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Harman's Day 2 Round 2 2011-Morning Session

So I decided this trip that once again I would be getting up early to chase the fish.  Early for me means 8 or so.  I am really not a morning person.  In fact I hate mornings!  Having been to Harman's now three times, the wife and I have developed a routine so to speak.  It works well for both of us.  I get up early and fish.  I then come home and have breakfast.  She sleeps as late as possible since she can't do it with the kids.  If she gets up before I return, she lays around and reads.  I usually head back around 12 or so.  That way I take a short break, grab some food and relax before heading out again for the evening session.  A win win for all.  Oh and the wife is very good at making sure hot food is ready for my upon my return.

So, I got up early and headed out.  I went behind the cabin and tried to fish the stream there.  It had a few people already there so I decided to head to the big pool out by cabin 15.  Usually when I come to Harman's it is in September and this pool is very slow moving.  I wasn't sure what I would find this go around.  Upon arriving at the pool, I saw that the water looked great.  This is standing in the middle of the pool and looking up stream:

and this is looking down stream:

It is a rather large pool to work.  Plus there is some fast water at the top that one could work.  Anyways, I decided to stay with the black woolly bugger.  I could see the bows cruising throughout the pool.  There were some big ones!  Throwing the black woolly bugger yielded a number of follows at first.  After a while though, they got bored with it.  I noticed though that they appeared to be sipping midges off the top.  Some of these guys were going to town.  I even saw some browns getting in on the action.  Nothing I threw at them though worked.  I, of course, left all of my dries at the cabin.  I figured I wouldn't need them since it was November and I would only be using nymphs and streamers.  In the end, I did manage to land three.  I, as usual, lost more than I landed.  Go figure.  Here are some photos of the three I managed to net:

With three bows netted, and the time approaching noon, I decided to call it and head back tot he cabin for some grub.  Stay tuned for the afternoon/evening session when I landed some big bows.

Bunch of Fruit Cocktails Heading Out

I just completed these Fruit Cocktail poppers for the owner of a local fly shop.  I had already sold him one before and he did well with it.  So now he wants more along with his two fishing partners.  I hope they enjoy them and they do well with them.

Harman's Round 2 in 2011 Day 1

As I stated in a previous post, the wife and I went back to Harman's in an effort for me to reclaim some of my lost honor and glory from the previous trip.  We arrived on Sunday 11/13/2011 and left Wednesday morning 11/16/2011.  I must say that I landed some of the biggest rainbows ever for me.  I had a blast.  No worries dear followers as I am on top of things this go around.  This trip will not drag out like the last one.

So Wednesday finally arrived, the wife and I had the car packed and the kids were at their respective places for the week.  All was good.  In an effort to squeeze in some fishing, we left around 1 which meant that we arrived at Harman's around 3:30.  It always amazes us how long the trip takes going out compared to the trip home.  It also amazes us how close this beautiful place is to us.  I am always amazed at how much my wife bitches on the way out because she wants to get there.

We arrived, checked in, unpacked and I headed to the stream.  We were staying in cabin 12.  This was the first cabin we ever stayed in and we love it.  I like it for the hot tub and quick access to the water.  The wife likes it for the hot tub, the tub inside and that it is closer to the water which means further away from people.  Here is a photo of the cabin:

As I walked down to the stream, I could already see a difference in the water levels from the last trip.  I could also see trout everywhere!  And big ones at that.  I knew it would be close regarding the time.  When we booked the trip, we both forgot about daylight savings time.  So, I only had a couple of hours to fish at best.  I tied on some 6x tippet and a black woolly bugger and gave it a whirl.  Here is how the stream looked upon my arrival:

As I was looking at the water, I could see big rainbows hugging the bottom.  Their coloring of silver/slate gray made them stand out against the rocky bottom.  In the next couple of hours, I lost 8 fish.  The 6x tippet just wasn't cutting it.  I did manage to land one fish for the evening.  I drove 2 and 1/2 hours to catch this guy:

I have no idea why blogger rotates the photos.  Does anyone else have this happen to them?  If so, is there a way to fix it?

Alright back to the evening.  So I lost 8 fish.  All rainbows.  I could see them chasing and fighting over the bugger.  Right at dusk I saw a big boy follow it.  I threw it back out and he slammed it.  I fought him for what seemed like 3 or 4 minutes before he finally broke me off.  WTH?  I couldn't believe my luck.  I was hoping this wouldn't be a sign of things to come for the next few days.  I only brought 6 black woolly buggers with me and I just lost three of them.  I was also using a 3wt rod.  This rod simply wasn't strong enough to battle the fish.  I told the wife that when we come back next year, we will be coming back in October and I will need a bigger rod with more power.  I lost the fish because I couldn't turn them on a few occasions.  By bigger rod, I mean like a 4wt in 8'6 or so.  The 3wt I was using was only 7'.  I found that a short rod equaled less power.

So another day at Harman's added to the log book.  I was planning on getting up early Monday morning to chase the trout.  Stay tuned to see what I caught.

New Batch Of Poppers Ready For Action Come Spring Time

Here is an order of poppers I recently did.  They are all lined up and ready to see some action come Spring time.

Harman's North Fork Cottages Revisited

So the wife and I just got back from another trip to Harman's North Fork Cottages.  We left on Sunday and returned on Wednesday.  It was a great time and I caught some big rainbows.  As I was packing for the trip, it dawned on me that I never even finished blogging about the last time I was there.  I have to admit that Greg was also kind enough to point it out as well.  So, my plan was to finish the trip in the evening while we were there as well as write how the trip was going as it was happening.  How does the saying go, best laid plans?  Well we were having a terrible time with our computer and the WiFi while we were there so I gave up and planned on finishing the trip once we got home.  So two months later, here is how the trip continued and finished!

Quick Recap: The wife and I took Greg and his soon to be bride at Harman's as our wedding present to them.  It was also supposed to be my birthday present and our vacation.  Greg and I came and conquered the browns, rainbows and tigers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.  I broke my 3wt on Thursday and Greg Broke my 5wt on Friday.  Saturday, my birthday, our vehicle broke down and we had to call a tow truck to have it towed back to Maryland.  The tow truck was scheduled to arrive Sunday.

Sunday dawned a new day.  I figured why even bother at this point to get up early and chase the fish.  Everyone was afraid to find out what would break next.  Some even thought it would be a broken bone or two the way our luck was running this trip.  So we got up, had breakfast and lounged about waiting for the tow truck to arrive.  Finally, everyone headed out to meet the tow truck.  Everyone but me.  I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I stayed behind and attempted to find something to do to past the time.  Eventually I turned back to fishing, saying to myself what else could happen?  So rod and reel in hand, I marched back out to reclaim some of my lost glory.

Only to fail!  In all I landed two fish.  Just two sad fish who apparently took pity on me and ate my fly.  One was a smallie and the other was a red eyed rock.  I couldn't have even bought a trout that day.  I eventually gave up and headed back to the cabin.

When I got back to the cabin, I found a new friend.  I named him Horace.  I think he is pretty cool.  I have no idea what kind of beetle he is but he is a big one.  I located him out back on the porch.  Here he is in all his glory:

Apparently Horace brought some friends with him.  I also found these guys along the window:

As a fly fisherman and tyer, I always try and take photos of bugs so I can study them later.  They make great reference material.

As we were all sitting at the cabin, we heard some thunder in the distance.  Before long, the rain came.  Unbeknownst to us at the time, Tropical Storm Lee had arrived in the area.  We lost the satellite feed and we were left with nothing to do.  We had brought games to play and my Xbox but we packed everything up and sent it home in our vehicle.  We needed the room since we now had to travel back to Maryland with everyone and everything in one vehicle.  With nothing else to do and everyone on edge, we all decided to take a nap.  By 5 Sunday evening, we were all asleep.

Greg and I checked on the weather and the fishing conditions a little after 7 Sunday evening.  What we saw wasn't promising.  It appeared as though we weren't going to be able to do anymore fishing.  In just two short hours, we went from this water:

To this water:

If that photo doesn't explain the difference in water, maybe these will:

So, we gave up fishing for the rest of the trip.  There was nothing we could do as there was no way we were going to be able to fish the stream with the water moving that fast.  It was an early night that Sunday night.  Everyone was sad and a little disappointed about the trip.  Melissa and I were sad because this was supposed to be our wedding present to our two wonderful friends.  I was sad because Greg broke my favorite 5wt and I broke my 3wt.  I totally felt like Clark W. Griswold when he took the family across country to Wally World.  Everything on the trip went wrong and ended up costing us twice as much as we thought it would.  The tow bill alone was 700 dollars.  We were finally able to get the vehicle fixed to the tune of over 2200 dollars. 

Well that is it people.  I truly believe I didn't really do the trip justice in my description of it.  The feelings of dread and despair as things went wrong day after day was hard at times to convey or put into words.  I hope thought that you understand just what a disaster this trip was for all involved.  I would like to point out that the trip went wrong for a number of reasons none of which had anything to do with Harman's.  The place and the people are simply wonderful.  The wife and I couldn't wait to go back which is why we did two short months later.

Customer Success

A short while ago, I sent some Road Kills and Grey Ghost poppers over to Bill T. at Fishing Through Life.  On Tuesday he was able to get out and use them.  Check out how well he did with the Road Kills.  I am sending him more.  I can't wait to see what he will do with them come Spring and Summer.  Do yourself a favor and pop over to Bill's blog and check out his success with our flies.  It is always a pleasure to see what other people catch with the flies the wife and I have tied.  You can see it here.  Enjoy!