he was able to be productive, I would say anyone has a great chance as well!  Here are some pictures of the fun we had this past week.

What is it?

Canoe Gem!

The king of the pool!

Great View!

A Link to the Past....

A few days back I had a chance to guide two brothers who had never been to Pittsburg.  One had some fly fishing experience, while the other had mostly been a spin fisherman.  After about an hour of fishing, my favorite line of the day was, "Patrick, I think you converted me to fly fishing!"  The cool part about this trip was that there were lots of connections to the past for these two guys.  First, their grandfather had recently passed away and they had learned that when he was married, he had gone on his honey moon in Pittsburg.  Next, I found out that they would be staying at the lodge that I not only used to be the head guide for, but also stayed in myself many times when I was their age.  Lastly, as I pull in to pick them up for our trip, I see their vehicle parked right next to old Cabin #4.  This was were my family and I stayed for many a summer trip when I was a youngster myself.  In fact I remember distinctly catching "my limit" while staying in that cabin and having my picture taken with the trout I was about to fry up!  I was about 10 years old at the time.  The day of fishing was great.  We caught lots of fish, got lots of nice pictures, ate at a nice local Pittsburg café for brunch and made lots of memories on the water.  Just before we headed out one of the boys said, " I think Grampa would be proud of us."  I agree guys, he would have been very proud.  Thanks for a great trip!

Patrick@fishstoryguideservice.com

1st Fish, 2nd Cast



Zach is in on the action!

Nice looking Brown

Action Shot

Orange Belly

Great Day!

Another Great Day!

One after another.  The great trips just keep coming!  I am extremely lucky to be able to guide in an area that supports great fishing year round.  There will inevitably be a trip where the numbers and sizes go back down, but I will enjoy and be grateful while the streak continues!  So I was happy to be able to guide a father and daughter team last week.  The weather was perfect, the fish were biting and we were able to soak in the scenery along the way.  Amanda is a fish "slayer" and landed more fish than I can remember.  A little friendly competition along the way, both father and daughter landed quality fish throughout the day.  Who won you may ask?  Well..... isn't it just all about having fun?? :)  Thanks for a great day!

Patrick@fishstoryguideservice.com

Nice Bow Bow

Fat Brookie Time!

Father / Daughter!

Muppet

Havin' Fun!

A Change in the Weather, a Change for the Better?

I went to sleep while it was summer and woke up to find the fall.  I know this is maybe a bit dramatic, but it was high 80's a few days ago and I woke up to 39 the other morning.  I absolutely love cool crisp air for many reasons.  First it is just a reminder of the best time of year which is still to come.  Fall is just perfect in Pittsburg.  Next it allows me to get my runs in at any time of day.  I like to guide morning sessions, run 8-10 miles midday and then get back out for the evening hatch with my "sports."  When it is hot and humid, the midday lull in fishing usually consists of rehydrating after a tiring morning.  Needing to get in my runs after a full day of guiding can be tough as well.  But I digress.  The past couple of days have been wonderful with highs in the mid-upper 60's and no humidity at all.  The fishing has still been great as well.  Here is a short picture update of a trip from a few days ago.  My open dates are filling fast, but if you would like to snatch up one of the remaining open slots, let me know!  Thank you for spending the time to read this!

Patrick@fishstoryguideservice.com

Pittsburg Bugger fools them again!

Classic "Muppet Face"

Nice big leaper in the mix!

Nice Backdrop! Good Work Pete!

Can It Get Any Better?

I think the answer would have to be no.  Just about everything has been perfect up here for the past few days.  The weather was perfect, the flows were perfect, the hatches were perfect and the fishing was, dare I say, PERFECT!  If I had to script a guided trip and plan each detail, the past few trips would have been it.  I had a brand new "sport" up in Pittsburg last week and I always like to show new folks what Pittsburg is all about.  Pittsburg did not disappoint.  We lost track of the numbers of fish we caught in the first hour and then moved all over the river to hit some areas that were a bit more off the beaten path.  The best part was that there was no one else around.  We saw one person the entire trip.  Plenty of beautiful fish were landed and to put the cherry on top, we still have salmon in the river as well. Thank you for a great day Justin! We were catching fish with: Caddis Dries, Hoppers, BWO's, Emerginators, Eggs, Feedinators and Pittsburg Buggers.  1st Dam is flowing around 160 CFS, which is just about perfect for summer time fishing in my opinion.  I do have some week days open over the next few weeks as well as a couple of weekend days.  I would love to share this great fishing with others, so please feel free to shoot me an email for my availability!  See you out there!

Patrick@fishstoryguideservice.com

Shoulders!

1st of many today.

Muppet Face

Silver Leaper

Dark

Love the green on this one!

Action Shot!