First off thank you to everyone who came down and supported the shop during our sales events.  It was great to see such a big turnout and hear how excited everyone is to see your new old favorite fly shop when its all done.  Shop should...wait scratch that.  Shop will be open again by next Monday August the 6th if not sooner.  Now lets take a look at some cool fish pics sent our way from Montana and also one of the rarest photos you will ever see will be saved for last. 

 Browns that love dry flies.

Scenery.

 Evening spinner falls

 Float trips on the longest un damed river in the US.

 Because even wanne be trout bums from Ohio in goofy hats can catch trout like this.

 And trout bums on sabbatical can take goofy pictures with really cool hats.

Then its one more...wait a few more Moscow Mules and time to hit the road.

The shot that will make me famous is this one here.  Captured in the wilds of Chagrin Falls its a very rare and hoped to be extinct Pete (pronounced 1st syllable with Boston accent PEET which is Portuguese for old and ARE which means nothing but is for some reason used as a suffix on most words:  Peetare) actually doing some work and i think enjoying it.  Glad to have you back buddy.



Shop Clearance 50% off Sale Wed July 25th thru Sat July 28th.

Store wide sale up to 50% off for shop renovations.  Here's the deal, we need to sell as much stuff as possible so we do not have to move it or box it up when we give the shop a face lift (paint and remodel) the following week.  Come on down and load up. 

All rods, reels, waders, wading boots, tying materials, fly lines, fishing shirts, nippers, tying vises and more must go. 

Pictured below are some of the highlights, the low lights which no one wants to see include a couple of awful hangovers compliments of Mr. Jameson, picking my dog up at the police station and  my personal favorite removing skunk spray from the both of us.

Towards the end of June we hit north central PA for another round of trouting (is that a word?) and it was very good to us.  We got lucky with the weather as overcast, cool and cloudy helps keep the trout happy.

We caught a plethora of rainbows around this size with 5 or 6 bigger ones pushing the 18 inch mark.  A few browns were also in the mix.

Next it was on to the Delaware river in NY were the trout were as snooty as the anglers, it was kind of funny really as its been a while since i have seen orvis tweed and dudes using the Latin names of bugs on the river.  The river itself was gorgeous and it kicked my butt on this day but i will be back for round 2. 

Stop 3 was Marthas Vineyard to catch up with Justin and see if he is staying out of trouble, not likely.  Might as well do some fishing.

We caught about 5000 bluefish form the beach.

It was the old bait and switch as we cast hookless teasers with the plug rod to lure the blues into fly range....fun.

Highlight had to be fishing with my two oldest at a trout club where the action was just like kids like it, non-stop.

Now its back to the shop and gearing up for fall already.  I know its only July but its late July and real soon its going to be September.

 Not gonna hot spot but when this PA river runs high there is not a soul around because its to hard to wade.  However packs of trout slashing at a streamer can be good motivation.

This lucky winner or loser depending on your point of view was one of six trout trying to grab a yellow conehead zonker.

Butter.  Black/red is a deadly streamer color combo for brownies.

One more streamer brown to finish off the day.

On the local front green fish, that is smallmouth and largemouth, have been banging whatever hits the water.

Fabian poses with a grand river lake run bronzeback.

It always surprises me that more people don' target these fish locally...your missing out.

When most trout nuts think Green Drakes they picture big bugs being gulped up by big fish, on big water, not a bad mental picture and you can't blame them and i used to be the same, and still am sometimes.  However anymore i am just as happy on a small mountain stream where the fish average 6 inches long with the potential for a trophy 10 incher and there is not another 2 legged angler around for miles.  With this in mind as the crowds grew during the green drake frenzy on our most recent trip to PA we decided to go small.  Small streams, small rods, and typically smaller fish though there are exception.  While we did catch plenty of fish around the average size of brookies on streams only 15 feet wide we came across something else very interesting and the equivalent to hitting the wild brookie lottery.....beaver dams.  Beaver dams on small streams make a virtual swimming pool for fish used to being confined to smaller spaces, allowing them to grow larger, for brookies that is.

A fish like this is cause for celebration...when its average size your dreaming.

And they kept coming, slashing at green drakes like they were t-bones.

This guy would not take a dry so a dropper added below the dry was the ticket. 

Seriously.

The bottom end of the pool created by the dam

Looking over the top. 

As i came around the bend and saw this a choir of angels started singing.

Throw in a bunch of these guys and it doesn't get any better.

Your about to get eaten.

This chunky brown was a pleasant surprise from the pond. 

One of those days that will be remembered...and revisited.  Until next time.

Recently its been PA trout fishing and lake run smallies.  On our local tribs the smallie action has been dynamite.  In PA the trout fishing has been ok but inconsistent.  Based on what i have seen so far though i think that is about to change.  With stable weather and the arrival of green drakes and sulphurs two of trouts favorite mayflies fishing will be right back on track in a big way.  Some good deals on gear at the shop so stop on in.