In The Beginning............

I guess this is the latest "thing"...Blogging...I think I will just call it a journal..Blog sounds like something you clean off the bottom of your shoe....I am a two season sportsman...There is Fishing Season and Hunting Season...To me, fishing season is fly fishing for trout...I occasionally revisit my roots and hit the salt but I prefer streams and rivers..They are Peaceful places where I can escape and feel like a kid again...I grew up on the Jersey Shore and fished the local rivers for stocked trout, farm ponds for bass and panfish and the beaches and jetties for whatever would bite...In my late teens I worked as mate on a few party boats and eventually private charters...But trout fishing was always my favorite...In the mid 80s, after reading a story by AJ McClane, I took a trip to Trout Town USA to fish the Beaverkill River...It was that trip where I got my real first look at fly fishing..The following year I was back on the Beaverkill with a Cortland package flyrod kit...My first attempt at Fly Fishing was a sight to be seen...My brother and I just showed up on the river with our "fly rods" still in the package. A gentleman just walked out of the river and we rushed him with questions...He took pity on us and rigged up our rods, picked out the best imitation we had for a Grey Fox and wished us luck...By the time we waded into position, the Green Drakes started to come off and it wasnt long before we had a full blown hatch...To this day, I have never seen water boil like that evening on the Beaverkill...We had fish rising all around us. One even jumped out of the water and hit my brother in the leg...But we couldnt catch a fish...Noone showed us how to cast, we knew the concept but our technique was flawed...And we didnt know anything about fly floatant. We just thought that was why you backcast soo much to dry the fly...Of course we missed any fish that was stupid enough to hit our fly...At one point I was using spit to try and keep the fly afloat, it kinda worked...The night was just Hilarious..We laughed the entire time..The more fish that rose, the more we laughed....Just before the bats kicked us off the water, a fish exploded about 10 feet in front of me and he was on the end of my line...I fought the fish and quickly brought a beautiful Brown Trout to the net...We both admired that fish and gently released him back into the clear cold water....My brother and I waded out of the water as different men, baptized into a life long quest of perfection, beauty and trout.....

I will try and keep a weekly journal of the experiences during this fishing season...I tried to keep a Hunting Journal , http://www.beaverkill.blogspot.com ,but I let it lapse and just could never get it back on track..I promise to do a better job...So stop by now and than and lets talk Rivers, Hatches and Trout...

Fishing with Jack Frost..

Its been a long winter and while I spent much of my free time in Quest of a wily old 10 pt buck that has eluded me for the last two years, I didnt do much fishing. Which is really a shame because New Jersey rivers fish real well in the winter. The few times I did wet a line, the fishing was good...I also am limited to fishing weekends and with two very young boys, even finding time on weekends can be a challenge...So when I saw an opportunity to fish this past Saturday, I jumped at it...

I hit the Ken Lockwood Gorge section of the South Branch of the Raritan, this is one of NJs best rivers and if you didnt know better, you would swear you were deep in a Northwoods Forest..The river has a healthy population of Browns, Rainbows and Brookies..The stockies far outnumber the wild fish but the fish hold over well. The fish also arent pushovers, this is one of the most popular waters in the state...It was a cold, grey day with a fresh dumping of snow from the day before. I was pleasantly surprised not to run into any other fisherman...I noticed some small black bugs in the snow on the waters edge, a closer inspection revealed little black stone flies...So I tied on a black hares ear and added an egg pattern on a dropper with one split shot and no indicator..I waded into position to fish a slower section behind a large boulder..On my fourth cast, a nice 12in brown took the hares ear...A quick landing job, photo and released..I tried to keep the fish in the water, not wanting and damage from the freezing weather...Over the next hour I caught another brown and one fiesty rainbow...But the real trophy of the day was just standing knee deep in cold, clear water, snow covering both sides of the deep Gorge and much needed solitude....