The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Sammy and I were up in the Sonora area this past weekend for a gig with our band and managed to put in a 6 hour day on the middle fork of the Stanislaus. Im sure he'll post a more educated update, but in a nut shell it was a great day. All four of us in the group pulled in at least a couple, sammy won most fish of the day with a good handfull.

There were risers in different parts of the river all day, with more productivity coming after the noon hour. I pulled in the winner of the day, a 20 inch brownie, caught on a black foam beetle. It was the biggest fish I've pulled in thus far in my few years as a fly fisherman. I watched him rise and feed under a tree for probably an hour, missed him with a small black fly, and finally hooked into him with the beetle. First fish I ever caught on a beetle, and also the longest fight I've had with a trout. He was too big to even hold onto with one hand easily (ofcourse Sammy was 100 yards down stream and had the only camera so there was no picture taken).

The group pulled in a nice handfull of rainbows and brownies, mostly dry flying. Sammy only caught one on a nymph, the rest were all drys. Small hatches happened on and off throughout the day and I think that, and the fact the the sun never acutally hit the water, kept the fish feeding most of the day.

All in all it was a great day of fishing. The weather stayed nice and not too warm. I wish we could have camped out and spent a good long time learning the area, but this was a gig trip first and foremost, and a fishing trip second.

Good for you guys. From your report it sounds like you outfished most others during the last few weeks.

And as the father of 4 boys, I love to hear brothers talking about how much they learn from each other, and even more importantly how they like spending time together!

There is nothing better on this planet than a brother! Especially if you can fish together. My two best fishing buddies are brothers - but you would never know it, as they have so much respect and admiration for each others talents and capabilities. It is nice to be with them.

Congrats for figuring out an important piece of life so early. And of course the other is FISHING!

Yeah it really is great to have a brother as my fishing partner. we've been in bands together since high school (for me that was 10 years ago now), so we've been colaborating together for years. he pretty much helped teach me how to play the bass guitar, so i guess its only fitting that he be the one to introduce flyfishing to me as well.

The only thing tough about fishing with him is he loves to just go from hole to hole to hole, and I am more of a hang out, relax and take the time to see whats happening before moving on. so he helps me to fish more stretches of river, and i help him relax a little. (we always say we'll take it easy, but end up always fishing really hard).