Didymo...YECH!

Fly fishing: Verdict still out on Didymo’s longe-range effect
Thursday, August 28, 2008
MORGAN LYLE
We’re a full year into the age of didymo now, and the most popular trout streams in eastern New York and New England have, at least so far, been spared devastation by the indestructible invasive algae.
What the future holds, time will tell.
Scientists in Vermont, New York and other states in the region reported the alarming news last summer:
Didymosphenia geminata had been confirmed present in the Battenkill, the White and Connecticut rivers in Vermont and the East Branch of the Delaware.
Because we anglers love to hop from river to river, gas prices be damned, no one was surprised when didymo was reported this summer in the West Branch of the Delaware, probably the best trout stream in the eastern United States. I for one will be surprised if it doesn’t show up in the rest of our big-name rivers in the months to come, despite efforts by state agencies and groups like Trout Unlimited get us to thoroughly clean and dry our waders before moving from one river to another.
Didymo has the potential to grow into long, thick, streambed-smothering mats that have been compared to brown fiberglass insulation. It loves cold, clean water, and once it’s in a stream, there’s no known way to get rid of it.
Didymo does not directly threaten fish, but it can wreak havoc on their habitat. The worst kind of bloom buries the substrate where aquatic insects live, and those insects are what keep trout alive.
It’s thought to have contributed to a marked decline in the fishing on Rapid Creek in South Dakota. And yet, didymo has been around in the Colorado Rockies for decades, and people still visit the mile-high state in large numbers to fish for trout. In a couple of spots in the Pacific northwest, it went away on its own.
In New Zealand, where huge trout challenge skilled anglers in gin-clear water, felt-soled wading shoes have been banned as of Oct. 1. Damp felt is considered the number one way didymo spores get transported from one river to another.
Norm McBride of the Department of Environmental Conservation has spotted didymo in the Downsville Covered Bridge and Airport pools on the East Branch of the Delaware and in the the West Branch, above and below Deposit. His office has posted signs at access points along the rivers in hopes that awareness of the precautions will slow the algae’s spread. And he’s alarmed at how quickly it has grown.
“The didymo growth seen in the East Branch this year above Corbett was far worse than anything I saw last year,” he said. As for its long-term impact, “we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Nonetheless, over the summer he said his office had received no complaints about the impact of didymo on the fish or the fishing.
Nor had Dale Robinson of Saratoga Springs, who crosses the Battenkill eight times on his way to work as the fishing manager at the Orvis Co. flagship store in Manchester, Vt.
“I saw a stretch last year below Route 22 in Salem where the water was low and there were areas where the slime was exposed to the air,” he said. “But I have not seen any floating dead fish. I have not heard one person tell me that ‘Hey, my favorite run that used to have lots of fish has no fish now and it’s full of rock snot.’ ”
Still, he added, “I can’t imagine it does any good.”

Early Friday Bacon!

I present the Bacon Mary!

Recipe:

Prepare B.M. as normal + 1/2 tbsp. of BACON SALT

Garnish with olives, pepperonchini, lime, pickle or pickled bean + BACON.

Enjoy!

Next Week's Agenda...

Cape Cod!

Stripahs!Blues!
Lobstah!

Chowda!
Beeyah!

Fishing stories & pics. to follow upon return...

Jo's First Tamar Salmon!

It's been a great week for Arundell Arms salmon anglers, with nine fish recorded (8 released); not bad for August!
Among the successful guests was Jo Hudgell... this is a note from partner Joe Sinclair:

"Many thanks for another great visit. Since you now have an updated page on the website I thought I'd send these over. The fish in the picture took a gold Mepps cast upstream into the Tamar water at Lydfoot (24th August). 9lb and safely released. Jo Hudgell's first Tamar salmon!

Once again many thanks and tight lines for the remainder of the season."

WELL DONE JO!!!

Salmon River Lodging

Stew's call list for Salmon / Steelhead Fishing:

The Portly Angler 315-298-4773
The Drift Boat Inn 315-298-4104
Double Eagle Lodge 315-298-3326
Steelhead Lodge 315-298-4371
Trapper's Place 315-298-6655
Malinda's Fly Shop & Lodge 315-298-2993
Angler's Roost B & B 315-387-5690
Fox Hollow Salmon River Lodge 315-298-2876
Golden Fish Cabins & Lodge 315-345-0463 / 315-963-7613
Salmon Heaven Lodge 315-298-5695
Douglaston Salmon Run 315-298-6672

New Exhibit @ The American Museum of Flyfishing in Manchester, VT

Touted as one of the most respected and influential outdoor artist of all time, Ogden Pleissner was recently honored by the American Museum of Fly Fishing. Pleissner was most famous for capturing scenes of Wyoming's Wind River Range, Atlantic salmon fishing scenes, and the trout streams of the New England.

Beaverkill Bridge: Watercolor on paper, ca. 1952. The reverse of this work is inscribed, "Scene near Rockland, Sullivan County, NY." The Beaverkill, flows 44 miles through the Catskill mountains before meeting the Delaware River near East Branch, NY, is one of the most hallowed and historic fly fishing streams in the east.

Salmon Bonanza

Although the river looked unfishable, clearing waters just tempted us to cast a fly on the Tamar today... The result? Three fly-caught salmon for under an hour's combined fishing effort, in one pool.


James Palmer hooks a lively fish that initially tries to run to Plymouth!




After a 10-minute, surging battle, David slips the net...



How about that for a 10lb+ beauty, just before release.



Tim managed to get in on the act too with this shining little grilse - proper job!



Who'd have thought we'd be fishing brass tube flies on sinking lines in mid-August?!



Another 10-pounder, this time for Mr Pilkington...




This could be a great back-end season! Why not take advantage of our Last-Minute Salmon Breaks?

Maine Striper & Tuna fishing report 8/18/08

The Baker Family & Capt. George with a nice shallow water light tackle Bluefish!!!


Gary Eaton of IDEXX Labs with his personal Best 40+ inch Striped Bass caught & released 8/18/08






Tuna fishing has really picked up over the last week...We've been seeing good suface feeding action giving us some great chances to hook-up with light tackle...We had a fish that measured nearly 60 inches on the boat today...caught less than 3 miles offshore. This fished smashed a Heru Skipjack popper and bent the Lamiglas LGM-80 rod to the point where the cork rings were groaning!!! After what seemed like an hour long battle...we sunk two gaffs into the fish and heisted it aboard. What a fish!!!

Striper fishing has had its ups & downs....Today was one of our season highlights, at least for big fish. Some Big fish are showing up in the rivers & livebait & chunks have been doing the trick. Early mornings up on the flats can produce some beautiful sight casting chances...These fish are big and spook easily but with the right presentatation they can be fooled into taking the fly.

Cod have been consistent on the nearshore ledges & our kids trips continue to be very popular.

Fore more info on any of our trips call us today

Capt. George Harris
207-691-0745
www.superfly-charters.com

Emma's New Gun

Check out Emma's new birthday gift.

She can already shoot better than John.

Buyaa!

Fur Bearing Trout, VERY RARE....

Fur-Bearing Trout
Kingdom: Animalia
Location found: northern North America (particularly Canada, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana)
Fur-Bearing Trout (also known as Beaver Trout) possess thick coats of fur that help to keep them warm in the cold northern waters where they live.According to legend, the fur-bearing trout was first encountered by Europeans when Scottish settlers emigrated to Canada during the seventeenth century. One settler wrote home remarking about the abundance of "furried animals and fish" in the new land. Asked to provide more information about the furried fish, he duly sent home a specimen. Fur-Bearing trouts mounted as trophies can be found hanging on walls throughout the Great Lakes region of North America. Other fur-bearing aquatic animals besides trout are sometimes encountered.

Something to keep Curli warm at night...

Advance Copy - The Friday Bacon

Bacon topped chocolate chip cookies!

Mmmmmmmm, bacon...

New Minion Shirt?

Thinking Clay Green with the Minion logo on the upper left chest. Shirts are $45 and logo will be another $7.50, total should be ~$52.50

Thoughts?

Weekend Roundup

Got out twice this weekend, stuck a rainbow and a brown. First try was Friday on the extreme Upper D just below the riffle at the farm flats.

The rainbow fell for a PMD parachute I dug out of the Western box as I didn't have any good Cahills. Tied a couple of Cahills Friday evening, #14 with CDC wings which fooled a nice brown below the cornfield riffle.

Friday saw an unexpected realease increase from the Cannonsville Reservoir which caused an immediate watercraft hatch. The guides apparently had advance warning as they were out in force with sports in tow by lunchtime. The farm flats had surprisingly few anglers. I was able to gain access to some good water through sly application of the secret slap & tickle technique. After trying various sulphur dries I switched to the PMD to match the Cahills. There were also very pale sulphurs on the water. The waxwing flycatchers were having a field day. Friday evening was concluded under a party tent at the Chestnutt Inn for their Friday evening Rock on the Dock. The tent was required due to torrential downours.

Saturday was very crowded at the farm flats. The pipeline crews are making final preparations for laying the gas pipeline under the river just below the farm flats riffle. There are two parellel sets of survey stakes spanning the river at the pipeline crossover point. All this activity convinced me to head downstream to the Men's Club access. Following the long walk I arrived to my favorite riffle and found it belssedly angler free. Nymphing the pockets in the riffle dredged up nothing but big gobs of stringy green algae. Cleaning the hooks, split shot and strike indicator was required after every 3 to 4 casts. The Cahills and Sulphurs started popping and the flycatchers started feasting as I reached the run returning to the main flow below the island. A scan of the flat pockets below the riffle showed some nice fish rising near the far bank. I broke out a new CDC Cahill and immediately got a take and LDR. A few more of my longest, and not necessarily prettiest casts, later got me into a nice 15 inchish brown. The fish were still rising as I fought the brown. Shortly after unhooking, the watercraft hatch started in earnest. First a single canoe floated right over the risers. I gave 'em the stink eye! The first riser to start back up after the canoe was quickly put back down by a string of 7 more canoes. I hadn't given up hope until 2 drift boats and a pontoon boat made their way through the run. A quick trip upstream to see what was happening showed 3 more drift boats anchored on the flats. Oh well, back to the house for an evening campfire and a couple bottles of wine.

Thunderstorms on Sunday chased me off the water and over to Roscoe for the Catskill Flyfishing Museum's Jubillee Day. Rain chased about a third of the vendors away also. Looked over lots of bamboo rods and antique reels, none purchased. Found a couple of nice artistic maps of the Delaware river system in the museum shop. Look for them soon on a wall at Coach's.

Later!

Maine saltwater fishing report8/09/08

Super Fly veterans Todd Mackenzie & Bill Coppola with a couple of beauties caught during the course of this past week

Wow... Striper Fishing, Tuna fishing, Cod fishing...you name it we covered it over the past week.

Striper fishing has been successful using our proven live baiting techniques...we've caught some nice fish drifting the ledges using live bait...heavy rain & a line low pressure systems has hampered the striper fishing somewhat but that's normal... mother nature at work.

Cod fishing on the ledges continues to produce...butterfly jigging slays fish...so does the old standby diamond jig with teaser combo!!!

We'll be on the ledges for most of the coming week fishing for Tuna...Stay tuned for reports....We are entering the most exciting time of year to tackle "Football" Bluefins.
Tomorrow we're gonna try our hand at catch & release Sharkin'....the Gulf of Maine has many species of Shark including the Mighty Mako shark...Blue sharks & Thresher are also fairly common. We may even try to hook one up on the fly rod.

For info or reservations on our trips give us a call at

207-691-0745
Capt. George Harris
www.superfly-charters.com

The Friday Bacon, (slightly delayed due to Olympic coverage)

A new home for you greenbacks, pork belly!

Last Minute Salmon Fishing

We still have some availability for those wishing to take advantage of late-season fishing.
September and early October is the prime time to fish for salmon on the Tamar and Lyd, with the brown trout fishing usually being excellent. With what is looking like a late run of fish this year, the sea trout fishing in early September could well be worth making a date for.

As a special offer, we are doing all-in packages for late-season anglers.

Dinner, bed and breakfast in the hotel (with fishing included) will cost just £120 per person, per night! Please contact the hotel for more details and quote 'WEB OFFER' when enquiring.

Summerfest-Anglers’ Market-Jubilee Day

Super Sunday at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center
Summerfest-Anglers’ Market-Jubilee Day
Sunday, August 10 2008, 8:30 AM-4PM

Phone: 1-845-439-4810

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum has combined it’s Annual Summerfest, Angler’s Market, and Jubilee Day to create the largest single day event in it’s 27 year history. Traditionally held on the last Saturday of August, The Anglers Market and Summerfest, now moved up to August 10. This single event brings out the best in fishing treasures discovered over the past year from the closets, attics, and basements. Every year attendees search over 100 tables in the quest to find that unique outdoorsy thing, hard to find fly tying material, fly fishing collectible, gadget or obscure book. Combined with the highly successful Jubilee Day it will be a Super Sunday in the Catskills.

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center will come alive at 8:30AM with the opening of the Anglers Market, Summerfest and Jubilee Day that will include many local civic organizations, health centers, farmers produce market, crafts and games for kids. The CFFCM will once again celebrate birthday and anniversary milestones ending in a 0 or 5. Everyone is welcome and cake will be provided. . Share your celebration with your family and community. It’s a great day for families and friends to gather. Call the CFFCM and be included, the more the merrier.
The days activities will include a ‘kids only (12 and under) fishing derby’ will be held at 11:30AM at the CFFCM pond with prizes for first fish, most fish, largest fish and smallest fish. Kids are to bring their own tackle and favorite baits.

Many features include: Mike Canazon and the Bamboo Guys will host a bamboo rod casting clinic and be glad to assist those interested in cane rods.

The Fly Fishing Antique Roadshow will be held from noon until 1PM to help you identify and appraise attic finds.

The Great Willowemoc 50/50 fish race at 1:30 and cake will immediately follow.

And there is more…live fiddle music, BBQ, petting zoo, pony rides, and: guaranteed fun for all.

Curli - PONIES!

White Mountains Summer 08

I keep telling myself that I need to carry a god damn notebook with my when I am on fishing trips. Every time I know that I am going to have to do some kinda write-up, and I never write anything down so I always fucking forget everything. So I am probably not going to write too much, but I remembered a trick from middle school and made the font bigger to make it look like more. Remember that?

The trip kicked ass though. The fishing was great and the weather was great.... actually it was pretty spectacular when compared with the weather in Tucson in the summer.

Above, below and to the left are examples of Apache trout that were caught at Christmas Tree Lake. This is a trophy lake stocked with brute trout. It costs $25 a day, with a maximum of 20 people per day, and its worth every cent. The trout below is 2 inches and less than half a pound from the world record, coming in at 22in and 5.5lbs. Which is basically the same as the Arizona state record, since they are really only in Arizona. Still.... pretty sweet fish.

For me the Christmas tree king was a leach Aaron tied, which also caught the big fish. The leach can be seen below. He made a couple colors, and even one with some of my beard hairs in it. The fly was going to be named "Bigfoots Dick", but in the name of decency, was changed to "BUB: big ugly bugger." I don't care what you call it, it was the fly of the trip for sure. Personally, I like the former name.

Aw, crap..... what else? Lets see...

Aaron had a leak in his waders causing numerous cases of 'wet butt', which is always funny. Face farts are funny too, but apparently not to my father, who pointed out that he "was not laughing" when I was helping him untangle a fly line from the roof of his truck and 'accidentally' farted in his face. I laugh now just thinking of it.

Jagermeister is not funny either. But it does kick ass. Especially when you and one other person drink a whole bottle. But remember kids, drinking ant boating don't mix. Unless you are fishing, then bring on the booze. The FGFF guys say, "if fishing sucks, at least you can always catch a buzz." But we kick ass and always catch fish too.

I was there for 2 weeks, and a bunch of shit happened during that time, but its late, and this is all you are going to get for now.

Do you like the shameless plug to the right? Dry Creek outfitters kicks ass, by the way. Go there and spend money. It will make you a better fisherman and a better person. Not to mention better looking.

Maine Saltwater Fishing report 8/3/08

Karen M. caught this nice slot sized Striper today(8/03/08) one of over forty fish caught this afternoon!!!
Niem Ngyuen & Ken Clendenin with a double header of codfish....Ken Clendenin with his own version of a double!!!













Offshore/Nearshore: We are now entering the hottest part of the year to catch Bluefin Tuna off midcoast region of Maine. In the next two months Bluefin will prowl the ledges to feed on the prolific baitfish schools. We are set-up to tackle these Tuna with Fly & Spin gear as well as the standard stand-up trolling gear. Now is the time to get out there!!!

Codfishing has been nothing short of epic...while we have not landed any "whale cod"
we have put big numbers of fish in the boat. Double & triple hook-ups have been the norm. As bonus to these trips we normally get close-ups of rolling whales...ocean sunfish are a fairly common sighting too...and the icing on the cake...."Football" Tuna...We always have tuna gear on board for the common Tuna Blow-ups that we witness while on the ledge!!!

Inshore: The Striper/Bluefishing fishing has begun to heat up. Fishing over ledges that have powerful tidal flows running over them has produced some nice catches...The stripers were slow in coming this year but finally we are catching some nice fish!!! Livebaiting/chunking has been working the best...especially with big fish!!!
This afternoon we fished the ebb tide and did extremely well...fishing with me were Bill, Todd, Art & Karen...we landed 44 striped bass in about 4 hours time all caught while fishing with live Blueback Herring...drifting over ledges & rocky bottom structure in 30-70 feet of water.
As has been the case this entire season...the "family/kids" fishing trips have been wildy popular.

For more info or to inquire about reservations please call us today!!!

Capt. George Harris
207-691-0745
www.superfly-charters.com

The Friday Bacon...

This Friday's Bacon is, mmmmmmmmh, candied bacon ice cream.

Mmm, bacon...