Mystic Steelhead Camp and a few brookies

Made it back home for a day and a half between trips so I figure I may as well throw a few shots from the last few glorious days up!

Took off after work on Thursday and drove to the NW corner of New York to meet up with a group of guys for the Mystic Rod Steelhead Camp weekend. It was a great little cabin that easily accomodated the eight of us for a few nights. We stayed up pretty late talking flies and Mystic rods. Going in to the weekend I was looking forward to fishing a few of Mystics heavier sticks and they did not disappoint. The 10' 7WT and 8WT are ideal indi-rods for steelhead, and the 7WT switch cast like a dream. I ordered up the 8WT for myself and am anxiously awaiting the completion of their 8WT switch.

NY tribs were mostly blown so we headed over to some small PA tribs and proceeded to find fish in spots where fish should be. The water started off with hazy green tint that lightened over the three days on the water.

Some fish were beat up a bit but the majority of the fish we got in to were either colored up and clean or straight chrome. This fish had a beautiful coloration and pulled like a freight train.

As I came up on the pool this beast was in I could see a little bit of shadow so I made a few drifts and it happily munched an egg. This one was a bit on the larger side for the weekend and also was not happy about being stuck.

Saturday evening we were on our way back towards camp and stopped off at 20 Mile. She had dropped significantly over the previous few days so a few of us hit the mouth to make good use of the switch rod since the weather was so calm. About 30 minutes in we switched up to a smaller shiner imitation and it was game on! First I hooked up....

Then Thad hooked up!

Nothing so cool as a lake double of pure chrome! Coming from Oregon to hit the tribs with us for the week was a haul for Thad, but I am pretty sure he won't forget this.

Another nice male taken down close to the lake.

Proud papa Dennis with his son Fisher. This was Fisher's second time out and his first landed steelhead; I think the look says it all! He clipped off the fly that he used, so I am sure this is going 8x10 with the fly clipped in the frame.

Fisher handled the fish carefully and allowed me to get one more shot as he slid it back to the water.

After a great time chasing steelhead Sunday night an Monday were a welcome change of pace. I headed about an hour over to a private cabin on a small creek to fish for native browns Sunday night, then brookies on Monday. It is the second time I have been over to the Senyo property and it did not disappoint.

Spotted this guy as I crept along the rocks and was able to sprawl over a boulder and drop my camera down in to the plunge pool to get a shot.

Nice male brookie that decided to make a snack of a small streamer.

This was not the biggest of the weekend for me, but it was the biggest with someone right there to snap a shot for me while sporting my TFM gear!

This male had just phenomenal coloring to it...enough so that I felt it deserved the only color in the shot. Can't wait to get back and give the 2WT and 7x another workout.

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/