Lessons learned on the Pennsylvania fishing trip

After a 4-5 hour ride we arrived at our destination , Follly's End Campground , Elk Creek Pennsylvania. Fly fishing on Elk Creek was an absolute blast, and I managed to hook several steelhead trout as long as my arm.These beaufiful chrome fish were very powerful and the fight they put up is amazing. My fishing partner hooked and landed many throughout our 3 day trip. Being a student of fly fishing I was unable to land any of these beautiful giants, however the lessons learned were invaluable., and sooner or later I will master this process.

The first thing I discovered was I was using tackle that was to heavy for the conditions of the river. The river was low and not to murky(almost clear) so a change of leader and tippet were necessary. After hooking several big steelhead and realizing that this was no cake walk I began to see the faults with my fishing strategy and gear set up.The fishing rod I was using a new 7 weight 10' ( The first rod I've ever built) with an Orvis Battenkill 5/6 reel were not performing good enough to land these fish. With some critical thinking I seperated the system into components. The 7 weight 10' fly rod was working fantasticly, as good if not better than similar rods costing severl hundred dollors ( I have invested about $100.00 and 3 or 4 evenings of work while building my fishing rod). A good look at the reel and I realized that this reel had 5/6 weight floating fly line and is only 2.5"- 3" or bigger in diameter.This reel and line were very well suited to use on a 5 or 6 weight rod while dry fly fishing but were not designed to tackle the Elk Creek Steelhead. I had to reel in faster and could not palm the reel to slow the critter down with the reel being only 3" in diameter . The second thing I had to confront (I still have to master this) was to learn to play the fish instead of yhaooing and trying to horse the trout in like I have a big bass on 20 lb tackle, as the tippet (end of the line) was fluorocarbon 5X which is only about 4.5 lb test line, much less strong than 20 lb fluorocarbon I had to use for bass. Steelhead are very cunning, smart,wiley, and if they see the line it's game over.

The second day, after much counsel and assistance from my fishing buddies I switched to my favorite reel a Lamson LS 3.5"( 3-3/4 ") rigged with a Scientific Angler double taper fly line on my new rod. The blanks I used for my rod were made by Rainshadow and are graphite. The new set up worked much better and I managed to get several more hits but was to set the hook. The way I look at it, I will continue to work through these issues until I land a Lake Erie Steelhead and that might take several more adventures to strighten out.

The best part of this adventure was all the contact I had with people from all over the country, places like New York , Baltimore, Lansing Michigan, Ohio,Kansas, and of course Pennsylvania. We fished at several locations on Elk Creek, however the folks at Folly's End Campground Fly shop were superb and basically took us by the hand and taught us the difference between fishing the Pere Marquette River in Michigan and the much lighter fishing set up for Elk Creek. Every person I met was courteous and helpful.
The end result is that I get to fish,breath fresh air, interact with nature, and have a great hobby with no down side.

Great Lakes pt.1

The great Lakes are such a beautiful site, they're the biggest section of fresh water in the world. Nothing could ever replace them. The wildlife that they support are also one of a kind. Many types of fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals. Some of the more familiar types of fish are bass, walleye, northern pike, and rainbow trout. There are ducks, robins, blue jays, and cardinals. Moose, elk, deer, black bear, wolves, and porcupines. The lakes are cleaner now then they have been in quite some time, even though lake levels are low, they are still in excellent condition. A big problem people who live in the areas that surround the great lakes will say, is the problem that other people don't appreciate the great lakes. They don't care if they pollute them, or take the waters else where, or even introduce foreign species of wildlife to them. People in the nation don't understand that once any foreign species contaminate our beautiful great lakes, it's nearly impossible to eradicate that species from the area.

Fish Oil

I was instructed by my doctor to take a cholesterol lowering drug, while taking this medication I started to have memory problems, which could be attributed to many different things, such as other medications, my own physical condition etc. I take a vitamin, supplements and other heart medications as well. I had been taking 2 fish oil
Gels 1200 mg a day, but stopped taking them shortly after starting the cholesterol drug to save cash and reduce the number of pills I take daily. I did not take the fish oil tablets for about 60 days and I continued to struggle with forgetfulness, not be able to remember a word etc. I finally decided to start taking 2 fish oil gels a day and after 30 or so I noticed that while working and typing I was not having trouble with words and that my forgetfulness was almost non existent. Most literature and the fish oil instructions on my product say to take four capsules a day, however just by taking 2 1200 mg capsules daily seems to be helping me. This was by no means a scientific study and I do not want to test this again by stopping the fish oil capsules, my memory is good and I fell great so I’ve decide to leave well enough alone.

Honesty Intregrity, truth

I'm 60 years old and can remember at time when Honesty, Integrity, doing a good job, and truth was normal and expected. Today we as a people seem to have lost touch with reality and our leaders, politicians and adults are unbothered about being lied to or cheated, and do not try to set an example for our children. I find it very hard to function in this me,me,me society
and think that we must make a stand and start setting the example. I think first of all we must vote out our politicians that are on the march for graft, them self's and the lobbyist. The next thing is to enforce our current laws to remove road blocks and obstacles placed in front of our law enforcement personal and to remove the millions of illegal immigrants that are destroying our way of life. We need legal immigrants who are proud to be American and strive to be the best American they can be. We also need to teach our children to get their information from many sources and to realize that the media have zero integrity and will say anything in print that suits there petty and small minds.

Steelhead Trout Fishing

I will be fishing in Pa. this coming weekend and will be fishing for steelhead trout. The rivers mentioned by my fishing buddy are the Elk, 16 mile, and 12 mile. Scuttle butt is that it has been dry there and the fish are very easily spooked.I have fished the Pere Marquette here in Michigan and due to the dry weather and sun etc. the steelhead are very very jumpy, and I managed to have some great hook-ups so I don't think that I will have a problem with spooky
steelhead. The big challenge is going to be knowing what type of fly to use, again scuttle butt is that Prince Bead Head Nymphs, Woolly buggers, Egg Sucking Leeches, and Oregon Cheese Eggs.
Last year I caught steelhead on woolly worms using the chuck and duck method however I here this will not work in the PA streams so this year I will start fishing in PA with the Michigan locally famous Frank's Grizzly woolly worm, only I am going to employ the float method and have a dropper consisting of a Prince Bead head nymph.