A Tiger By The Tail

Here is a good shot of a seldom seen hybrid. This is a tiger trout, a cross between a brook and brown trout. To my knowledge, this does not occur naturally and must be done in a hatchery. This fish was caught by Bill Gill at Rockwell Springs Trout Club. Thanks Bill for sharing the photo with me!

The Lakers Are In!

No, not the lakers from LA or the the ones that are trout (actually char!). These are lake-run smallmouth bass that ascend Lake Erie tributaries to spawn, and then drop back into the lake to grow big, fat, and fiesty. This little-known phenomenon occurs around the end of April and into the first week or two of May every year. There is often a short overlap with dropback steelhead and the opportunity to catch both on the same day.

These fish take a swung fly well, and provide some additional opportunity to fish switch and two-hand rods.

Photo courtesy of Jim Linehan

Team Castapalooza

Here is the rogue's gallery of cast-addicts that helped make the first Northeast Ohio Castapalooza a succes. From left to right- top row: Jim Linehan, Wael Dardir, our Canadian buds- Neil Houlding and Julian Van Gorder. Bottom row- Jeff Liskay, the Fishdog, and JD.

Not pictured- Spey professor, Will Turek.

Thanks very much to all you guys for helping out and thanks to everyone who attended!

Next years event is tentively scheduled again for the last Saturday in April and there will be additional Castapalooza events throughout the region. The next one is June 12 on Presque Isle near Erie, PA. On August 28, we will be at Leeper Park in South Bend, IN, on the St. Joe River.

Thanks again to Jim Linehan for the photo.

Castaplaooza Success!

In spite of the poor weather forecast and postponement of the Canoe Race, we had a good turnout for last weeks Castapalooza on the Grand River. Spey-guru, Will Turek, did a very nice program on switch and two-hand rods to kick things off and the rest of the day was spent giving casting instruction, trying out rods, and fly tying demos. Thanks very much to everyone who helped out.

Here Will Turek explains the finer points of two-handers to the group.

Special thanks to Jim Linehan for his photos!

Muddler Dry Photo

Have had a couple request for this, so here is a close up of Dr. Mitch's Muddler.

Our steelhead have come up recently to an assortment of patterns, Muddler's, Bombers, Stimulators, and even one (very) brief encounter on a #18 Griffith's Gnat.

The big question now is how many fish are left in the rivers after the big rain we had on Sunday and if any fresh fish came in. Will keep you posted.......

Dr. Mitch's Muddler

Here's the recipe for Dr. Mitch Nahra's Muddler Dry:

Hook: Daiichi 2421 #6 (or equivalent)

Body: Purple SLF or PsuedoSeal w/silver rib

Wing: Sparse pearl Krystal Flash

Head: Deer body hair, spun & trimmed muddler style

In addition, Spey steelhead addict Jeff Liskay was able to entice 3 steelhead to dry flies last week and missed several others!