FLYMPH FORUM

I've spent most of the past week fishing with many friends from the flymph forum, both in New York and in Pennsylvania.

(left to right) - Martin Johansson (screen name "Stendalen"), his son Dima Johansson, Tim Didas (screen name "tjd") and Christopher Lee (screen name "cassady") meeting for the first time.

Tim, Martin and Chris getting ready to fish.

Chris (left) and Tim (right) checking out the condition of the Gennesee River (Mark Libertone's home water)

A view of the Genesee River (sorry for the water on the lens). I was immediately reminded of Mark's water color paintings.

Tim gave me a isonychia soft hackle, which I had to try out right away. (Tim - You tye an incredible fly!)



Dima and Martin working a stretch down stream from me.





Further upstream, I tyed on one of Doug's tan soft hackle flies to work the area around a fallen tree.


As my fly swung near the tangle of branches laying in the water, my line suddenly stopped and I raised my rod tip. FISH ON!!!



Tim saw me hook into this fish and immediately shouted down to me "Get him on the reel!" I cracked up. Tim knew I was fishing my Tenkara rod and had no such option.

Here is another one of Doug's flies, just before I decorated one of the local trees with it. Grrr.

(Hey Doug, at least one of your flies is now hanging over Mark's home stream.)

A group photo (Chris, Martin, Dima, Tim and me jumping into the right side of the group at the last second)


Martin tries out my Tenkara rod.


Chris and Martin watching for raises. If you look closely, you can see Dima working the water in the backround.


Chris sets the hook, as a fish raises to his fly.




Martin works a fly along the far bank.


Tim working a raising fish.

GOT HIM!!!





I will post more pictures, over the next few days.

Martin, Tim, Chris, William, Eric, Lance and Bill - I encourage you to each share photos from the past week together.

Great sequence, Ray. Thank you for taking us along.

Ray, Howdy;

DANG!!! Love it when a plan comes together. , , very .

Ray, more thanks for including us, albeit, as spectators. Great pix as usual,
Martin and Dima appear to have enjoyed the get together and the fishing.

hank

I've got a couple to throw into the pool! They turned out pretty decent.

We got caught in a decent rain storm, here trout bandit Ray Tucker (screen name "letumgo") and William Anderson are caught by the camera.


Bill Shuck (screen name "tie2fish") making a couple casts hoping to fool a fish.



Lance Hidy (screen name "GingerDun") sitting bank side deciding which fly to tie on.


Ray (way up stream) terrorizing trouts on the far bank.


William on Penns Creek in deep thought and mid cast.



Ray intently watches Bill tie up an "All Grouse", Steve Birds fly pattern.


William and Lance going over fly selection for the day.


Messing around with the Macro function on the camera.




Victims

My trip started with a meet up with Eric, Martin and Dima on Spring Creek before meeting up with Raymond and fishing the Little J.

Eric, always the trout hunter targets an impossible catch, which would seem fool-hearted if I hadn't seen him pull off a miracle more than a few times.







And Martin watches as Dima and Eric pester a huge brown feeding under the bridge. They each clipped him a couple times on dries, but he didn't get his rank by being fooled easily.



Martin's got some excellent shots of these young guns working this bridge pool. I was lucky to recover all these shots from exposures that were blown out and over-exposed.



And the huntsman scores.









We headed North to fish the Tioga State Forest area for a few days and while the fishing was tough, the bugs were sparse and the rises more so, we managed.





This is a promising little trib to a trib that left Eric and I baffled but the trout bandit (Ray) with his tenkara rod managed a beautiful brown from the lower stretches.





And before you bust on me for my expression just know the series of events that went into landing, netting and getting a quick pic of this horse of a brown was some doing. And I'm remarkably unpracticed at the "grip and grin" shots. Following Ray's lead of fishing a black streamer dead drift at mid-stream to a swing I managed to hook into this gorgeous fish. The largest I've personally seen or caught in PA. And the largest I've caught in my life. Such a fun time pitching what has come to be called a Fleech or a flymph/leech by moonlight. This was fun.



#2 Black Fleech


So this is where the other cameras in the group will have to pick up the story. Such a wonderful time to be with some remarkable gentlemen.

Excellent stuff from all of you.
Congrats William on catching such a beautiful fish.
That's a fun filled report, thanks for sharing.

Eric,

Thank you for adding in your photos. Excellent set of pictures. I expecially like the one of me watching Bill tying. I was so focused on what he was doing, I didn't realize you took our picture.

Here are some more photos I took.

Tim hooks into another trout.




When I asked him how big the trout was, Tim said "Thiiiiiiis loooooong!"

(just kidding - Tim was just pulling line out after releasing the fish)

When I met up with the boys in Pennsylvania, the first thing I see is Dima catching a large trout on the Little Juanita.



Eric and William working the stretch downstream.


While Martin changes his fly.


Eric lays out a long upstream cast to a rising fish.




The next day we headed off to Pine Creek.


Where I caught a lovely little brook trout.

Sitting around the camp fire at Eric's place.


Eric keeping a low profile, to avoid spooking fish in the clear pool below the trees.



William working a pocket far upstream.


While I was trying to get this mayfly to hold still, to take his picture.


Here is a nice brown trout I caught on a beadhead soft hackle fly. He was hanging out below a little waterfall, in a small plunge pool.


This is a photo of Willam (left) and Eric (right), just after they managed to net William's monster brown trout. I love this image. It was almost completely black, but I managed to recover the image somewhat. The graining image sort of looks like a pointillist painting.


Here is Bill, Lance and William looking at flies.


Lance preparing dinner.


William wades across the river to work the far bank.


The weather turned cold and raining near the end of the trip.



Surprisingly, it was began to snow heavily as I drove home.


Thanks for adding your photos William. That was one helluva trout! I need to add a bunch of the trilobal stone flies to my box. That's definitely a keeper pattern.

Ray, Eric, William, and everyone else who will post photo's in the near future!!
Guys, I am just flabbergasted with the incredible photos you have posted here!! The water, the weather (well, maybe not so much!), the men in the photos.....I have never seen such beautiful country and great photos!
I was glad to see the Genesee and Marks old stomping grounds! I thought long and hard about our friend when I saw this set! The other places were drop dead gorgeous and must have seemed like you were in an enchanted land! Thank you for bringing these images to the forum and sharing them with us! They will be forever in my mind!
William....unbelievable brown! You guys rule! It was nice to see a team effort in landing this titan! It's nice to know that these fish are not uncatchable! You just have to adapt and that is exactly what you did!
Ray.....thank you for posting my patterns and using them (which is why I sent them to you of course) and loosing them! I am not upset in the least! I have seen you in action when it comes to trees and I still laugh my butt off when I think about the great relationship you have with the herbage along America's best waters! This just gives me another opportunity to send you more of the "lost children"!
Eric.....William is right! You are a true hunter of trout (and other fish too) and quite good at it! I can see it in your attitude and posture when you are on the water (from the photos). I hope some day to be able to fish with you and learn from you! I am looking forward to doing just that!
I am really intrigued with the brook trout and their habitat and taking them on Tenkara tackle! I am putting this on my list of "to do's" for the near future! Then, I look again at that horse of a brown that William conquered.....Wow!
Fellows, this really made my day and I am looking forward to the photo's yet to come! This is history making indeed!
To Tim, and Martin, and Dima and Bill and Lance and anyone else I have missed, It is so good to see all of you again! I will be in touch with all of you soon and I will prob. have a thousand questions!
From the den,
Doug

Unfortunately, my contribution to the photo essay is slim indeed, as I was able to attend only the last couple of days on Pine and Kettle Creeks, and then forgot to take my camera one day. The best I can offer are some fuzzy shots through the cabin window as our steak dinner was being prepared one evening. The website will only allow three attachments, so you'll have to take my word for it that the steak (marinated and supplied by William) was delicious.

Eric, William and Lance discuss world affairs while the cooking fire burns down to a functional level Chef Ray and Consultant William adjust the grill height Chef Ray irritating the embers

Howdy All;

Wow, outstanding pix and narrations. Can not wait to see what Martin chooses to
share from his view point. Our friend Doug from the Den, has covered all the bases
regarding the beauty of the scenery and the "objet d'gare" ie. dub-ya's monster...
Looking forward to Martin and Dima's perspective of the expedition.

hank