Soft Hackle Safari

From our good friend and fellow Pro Staffer, Greg G:

While it is primarily the ruffed grouse that may divert the trout angler’s autumn imagination from the river to the uplands, it is the grouse’s itinerant companion, the American woodcock, that can provide a bumper crop of fly tying material. A centuries old staple of patterns rooted in traditional English North Country spiders, a woodcock contains some of the finest feathers to ever grace a silk wound soft hackle.

Upland shooting lore would have us believe that grouse and woodcock freely cohabitate, and that may be the case in some of their range. But they are very different birds with different needs for food. However, they both benefit from early successional forests, where nature is beginning to reclaim previously timbered or abandoned land. Tattered pants, frayed bootlaces, bruised shins and sometimes a fat lip often result from working those areas correctly:


Dogs? We don’t need no stinking dogs:

But we do need light, quick handling and open choked shotguns. This is my 20 gauge Franchi 48 AL, posing with a brace of timberdoodles (sorry, no catch and release here). It has a 24” barrel and while it possesses a full range of choke tubes, it is rare that I install anything tighter than cylinder for the early season uplands:

This gun was always Nick Sisley’s favorite, and if you’re a Pee Aye upland hunter with a sense of heritage, you listen when Nick speaks. A standard load of 7/8 ounce of #8’s is the right medicine, as killing shots will all be in close. Heavier loads and tighter chokes will only turn you into an inefficient lumberjack, as the mixed oak and aspen saplings disintegrate in your muzzle blasts.

One of the biggest challenges in adding woodcock to your game pouch is predicting the timing of their migratory flights. A cold northwest wind can either kick-start their migration, or clear out a productive covert literally overnight later in the season. Personally, my recent successes are a classic example of even a broken clock being right twice a day.

So be it. Just like with my trout fishing, I’ll take what I can get until I can really devote some serious time to it and get better. Besides, there’s got to be some ju-ju associated with tying a grannom pupae from a bird you harvested next to a trout stream that also has a good population of brachycentrus. Just don’t ask me to start raising my own silk worms:

Fire on the Mountain

"Fire on the mountain
Lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills
And it's waiting for me there"

-Marshall Tucker Band

Mountain Hardware

I hooked up with good friends Mike B, Glen G and his boy Elliott for a couple of days of camping and fishing up at Penns Creek this past weekend. The weather was delightfully autumnal, the stream levels were dropping but still in great shape and a good time was had by all. We had anticipated fishing dry flies over hatching slate drakes, tan caddis and the ensuing rising trout, but upon seeing very few of those insects in the air or on the water we were content to nymph fish the weekend away. The bight sunny skies kept most of the big browns hunkered down for the day but we did manage to take a bevy of small to medium sized browns each day when the sun was off the water. The fish are spread out pretty good throughout the creek after the high water event of 10 days ago. It was one of those golden autumn weekends that takes you back to the days when life was simple and more carefree than it is today. Thanks guys.

Enjoy, and thanks for looking.

LL Bean

Poh Mills

Penns Creek

Lewisburg & Tyrone R.R. Grade

10-10-10

Autumnal Reflections

Penns Creek

White Mountain

Elk Creek

Halfway Lake - RB Winter State Park

On the Beach

14 Mile Narrows - RB Winter State Park

October Rain

Bald Eagle State Forest

Everything needs water to survive. The fall rains have finally arrived in earnest here in central Pennsylvania and not a moment too soon. Aquifers that had dwindled down to their base flows during this past summers drought have been at least partially recharged, the smell of woodsmoke is in the air, the leaves have started to change colors and while the days are now noticeably shorter than they were a few months ago, the nights are refreshingly cool making for some great camping & clicking weather. Oh, and the fishing is pretty good now too.

Painter Run

Painter Run

Brookie Fishin'

Brookie Catchin'

Painter Run Brookie

Photo credit: Glen G.

Give 'em Bread
An army travels on it's stomach. Glen G. serves up some mouth-watering, knee-buckling, marinated London Broil sandwiches.

Elk Creek

Elk Creek Brown Trout

Poh Valley

Poh Paddy

Paddy Mountain Sunrise

First Light

Frosty Morn

Lineman for the County

Mountain Hardware©

Wade Rivers only uses the best when in comes to camping & shooting in demanding field conditions. I'm giving three (3) thumbs up to the good folks at Mountain Hardware©. This tiny stuff sack holds Wade's 20 degree Fahrenheit Mountain Hardware© Ultra-Lamina sleeping bag. It's mummy style configuration is filled with MH's proprietary Thermic-micro insulation that is welded in place to eliminate piling and cold spots and increase loft where you need it the most. Clear skies on Saturday night brought the overnight low temperatures down into the low 40's. Combine a quality sleeping bag with a good 4"-6" air mattress and I was nice and toasty like a cinnamon bun as I drifted off to the white noise of Penns Creek at 1,100 CFS. Had 2 extra wool blankets with me and didn't even need them. I laugh in the face of cold weather now - I'm easily amused.

Get out there and enjoy it while you still can. You know who you are. That's right, I'm looking right at you this time!