Sharing the joy of fly fishing and the region’s streams with others is a passion of Knee Deep guides. Whether you’re an expert angler or a first-time fisherman, the Knee Deep experience is tailored to your specific interests and experience. Our offerings range from in-home casting and fly tying instruction to multi-day on-water escapes. And, of course, we can design custom packages for corporate events and special occasions, including bachelor outings, anniversaries, and girls day out.
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.
It’s Stonefly Time on the Gunpowder Falls and many other rivers in our region. On warm days, anglers will find these little aquatic insects flying – poorly – around the stream. They flutter across the water’s surface dropping eggs as they go. As the water warms in the spring, trout feel the urge to feed and become willing to chance an attack on these insects as they crate a disturbance on the surface.
Before they are flying “adult” insects, they are subsurface nymphs and delicious to a trout. They are not good swimmers and, once adrift in the current, drift downstream until they can latch onto something.
I’ve made a quick video showing how I tie an easy and fast stonefly imitation that works well when drifted below an indicator. I like to fish it on 6x fluorocarbon tippet with a #6 shot about 8” above. Give it a try and send me a note if it works – I love to hear fish stories!
With Spring right around the corner I’m excited to be kicking off another year of guiding. Did you know we’ve been at it since 2009? A lot has changed since the start of Knee Deep (kids, a return to day job life) but sharing a day on the water with our clients is still a dream come true.
I’m looking forward to running some short summer evening floats on the Potomac for smallmouths this year for solo anglers – we’ll work on building a bigger boat this summer. As always, the trout of the Gunpowder Falls are a must and provide a much needed escape from the nearby city life that keeps me coming back after 25 years of angling there. Plan to stay late in May and June to catch the evening spinner fall. I’ll send you have with coffee for the drive.
It’s short notice but we’ve got open dates for July 10th and 11th and a couple free evenings the following week.
Micah is dying to hit the water and it’s a great time to throw dries in the cool water of the Gunpowder. Shoot us an email at Info@kneedeepff.com or call Micah directly at 202 487-9011 if you’re interested. We’d love to share the river with you and help you sort out that dry dropper approach.
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!
This time of year I become restless from the long winter and start dreaming of the fairer weather and fishing to come. The hours at my tying bench spent dreaming of the upcoming hatches drives me insane. I’ve been busy tying sulfurs and cicadas but the first real insect emergence I focus on is the winter stoneflies. Tying anything else is really just my own method of transcendental meditation to escape the cold short days.
My friend – and one of my fishing hero’s – Matt Grobert has made a great video of a little black stonefly I like to tie. Matt’s video is out on the Riversage Journal. I’ll admit that I’m late to the party on this on-line publication. It looks pretty cool and their contributors are top notch. I’ve saved the link into my favorites.
I have to say that I’m extremely flattered that Matt has shared this pattern. I’ll also note that his fly is a beautiful tie! Mine are more “quick and dirty” but get the job done. If you don’t follow Matt on his blog, The Caddis Chronicles, and social media, you should. For those who aren’t familiar with Matt, he’s a phenomenal tier living in NJ and surrounded by streams where I learned to match hatches for trout myself. He’s got some patterns (the Pumpkin head midge has saved many days for me) and even has a fantastic book: Fly Fishing New Jersey Trout Streams.
Tie up a half dozen of this great stonefly. While you’re at it, whip up some of Matt’s PumpkinHead Midge and my Fast Caddis, and you’ll be ready for spring.Thanks for making the video Matt!
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.
May years ago, while Living in New Jersey, my father introduced me to Surf Fishing. I was maybe 11 or 12 at that time and we’d hop in our family 4 door and make the drive to the beach to throw plugs in the predawn when the tides aligned right. I think it was years before we landed a bass. It was a time when the bass were set to make a comeback; now we know it to be short lived. This past weekend I made the run from DC up to Island Beach State Park for the first time in years. It was a trip back in time that stirred up great memories.
I really caught the bug back in 1990’something. I had permanent sand in my shoes and fell in love with the adventure of surf fishing. For me it was a great time of bonding with my father and brothers. I was excited by the unknown of leaving the house at 4:30 or 5:00am to don our waders in the dark and rig up plugging rods with the aid of headlamps. Our gear, back then, felt very futuristic and that was enchanting for a kid like me. We we’re out to explore the dark and, after the sun arose, a still unknown world at our feet. The possibility that a school of baitfish could assemble a rod length away from me with striped bass cutting through their swirls like a knife through fabric was enough to cause sleepless nights for years to come.
As the years passed we learned to read the beach. Spotting fish in the wash while cruising the beach in trucks became a sixth sense. Learning to drive on the sand as a kid resulted in many coffee spills for my dad as I would b-line it towards diving birds and splashing baitfish, ignoring the tracks I was jumping our old truck across. Of course we we had many trips that ended with the skunk but the trips where we hooked up or even caught a glimpse of a bass or a bluefish were enough to keep us looking for the next opportunity to go fishing. Plugging and bait rods soon had fly rods rigged next to them and our journeys had us piling into the truck to explore beaches and bays all over the East Coast. I’ll never forget the excitement of taking the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard for the first time to chase bass there in the spring. Many of our far flung journeys would become annual events with a great group of friends.
While my most recent run “up north” saw only a few schoolies in the wash, I got to connect with my oldest fishing friend outside of my family. We worked hard throwing plugs, metals, and flies into the night but nothing photo worthy came of it. We dug in for high tide which was late in the evening with bait rods and a bonfire. It was great to get back on the sand after hiding out at home most of the summer and fall. The solitude of a fall/winter/spring beach captivates me like no other fishing. As surf fisherman, it’s like we have an after hours pass to parks the rest of the world abandons when the sun goes down. I can’t wait to get back and -catching fish or not – spend time with he sound of the surf washing away cares of anything but hope for positive results.
“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!
So far 2020 is off to a slow start. The catch and release streams are closed for the time being and we’re all dealing with Covid19 lifestyle changes. For fly fishermen who sport the face gaiters, we’re finally in fashion. My neighborhood is finally full of families out walking and biking like I imagined it would be when we moved across the city.
During 2019 I’d decided to take a break and focus on family and health. I’ve spent a LOT of time doing R&R and even building that drift boat. I hoped to do “a little” guiding in 2020 though we can’t hit the river just yet. While I’m on my feet again, I’m making sure to take care of my “sports” that live under that same roof as me.
Fresh Varnish on the boat! …and they said it’d never happen!
Who know’s what’s in store for this summer but I am holding on to the hope that we’ll all be back on the water and sharing stories in parking lots again soon.
Keep safe and remember to reach out to your local fly shop for some fly tying gear to help pass the time. I know the gang at District Angling is working hard to get their inventory up on-line. I’ve got my “interns” busy trying on waders and sorting out gear – after we do our school stuff of course.
The Interns staying busy during Covid-isolation making sure our gear is ready for 2020.
I’ll post when things are back up and we’re ready to offer up some open dates.
