The camaraderie of fly fishing motivated the state’s, maybe even the nation’s, top fly anglers to share their advice and experiences Wednesday with others during a reunion at Seven Springs.
Among the dozen or so fly tiers (sometimes spelled fly tyers) were Jeff Blood of Cranberry Township, creator of the Blood Dot fly for Great Lakes steelhead; Josh Miller, the head coach of the USA Fly Fishing Youth Team; Tom Baltz, legendary guide from Boiling Springs in Cumberland County; and Chuck Furimsky, founder of the national The Fly Fishing Show.
Blood caught his first steelhead trout in Erie in 1961 when he was 7-years-old and has pursued them aggressively ever since. He said fly fishing has taught him the process of problem solving by observing what’s happening on the water with the fish.
“For the Great Lakes steelhead, one of the primary food sources is eggs. Trout in general are predetermined to eat them no matter what. It’s part of their innate abilities. So a good egg pattern is necessary in any trout water,” he said.
His Blood Dot egg fly is based on the size, color, translucency and behavior of the eggs he sees in the streams. The pattern, made primarily with Glo Bug Yarn, has a dark spot that some people believe replicates blood. However, the design is called a Blood Dot by his friends because of his last name, not the look of the fly. “It was Blood’s Dot and then it became Blood Dot,” he said.
Blood has studied trout eggs as they come out of the fish and how they change over time. “They can be bright orange or washed out,” he said about the appearance.
He’s fished in many places around the globe and loves fishing in Erie.
“Erie does not understand what they have in their backyard from as a tourist site,” he said. For example, “in the last three weeks there’s been 30 people that I know of from far off places who flew in.” Blood said those people are eating dinners, renting cars, visiting sport shops and spending money. “It’s world class. I have fished all over the world, literally,” he said about the quality of fishing that Erie County provides.
Miller, of Pittsburgh, likes to have a variety of sizes of flies when he heads to the stream. Some of his popular choices are the Wooly Bugger streamer and a variety of nymphs like the Pheasant Tail and Green Weenie, Walt’s Worm and Hare’s Ear. As a coach and owner of Trout Yeah Guide Service, he said anglers should have some designs that are more intrusive and others that are more finesse based on what fish prefer that day. “You have to have something that you can fish multiple times over the fish, lots of drift without spooking them,” he said about some of the smaller designs of flies and nymphs.
Baltz ties para nymphs in a variety of colors to catch trout. With heavy rains raising water levels and creating muddy water colors, it’s been challenging to find good days to fish. “It’s been terrible so far this spring,” he said. “It’s too high, too cold, too whatever.”
He chooses the color based on the weather and and water color. For example, on bright sky days he likes a black design. “I use the same fly for everything,” Baltz said about para nymphs working 12 months a year, everywhere he goes.
Furmisky, formerly of Somerset County and now living in Ocean City, N.J., likes to use leather to create designs that imitate worms. He formerly owned a leather shop for 42 years at Seven Springs and knows how to create thin slices of leather that move well in the water.
“I always tied flies and I had leather of all different shapes and sizes and I decided to create my flies out of leather,” he said. “I have access to a machine that can make it as thin as cigarette paper, very fine. I’m tying baitfish patterns, crayfish. I’m doing a couple worm patterns now. It’s flexible and it’s tough and it wiggles like crazy."
He created the The Fly Fishing Show in 1989 that runs in different parts of the country and his son, Ben, is operating it now. “He did shows in Denver, Boston, New Jersey, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, and the last one was in Lancaster (Pa.),” he said.
Lenny Lichvar, president of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited Council, and promoter of the reunion at Seven Springs, spoke to people about conservation and fly fishing.
“There’s always a been a social aspect to fly tying and fly fishing, simply because there’s a lot of information and a lot of details in how you tie flies and there’s always new ways to fish them,” he said. The event attracted fly fishing enthusiasts who are all well known among fellow anglers. “They are international celebrities in the fly fishing, fly tying sport,” Lichvar said.
“There’s just a camaraderie of people who are in the sport and who are sharing information like never before,” he said about online resources and book writing.
John J. McFarland from Ligonier is getting back into the hobby after being away from it for years and he’s soon ready to retire from his career. He attended the event at Highland Sporting Clays to meet some of experts and schedule some lessons.
“I’ve had enough of the rat race,” he said about work. “Getting out on the stream is soothing, it’s contentment,” he said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: What flies work best for trout in Pennsylvania?