Sunday Evenings Outing

Headed out Sunday night to see if the Stripers were running into the rivers yet.  It was a bit early for them to run but thought I'd give it a shot.  No stripers were seen or caught but did manage one smallie.  Surprised me considering I was throwing a size 2/0 skull head fly that was about as big as the smallie I caught.  I'll be back in October though for some striper action.

The Eye Hookset

Today I was fishing a small pond during my lunch break.  A small bluegill took a swat at my fly but my hook set just nicked him.  The fish then goes bezerk.  He was flailing all over the place for a couple minutes and I have never seen a fish act like this.  I then saw this on the end of my fly.

First time I've ever hooked and gouged an eye off a fish and hopefully the last.

Saturday Brookie Outing

Been watching Saturday's forecast for about a week prior for the temperature and rainfall throughout the week.  Had a good storm roll through Friday and they had forecasted a high of 82 for Saturday so I decided to do a little brookie fishing.  I have recently moved out past Forest and now live about twenty minutes from the stream I fished today.  It is a gorge stream that holds water well. When I got to the stream the water was a little low, but still very safe to fish. 

A freshly made biscuit sandwich for breakfast.

Love not having to leave as early as I use to.

About the average size for the day.

A little bit bigger.

Some new Patagucci swag.

Nice pool to take a lunch break.

About as gourmet as you can get streamside.

Fishing resumed after lunch.

Was rewarded with a bigger wild trout about thirty minutes before quitting time.

It was a very nice way to spend a Saturday morning and afternoon.  Fishing wasn't knock your socks off good, but considering it is August, it was awesome. Thanks for reading.

Warmwater Outings

Here is a little photo dump from the past couple outings:

Looks like Saturday I'll be hitting a trout stream so be looking for a report soon.  With how hot this summer has been, haven't been able to fish for trout in what seems forever!

Thanks for reading.

Not a bad lunch break.

Had a one hour lunch break, so how did I spend it today? Hitting the local pond of course. Not a bad lunch break at all. Well time to get back to work.

FishPond Piney Creek Tech Pack Review

I bought the Piney Creek Tech Pack from a guy I know a couple months ago.  When I bought it I was fairly impressed with it from a superficial perspective.  Really light weight, fabric looked and felt durable, the clips felt tough and built to last.  Over the course of the last couple months, I've taken the pack on a handful of day trips.  This is a review on my first impressions and opinions on this packs usefulness for fly fishing.

Some of the features include two small zipper compartments on the clip on chest pack (one with a foam insert for holding flies).  The backpack part has two zipper compartments as while along with two cup holder/fly rod tube holders.  Now what I like and don't like about these features. 

The Good:
The clip on chest pack is flat out awesome!  It is detachable and is fairly easy to unclip and reclip, yet secure enough to where I wouldn't ever worry about it coming undone.  It can also clip onto the back of the back pack if you wanted to for the hike out of streams.  The bigger compartment on the chest pack carries one medium fly box and one small fly box, tippet, leaders, floatant, and forceps comfortably.  The smaller compartment is a crushproof foam fly compartment.  Great for easy switching of my go to flies.  I have zero complaints about the chest pack!

The backpack compartments are another plus in my book.  It is big enough for full day trips, yet not too overly big and cumbersome.  The bigger compartment can store several bottles of rain jacket, water, and lunch very easily with room to spare.  the smaller compartment I keep extra fly boxes (though it usually isn't needed with all that fits in the chest pack) and my gadgets.  The pack is water proof, but I still store my wallet, phone, etc in a ziplock baggy just to be safe.  The backpack also has a D ring for a net which I also use.  With all this loaded in the pack, you can still fish comfortably all day with no problem.  The pack has a good lumbar padded support waist strap and a chest strap to alleviate weight from the back and shoulders.

The Bad:
There are two things I consider "bad" about this pack.  When I say bad I mean they are a hassel but definitely something that the good and benifits outweight.  The first is the fact it is so hard to take on and off when the chest pack is attached.  In order to get something out of your pack, you need to undue the bottom clips of the chest pack and wiggle out the bottom.  Or you have to completely take off the chest pack and remove like a normal backpack.  Now I know this doesn't should like a big deal, but when your out on a small stream surrounded by rhodo bushes, it can be a time consuming chore and take away from fishing time.

The second thing is the side pockets for the water bottle.  If you look, you will see straps right above the side pockets.  The straps are there to hold the fly rod tubes securely to the backpack.  This works great for that purpose.  The problem is though the straps are pain when keeping a water bottle in the side pockets.  The straps are so snug that you have to pull the straps away from the backpack and squeeze the waterbottle in between and into the pocket.  Like I said, not a huge problem, but still can be a hassle when your struggling to put the water bottle back into the pocket after a quick drink.

Overall:
Love this FishPond pack!  The benifits outweight the few minor problems and this will be more go to pack when fishing brookie streams for a day. 

All photos were taken from fishpondusa.com

Thanks for reading.