About
Welcome to my humble little spot on the web. Let me clear up a few tidbits before we get started. I am not a professional fly fisherman. I am not a professional guide. I do not work for a fly shop or a fly fishing gear company. Nope, sorry… no such luck. To be honest, there is a good chance that you are a much better fly fisherman than I am!
So now that we have cleared up what I am not, lets clarify what I am. I am your typical middle aged rust belt guy who happens to have a hopeless addiction to fly fishing. To be truly honest, it did not start out that way. I was… yes, dare I say…. I bass fisherman! My father and I grew up fishing the many lakes throughout Western Pennsylvania chasing bass. A decade ago or so, my friend Eric arm twisted me into a day of fly fishing on a local pond. To say I was “hooked” would be so cliche, but it was true. I still have all of my traditional gear and it has been sitting in my basement collecting dust ever since.
So the normal question one would ask (and I get it quite often) is this…why would a fly fisherman who is smack dab in the middle of so many prolific trout streams spend his time “slumming it”? Well for me it is a fairly simple logic:
- I love fishing…. not driving… and when I have an hour or two to fish after work, I want to be on the water not in my car
- I hate fishing in a crowd… nothing is more disturbing to my fishing karma than being elbow to elbow with 10 or more fisherman trying to fish the same stretch of river
- Having spent the majority of my formative fly fishing years fishing in salt water, I LOVE catching big fish and lots of them on the fly… no offense to trout guys, but an 8″ Brookie just doesn’t get my motor running
So I fish as often as I can and have had some really great experiences, met some really interesting people, and yes… even caught a few fish along the way. If you have come this far, then you probably enjoy some of the same things I do. Hope you find my ramblings of some interest, please feel free to comment if the mood strikes you!
Good Luck, Tight Lines, beware of the Finless Brown Trout!
Hi, I am an addicted fisherman of all types but have been trying to fly fish more and more. I live near Mckeesport and am close to many infested carp waters. I would love to catch these suckers on a fly-rod. As I am an amateur fly-man. I was hoping you could point me to some good spots and good flies to use i would much appreciate it. Thank you and keep up the good work as i have bookmarked your site and will be looking for updates frequently. Thanks again please feel free to email me with any suggestions. db178@yahoo.com.
I like your site. I get all these fly fishing magazines in the mail with articles about exotic fishing locales…..but c’mon, who has the time and resources to go to these places? The best I can hope for is to fish around my house in suburban NY. I’ve bookmarked your site, keep it up.
Chris,
Thanks so much. Glad I struck a chord with you. I feel your pain. 99% of the fishing I do is under 2 hours from my home and probably the majority of that is withing 15 minutes! I would love to go to Alaska and fish for monster bow’s so when someone decides to drop me a check in the mail for ten grand I will go!!!
The good news is there are amazing fly fishing opportunities for most of us if we are willing to be creative and adventurous in how we approach things. Thanks for reading!
Good Luck and Tight Lines,
MBL