No, I Don’t Fish For Shad…

This is my go-to shad fly for the Potomac. On other rivers I swear by orange or red but at home it’s pink & white for the first draw out of the fly box.

Lots of people ask me if I fish for shad. I’m usually quick to respond with a firm “no!” Except that I do fish for them during certain windows. I don’t guide for them either. Bold statements but I have my reasoning.

Shad fishing is, to me, the stuff that’s best left to kids. It not something a season fly fisherman takes on. No, it’s the stuff of adventure and exploring that only someone with a free spirit should take on! Manicured spring-creek fisherman beware: the tide line and the adjacent creeks full of flotsam and jetsam (and trash) are no place for you. The season itself is a dangerous time for the pale skin of winter. One must be prepared for that strange sensation when shed layers and short sleeves bare your dermis to the sun’s radiation! “Why is my face so red?” I said last week. Oh yes, I was exposed to the sun and it feels great!

Some years I just don’t have it in me. I live right next to the Potomac tide-line and can ride my bike down there. It’s not easy climbing over the rocks down there often only to find a dude with a cast net or snag rig is on your favorite rock that has the perfect tree-free casting zone. I’m often dismayed by the groups of poachers or piles of beer cans left from the previous evening’s nigh-crawlers.  Other years, I am up before the sun and on and off the river before work several days in a row. I jones for it and my body is in Potomac mode before I wake up.

Why not guide for shad? I think it’s something that should be left for the backyard adventurer. When I was young, places like “down under the bridge” were the escape for teenage anglers who dared brave the woods full of “campers” and drifters walking the train tracks. In college, I would bike across the city to chase shad and stripers at all hours. It was not for the faint of heart and maybe not on my list of safest choices. Still, there was something to be explored in a city of nearly a million people – a treasure of hard won empty space.

It’s something to be explored at least once. The novice angler can manage the tactics needed; a stout fly rod, a sinking fly line, a short piece of 3x tippet for a leader, and a handful of flies. Find an eddy and get swinging. I generally try to lob my sinking line, with what I hope is a bit of finesse – sinking line casting is ugly – into the current and feed a mend into the running line. This allows the line to descend as it drifts. I wait as long as I can stand. Too long and my fly or oven my expensive fly line could be lost to Leviathan. Not waiting long enough and I may not get down to the fish. Then I begin the swing with my rod under my arm. I strip two-handed at various speeds. There’s no recipe here. Just yesterday I was catching fish with a fast retrieve, slow, and even in short bursts of speed. Shad are funny fish. I even had a few takes just under the surface. I came home muddy, bleeding from one shin, and happy.

I’ll soon leave the shad behind in favor if the mayflies of the trout streams but I have a few more shad outings in me to get that morning fix. There’s even a school of stripers now and then to keep me daydreaming of monsters.

Open dates for guiding

It’s finally Spring, vaccines are in the air, and we’re excited to be on the water again in 2021! 

First lets talk fishing. There’s two open dates coming up and they’re right in prime hatch time: April 24th and May 15th. Send an email to info@kneedeepff.com And get on the calendar. 

Second, there’s been a lot of driving around and fishing for different “fish” lately. We may guide for trout but the family chases everything from catfish to strippers in the surf. Keep in touch by following us on Instagram and Facebook – click the links. Watch out for imitators, there’s only real Knee Deep Fly Fishing. As the hatches finally break open there will surely be a hint or two about what’s working.

Speaking of what’s working, I fished in the deluge last week and nothing (NOTHING) was working. I chuckled to myself at one point that “I should try Matt Grobert’s Pumpkin Head Midge” and was instantly getting hits. To say it’s a day-saver would be an understatement. As I mentioned to a fellow soggy angler, “Matt says it only works in size 18…so I only tie #18’s.”  If you don’t have a few in your box this time of year, make sure you get your hands on some. We know a guy! 

Keep your tip on the water! 

Micah 

On Not Fishing

I’ve worked hard to get my kids out fishing on afternoons where there’s no school. It means getting my day job work done ahead of time and packing the night before so we can leave as soon as the morning calls wrap up. The past weeks required a little stream side conference calling and after lunch we headed up river. I was so pumped to finally have a few hours to fish with them. We went fishing alright.

We’d started our day with a tired 6yo – his birthday in fact – and our mourning routine had quite a bit of grumbling from all parties. I put in some time at the desk in the morning and continued on the speaker while we drove to the river. I’ll say that fishing is usually about an hour for us in the winter – if we’re lucky. It’s not an epic day of beating the water. The little hands freeze up fast and the hot chocolate starts calling.  So, after feeling like I neglected my boys while talking on the phone for hours, we cleaned up lunch and geared up. If I ever complained about helping clients get dressed for the water I’m sorry. Wrestling waders on two little boys and then myself results in much sweat and cold hands! 

This particular day ended with a cold swim. I had to explain that we all take a spill every once in a while. The bag of towels and spare clothes sure came in handy that day

Two rigged rods in hand, we made our trek up river. I was hopeful! I’d tied a handful of fresh small wooly buggers the night before and we were headed for a rematch with some fish that had not made it to the net the week before. My guys’ little legs made it quite far upstream and, just as we were about to go over the bank I hear the tired voice of the birthday boy say: 

“I want to go home.” 

“Wait, what?”  I said. Surely I misheard! Could I be sweating through my many layers only to hear THIS?

“I just want to go back to the truck and go home.” Jake said.

Let’s sit on this log and talk this over” I asked, hoping to rally the troops. 

Luke chimed in, “If he doesn’t want to fish, I’m ok if we go home too.”  

“OK,” I sighed, “let’s head back to the truck and we can fire up a movie for the ride home” 

I was deflated. We never made it into the water. I was feeling somewhere between the father from Christmas Story after the Bumpass Hounds at the turkey and the dad from A River Runs Through It – “Boys, what have you done?” 

Obviously my kids were not giving up on trout fishing, they were just tired. This came to me on the long walk back to the truck where their spirits remained surprisingly high; better than they were doing while fist-fighting during lunch while I tried to do work on the tailgate. But we never even got our boots wet. They were muddy and I got some alone time that night while hosing things off in the cold out back.

Later that night my older son said, at bedtime, that he couldn’t wait to do it again. The little one even said he had fun. I have to remember that they’re young and 90% of the fun is taking a drive with “the old man” (as Luke calls me) and having lunch and snacks and hot chocolate and 10% is the fishing. Given the current events, I think I can settle for the weighting being more toward the family time. 

2021 Is Here!

“Not much” and “a lot” happened in 2020 while staying safe and sane. There were certainly many curveballs thrown but I think it’s helped us focus on what’s important. One reliable escape – from staying at home,  trying to work, acting as classroom monitor – has been outdoor adventure. I was quickly fired from “distance learning” duties. Planning our time off outdoors has been something I’m especially equipped to handle. While isolating has felt endless,I look back at all of the things we’ve done and feel like we’re making the most of it.

From family bike trips on the C&O canal and swimming in the big river, to teaching the boys how to varnish drift boats (I learned along with them), we did all kinds of things out of the house. I missed guiding in the past year and how things will shake out in the coming summer remain to be seen. My boys have become my favorite clients to guide on the river. It turns out, they’re troopers when there’s snow on the banks of a trout stream or there’s water splashing over the sides of the boat. I think they “get” what a fishing trip is all about. It’s all the things I miss the most in this age of COVID. It’s the adventure, the quiet, and some days the excitement – even the mishaps. 

My two fishing buddies making the most of a snowy day on the Gunpowder Falls.

For years I’ve said, “you need three things for a good day on the water – to catch fish, to be warm and dry/comfortable, and a good lunch.” I always follow it up with “you can’t control the fish but you can be ready for the day and make a good lunch.” And so, we’ve taken to picking a day every week to get out to the woods and rivers and have lunch and fish and, of course, watch a movie in the truck on the drive home. Note: last week I forgot my wading socks and fleece pants. 

There’s always much more to be learned about catching fish. Sharing all that I don’t know, with two little kids has been the bright spot in these long days. They’re still working to teach me patience and they’re helping me remember that a day in the river is more than just throwing flies at fish. It’s about spending time with friends and relaxing; forgetting about everything else.

We’re working on our casting and we’ll be ready when the stoneflies start crawling out on the snow.

So what’s in store for Knee Deep this year? I don’t know yet if we’ll be running trips but I’m looking forward to fishing more and sharing stories about the adventures. I’m piling up licenses and beach buggy passes and perfecting tailgate hot chocolate for the kids. I’ve made so many great friends after 10 years of guiding (and many more years of fishing) and I have so many stories to share. I’m going to start putting my site to work posting as many as I can get down on paper as time permits. I may throw in a fishing report or two.  

Keep your tip on the water and stay positive but test negative!

Father’s Day Fishing

So far 2019 is shaping up to be quite a year for fishing. The Gunpowder falls has had great flows all spring and there has even been some sunshine this year on the weekends. 

Father’s Day weekend was a great start to the season and I was lucky enough to spend Saturday with a father and son team that I guided many years ago. It’s inspiring to catch up with families over the years and see how everyone has grown. Mark and his son Greg hit the weather and conditions lottery. Everything lined up for us and we had some great fishing. There were caddis and sulphurs in enough quantity to get the fish looking up all day. 

The icing on the cake was heading back to the river for Father’s Day with my own family. While fishing was only a portion of our day, it was a dream come true seeing my own kids casting to rising fish. I’m a lucky guy and I’ll admit fully that I Mom made the day a success. It’s a lot of work keeping a 4 and 6 year old upright in moving water! 

If you’re on the fence about getting out, conditions are perfect. The water is in the 50’s and there are plenty of caddis during the day (find the riffles). Afternoons should produce sulphurs and, if you stay late, you should see a spinner fall at dusk. We’d love to get you out there and show you how to put the pieces together. Contact us (see the links in the header!) and get on the calendar!

Keep your tip on the water,

Micah 

A fly you can use

Winter is a hard time for fly fishermen. For me it’s more about finding daylight hours to hit the river. With all these holiday obligations it’ll be Christmas before I get out again if I’m lucky!  

So, to keep out of trouble I use transcendental meditation – aka: fly tying. I’ve made a short video with a simple white bugger that I use for both trout and steelhead. You don’t need 3 shanks or wire or trailer hooks or anything crazy.  I’m looking forward to getting out in the snow soon!

Enjoy,

Micah

Materials:

  • Hook: 2x long nymph hook size 4 or 6
  • Thread: white 6/0
  • Eyes: dumbbell eyes 
  • Tail:  white marabou, flash, fine rubber legs
  • Body: white “kracken enhanced” dubbing 

Thanks Everyone!

No, I didn’t update my website before I left DC and headed to NJ for the International Fly Tying Symposium. YES, I caught a lot of grief for not doing so.

After a crazy summer where I managed to guide and be home enough that my children recognized me I didn’t update kneedeepff.com much. My log-ins were so infrequent that I had to reset my password. I promise to try to update more often so you have something to do this winter.

So, was the symposium good? No. It was GREAT! Seeing everyone after so long is like going back to camp for us adults; though I never went to camp.  “The Tying Show” is a unique opportunity to share some time watching the originators of the patterns you fish with actually tie them in front of you. If you came to my table, maybe you even got to tie one yourself. That was a riot and I appreciate everyone who took me up on the offer. Thanks to Peak for getting me a second vise on the shortest notice ever! I also couldn’t have done it without the help of Dr Slick who keeps my supply of sharp scissors going strong.

After such a great weekend tying with my heroes (do you guys feel old yet?) the high comes to quite a crash after I get into the truck and hit the road for a few hours by myself. Suddenly, I find myself alone and listening to Christmas music, somewhere on the Turnpike. After 4 hours I’m home unpacking and taking out the trash wile tripping over toys again. It only makes me appreciate the crowd that came out and the family that travels with the winter show circuit even more.

Thank you to everyone who came out, everyone that set it up and tore it down, and the family of tiers and exhibitors that makes the shows such a great time. The entire community (new friends included) makes up a great family that I look forward to catching up with every season.

I’ll see you all in February back in Somerset!

Micah

PS:

Did you know we’re on Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter?  Check us out and friend/favorite/follow us!

Endless Summer

So, it’s been a wild summer. While doing this “fishing” thing I have the pleasure of sharing people’s weekends-off and being a part of their family time and time away from jobs/chores/routines. It’s when I start cashing in checks with my family for guiding days as we near the end of the season that I stop and reflect on some of the great people and stories I’ve been a part of as the seasons have passed.

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While it seems like yesterday, back in the spring, I got to fish with a really cool couple who are documenting their fishing travels as they check-off the top 100 trout rivers in the US. I’ll note that Theaux from Backwater Angler set me up with these characters (and I mean that in the most affectionate manner possible) and I was honored to guide for him/his shop in what was one of our trickier spring seasons with crazy flows and air/water temps. I feel like we were wearing wool caps till June! Their web site is www.riverramble.com. Click over and check them out. While they’ve fished in a lot of beautiful places I enjoyed sharing the “back yard” of so many Baltimore/DC residents with them. It’s in sharing the resource that I’m reminded about how special it is to have a tailwater nearby. Check out their travels over on their website.

We’ll see you on the river!

The Knee Deep Crew

PS, did you know that Backwater Angler has moved? Check out the link above and stop in to say Hello!

It’s not you, it’s me!

It’s not that we don’t love talking about fishing it’s just that sitting down in front of the computer is hard when we could actually be fishing or tying flies or casting in the yard with the kids.

Now at this point I don’t even know where to begin to get you caught up. I do know that “Downtown Abby” has started again (or someone is getting caught up…I really don’t know) so I’ll be sure to get more updates in here this summer at night.

I had the pleasure of spending the 4th with my better-half’s family up in Erie, PA this past week. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a lot of friends doing this guiding thing and some of my pals up north are the most hospitable of all. My pals Mark and Steve broke me out of the house one night and we hit Presque Isle for an evening. This is one of the coolest parks I’ve ever been to…for Jersey people, think Island Beach State park but with better rock piles and fresh water. Bring a bicycle and canoe or surf board if you have one. Well, any time I get together with friends up there I just never know what to expect. I’ve managed to get my travel game tightened up to one plastic tub and a big rod case now that I’m married with kids. Fishing and family travel don’t generally mix but fishing is a religion in our house so we pack it everywhere. I seem to be able to pack the essentials into a tub – a dozen fly boxes, waders, an old rain jacket, cigars, fireworks – even a dry pair of boxers just in case. There I was standing in a bay on the peninsula with Steve and Mark and a group of guys from the Gem City Fly Tiers (check them out some time) and we were dragging up weeds by the pound. As the crew started to dwindle in number (each fishermen being replaced by a thousand additional mosquitoes) I noticed the weed line dropped out of sight at one point. The three of us made our way to what turned out to be a busy boat channel.

Each boat that passed us by was filled with bewildered pleasure-boat aficionados all questioning each other about what these 3 middle aged guys were doing out there hooting and hollering and waving around these fairy-sticks. It turns out there was magic in the blue outboard smoke wafting from the rear of each rum runner that bubbled past us and, as the wake would roll into the weeds in front of us, the bait fish would scatter and a couple schools of white bass would blow up on the surface. The best part was, if one of us could hook into a fish and hold it tight long enough another could cast a fly right in there and the school, following its companion, would turn its attention to the fresh fly. It was quite a sight to see for sure. A good night of fishing should involve a lot of laughing and there was no shortage of that – I only hope the folks on the other shore couldn’t hear the jokes.

I already miss my pals and can’t wait to see everyone again in the fall.

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So what’s going on back here at home? Well, to recharge after all that fishing, I needed to go fishing. I’ve spent a lot of time this summer NOT packing a camera and just fishing. Remember when it was just fishing? …me too! Turns out, it’s about the fishing.

I spent Tuesday afternoon with Gene from Backwater Angler up on the Big Gunpowder Falls stalking fish in the lower flows. I love it when the southern heat-machine fires up and wet wading in the 55 degree water finally seems sane. This was just what the doctor ordered as we found ourselves sight fishing midge larvae to some clear water tippet inspectors. I hadn’t had that much fun in a week – thanks for the company Gene! It was a great time but I had to go right about the time the sulfurs finally started coming off. I definitely had dreams about the spinner fall that I surely missed that night.

We’re focusing mainly on trout this summer with all the extra water this year it’s the logical place to be. If you’re looking to get out on the weekend, we’re booking about 4 to 5 weeks out at this point. Shoot in an email or call to get on the calendar and plan to stay till dark. We’ll bring coffee for your ride home!

Old Man Winter

We saw the groundhog on TV but we’re not so sure winter is over. Cabin fever has taken hold and we’re itching to get out and fish. We’ve made a few tweaks to KneeDeepff.com and we’re going to be sending out updates this season with availability for guide trips this season so be sure to sign up for the mailing list!

We had a great time seeing everyone at the International Fly Tying Symposium this fall and excited to see everyone at the upcoming shows. Maryland CCA’s “Tie Fest” is right around the corner (February 20th) and the Lancaster “Fly Fishing Show” is the weekend of March 5th. Start putting together the carpool now.

If you’ve never attended Tie Fest, you should beg, borrow, and steal to free up your calendar. It’s a great event that’s been showcasing some of the best tiers in the world and this year it’s combined with Light Tackle Fest; maybe you only want to get your feet a little wet in the fly fishing arena! Whatever your pleasure, we hope to see you there.

The Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster is a great venue. Many of the areas guides and shops will be present (look for Micah!) and the opportunity to sit in on a great list of seminars is not to be missed. The crowds are a little lighter than the NJ show in January so it’s a great time to interact with the pros and ask questions. The local restaurants are great and there’s plenty to do in Lancaster so think about bringing family along for the ride and making a weekend out of it.

 

We hope to see you at the shows and on the water!