No fish here!

Typical scenery in the Upper Delaware watershed.
The rumors you've heard about the Delaware River are craftily fabricated by the greedy New York State Department of Economic Development. All of New York is paved and covered by skyscrapers. The only fishing that occurs here is when they flood some city like Hancock – so that the dignitaries will visit and allocate bags of money to the “recovery.” Stocked fish are trucked in from the Lower Hudson River because everyone knows they're crazed zombie fish that will bite anything. The truth is that Delaware is a Native American word which translates to either; “No fish here.” or “Fish broken here.”
The rumors you've heard are not true, there are no fish here, there is nothing to see here, nothing to do, no good places to stay and threats to bodily safety are lurking behind every tree and swimming in the highly polluted river. The trout left years ago when the dams were built and can now be found in New Jersey... go there instead. For cripe’s sake, there isn’t even any water in the river! We send it all to New York City for them to drink, yuck! The locals are crazy, Appalachian militia types who think that tourists are great for target practice. They love picking fights with “city folk” in the local taverns and grocery stores. New York ranks last in education, first in unemployment and has a high poverty level. Every year hundreds of fisherman and Girl Scouts are reported missing. We love New York, we must, why else would we stay.
The perils that await unsuspecting visitors in New York are a closely guarded secret. Flesh eating creatures await behind every tree. Lodges and bed & breakfasts are located on disposable diaper landfills and medical waste dumps. A well known fact around these parts is that visitors lose a lot of spouses in New York. Wives get “lost” on shopping and antiquing outings and husbands wander off to the ditch we call a river, never to be heard from again. Yep, New York is a dangerous place and is probably the worst choice you can make for fishing or vacationing. Try New Jersey or Pennsylvania, the fishing and tourism is great there, now go tell all your friends.

Combat Fishing!

This week has seen EXTREME angler pressure in the Upper West Branch area. (Not quite as bad as this first day pic. from Peeyay, but close.) Yesterday there was a truck from Jersey with surf casting rods rigged with floats for trout fishing in the access parking lot. The kicker was, they had them in the front bumper mounted beach fishing carrier! However, they did have a sweet hibachi going on the tailgate.

Penn's Creek

Anyone interested in a Sunday trip to Penn's Creek?

Curly

Respectfully submitted by a Minion Associate

The Redneck Tape Measure!
Holy cow Billy Bob, that there fish has to be at least 6 beers long! Nope Bubba, it's 7.

Another reason to buy Sierra Nevada...

May 1, 2009
Beginning today, and for the rest of this month, you can save great rivers by buying great beer!
During the month of May, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will donate to Western Rivers Conservancy a portion of the proceeds from every 12-pack of Pale Ale and Summerfest Lager sold in the United States.
This is your chance to help conserve vital waterways while enjoying great craft beer. Please help us spread the word!
"Our beer is a product of our surroundings," said Ken Grossman, Founder and President of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and member of the board of directors for Western Rivers Conservancy. "Sierra Nevada is not just the name of our brewery, but also a place with its own unique environment. We need to do our part in protecting that environment for generations to come."
Proceeds from the Wild Rivers campaign will support Western Rivers Conservancy’s work to create river parks and protected natural areas along rivers like the Klamath River in California, the John Day in Oregon, the Hoh River in Washington and the Bear River in Utah.
"Sierra Nevada is known for its quality and integrity. It’s an environmentally responsible company that makes great beer," said Phillip Wallin, Western Rivers Conservancy’s President. "We are proud to partner with Sierra Nevada, and with the public’s help, we can conserve precious habitat for fish, wildlife and people."

Minion Associate shows how he rolls...

Aspen Extreme displays the Yampa goods.
Nice work sir!

Memorial Day Weekend

What is the plan for Memorial Day Weekend? Coaches? Penn's Creek? Some where totally random? I know if will be taking off the 21st and the 22nd. What is everyone else doing?

-Curly

WB 05-02-09

Good day on the WB yesterday. A buttload of caddis hatching, but no fish rising to them. Sporadic emergence of Hendricksons got the fish looking up. Started the day by showing the trouts a pair of nymphs; a Hendrickson and a March Brown. Hooked 5 and landed 2 bruisers, all on the Hendrickson. Switched to a Comparadun Hendrickson when some rise forms started showing sporadicaly. Dick gave me a Hendrickson spinner with a yellow razor foam egg sac late in the afternoon. Landed 3 on dries, including one nice rainbow on Dick's spinner. A good time on the river chewing the fat between periods of activity with Dick and Brett.

Friday Bacon!

Mmmm, chocolate covered bacon!

When the delicious greasy, salty bacon just isn't enough awesomeness for your discriminating palate.

Thoughts on Beer and Fishing

When thinking about fly fishing, I imagine standing waist deep in a blue ribbon trout stream with an awe inspiring background of boreal forest below soaring bald eagles while perfectly executing a double haul to a riser 70 feet away. When thinking about beer, I imagine a cold golden brown liquid with a frothy head that has the sharp taste of hops and the smooth aftertaste of deliciousness. Fortuitously beer and fly fishing seems to go together like poo and stink. Even when you can’t count on the fish, a beer will never disappoint.

Although it may be theoretically possible to fly fish without beer, why risk a cosmic cataclysm? And not just any old beer will do. There is always the chance that today will be that, “epic day”, we all hope for. You wouldn’t want to celebrate it with a semi-warm macrobrew would you? What you need for a proper celebratory toast is a handcrafted micro-brew, or at the very least, a fine IPA.

On the other hand, after making the perfect cast, setting up the perfect drift and setting to the strike just so, almost any brew would taste pretty darn good. It is not too great a leap to hypothesize that indeed, fly fishing makes beer taste better.

Perhaps it is the quality of the beer that binds the memories of good friends together over special events, or maybe it is just the quantity of the beer. Some of my fondest memories involve a side note of particularly cold or uniquely tasty beer. Beer like fly fishing, brings good people a reason to spend time together.

I particularly like an A.K. Best quote that goes, “We said we were going to go fishing, and we did.” Maybe a more personal response to the question, “How was the fishing?’”, would be, “We went for good fishing and beautiful surroundings but only found cold beer.” There can not possibly be a more fitting end to a fine day afield than a cold microbrew.