Pennsylvania Day Two

June 25, 2018

We awoke in the morning with the owner of the Feathered Hook, Jona, making us bacon and eggs.  After a late start and a quick briefing of what is available to us and what flies to use we headed off to Penn Creek down tunnel road.  After walking down the path longer than we should have, we finally reached the water and started fishing.

It took us a few bends before we finally started to get some fish.  Joel was the first to hook up.  He told me they took the golden Griddle Bug that the shop recommended.  So when I reached him gave a a couple and I switched flies.  It was not long after I was on my first fish of the day.

When the temperature started to rise the fish slowed to a halt.  We still carried forward and wasted much of our energy trying to pursue these fish but to no avail.  Joel managed several chub for his efforts much to his chagrin.  I'd tease him relentlessly for his impressive chub fishing abilities.

After hours of endless casting and watching bobbers drift downstream, we headed out for a meal.  We drove toward State College to find a restaurant but none appealed to us so we drove to the nearby town of Bellafonte, a town that looked like it came straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.  If you ever watched the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm, when the town acts like the perfect picturesque American small town with couples walking their well groomed purebred setters and kids playing on grass, that was what this town seemed to us.  After our meal we walked around town to check it out and found the local distillery.  It was closed but the gentleman inside let us in for a tasting.  The boys ended up picking a bottle a piece.  Afterwards when we started to make our way back home we were too tired to fish which later proved a big mistake and a running joke for the rest of the trip.

Bellefonte, PA

Pennsylvania Day One

June 24, 2018

Before my Taiwan trip I was chatting with one of my best buds who offered to take me on essentially an all expense paid fishing trip to Pennsylvania.  I was reluctant to say yes as work never gives me a set schedule and planning trips in advance tends to be problematic.  But while on my Asia trip we were chatting on Skype, he suggested he book the trip for me and if I canceled so be it.

Having more miles than he knows what to do with, Joel thought even if I had to cancel last minute all he would be out was miles which he thinks as the house's money anyways.  So no big loss.  With that in mind I told him book it then.

Once we started making plans of this trip, I was getting really excited.  For one, I've never fished the East Coast.  Of course I've read about in all the periodicals and books.  Second, I'd be fishing once again with one of my best pals.  Joel was one of my first fly fishing buddies after coming back home from college.  We met through a mutual friend that worked at the fly shop.  We'd fish just about every weekend until he got married.  Then we fished every other weekend.  Then he had three kids and I didn't see him for 10 years.  Now the kids are all grown up to the point they have some independence, Joel is free to pursue some leisure time.

Pennsylvania is Joel's home state and he grew up fishing there.  He'd be there for a week dropping off his son at a skateboarding camp.  Instead of flying back to LA only to return a week later, he decided to stay and fish some of his old jaunts.  Also if his son suffered any type of injury he'd be at least within driving distance to take care of him.  Joel didn't want to be alone on this trip so he invited me to tag along.  To entice me more he said he'd pay for the whole thing.  So we started to make plans.  Later when our friend, who is a recovering cancer survivor, Kelly got another cancer scare, Joel added him to the party.  I'm glad he did.  Kelly is an optimist and always is in a good mood.  Unlike Joel and I who are miserable sons of bitches.

Joel would head out the day before Kelly and I to get his son and his friend settled while we would take the redeye and meet them in the morning the following day.   I met up at Kelly's place and after having dinner we ubered it to LAX.   After getting absolutely no sleep on the redeye to Philadelphia, we landed early in the morning and needed to wait couple hours for our transfer to State College.  Exhausted we had breakfast of stale pastries at a small coffee shop in the airport that did not perk me up until it was time for our plane.  The flight to State College is a quick one.  Once you're in the air you're basically ready to touch down and after we collected our luggage we waited for Joel to pick us up.  Once he did it was time for a real meal and then off to camp to send off the kids.

Now with the kids offloaded it was time to find a place to get our fishing licenses.  We found a hardware store that sold them and we were off.  It took some mapping on Google but we finally found the river we wanted to fish.  Unlike what I'm used to here in California finding the public water here can be somewhat tricky.  Roads, mountain ranges, hills etc all get in the way.  Say for instance if you park and fish somewhere on the river and you want to fish the bend a half a mile down, you can't simply jump in the car drive to it.  That would take you at least 45 minutes of roundabout driving to get to tat section.  You're best bet is simply to stay on the river and hike down to it.

We finally found on water we wanted to fish Penn Creek at Ingleby.  After finding a parking spot we geared up and headed upstream.  I started with nymphs and managed my first East Coast catch.  A crayfish.  Fishing weren't biting so I was constantly changing flies until I finally reached a point in the river where I saw a midge hatch going off.  Once I saw that I took off the nymph rig and set up the dry fly, a size 18 Galloup's Goober midge.  After a few drifts I managed one to take.  The action did not last long and as soon as I manged to get a rise, it shut down.

With a few hours on the water, it was time to head over to the Feathered Hook B&B to check in.  When we arrived no one was there and the doors were open with a note in the kitchen letting us know which rooms were ours.  After unpacking we searched for place to eat.  After driving to the nearby town of Milheim and found the Elk Creek Cafe & Aleworks.  It was closed for a live music event with the Plate Scrappers but they were willing to serve us if we paid the cover.  We had no problem with that.  We were glad we did as the food, music, and drinks were excellent.

The Elk Creek cafe was started by a group of local business men who've partnered with local farms and producers to keep money in town and create a sense of community.  Highly recommended to those who find themselves in central Pennsylvania.

Meals From Japan and Taiwan

Japan
Le Manoir D'Hastings, Ginza

Suehiro Sushi, Shizuoka

Arcana, Izu City, Shizuoka

Taiwan
Din Tai Fung, Taipei

Tainan Tan-tsu-mein, Taipei

TimHoWan, Taipei

L'Atelier de Joel Rubuchon, Taipei

Unfinished Business Part Seven: Mahseer PhD-Level Lesson

April 21, 2018

My last fishing outing for this epic adventure was the return to the mahseer grounds.  This time with my new friend Danny.  The fly fishing community is small in Taiwan.  Almost all of them are on a Facebook page and all know each other either personally or through FB.  I got a friend request on my FB page from Danny after coming back from Japan.    I normally don't accept "friendships" from unknown people but I noticed Danny was friends with Donny so I accepted.  Once I did he messaged me and offered to take me out.  After going through his timeline checking all his fishing posts of large mahseer, I agreed without hesitation.

I left early for the first train of the day to head out to Banchaio to meet Danny who would pick me up there.  As I exited the station, Danny was waiting for me in the parking lot and after brief pleasantries we headed to toward Hsinchu.  We'd be fishing the same river as Donny took me earlier this trip but further downstream.  Danny had a different approach to fishing than Donny.  First he didn't fish first light.  He said most of his fish won't rise until past 9am.  So when we arrived into town we stopped by a 7-11 for breakfast and for some lunch to pack in.   While eating Danny told me that these mahseer in this river, while native to Taiwan, are not native to this part of the island.  They were transferred, most likely by anglers, from Hualien (the Eastern part of the country).   As with any introduction of a new species, it altered the river and mahseer started to dominate and weed out the native fish, angering those anglers who targeted those species.  Danny take is a more pragmatic one.  For one, Taiwan has a lot of imported foreign fish in its waters, from tilapia, carp, African catfish, cichilids, and even peacock bass, so at least these fish are domestic and native to this land.  Besides they offer great sport.

After finishing our meal we drove to the river.  We parked and headed to the water passing through some jungle and then through a small banana farm.  Danny lead the way and picked up a fallen branch using it to pound the ground to spook any snakes that may lay near.  Eventually we made it to the water and this section was big, deep, slow and void of any significant current.  Danny let me know this section was hard to fish but was loaded with big fish.  These fish are spooky and presentation is the key to getting these fish to bite.  Danny suggested I practice my pick up and laydown cast before we headed out on this outing.  Of course I'm in a city that I'm not too familiar with so I had no opportunity to do so but I see the benefit of knowing how to use this cast here.  You want to keep false casts to a minimum or even non existent.   I tried this cast on the water and simply sucked at it.  First I'm not used to the cast. Second I'm fishing a new 8 foot rod that had little to no time with it prior to this trip and was not used to the timing of the slow action.  Third I was using a double tapered line that isn't the greatest for shooting line.  I was also making some common mistakes with this type of cast such as starting with the rod tip too high and not starting it on the water.

Danny left me alone to try my luck while he started downstream of me.  I managed a few rises but could not connect with any.  Every time I turned my head Danny's rod was bent or he was in the middle of releasing a fish.  He would give me a few pointers when he passed me while moving upstream.  I'd catch up with him later at a section of river that produced faster moving water.  Now with riffles to hide my false casts fishing became a little easier.  Danny stopped and guided me to my first fish.  After that, fish became more plentiful.  So much so I lost count on how many ended up landed.

We'd split up again once he knew I no longer needed his help.   We came across a section that Danny told me held fish in the 50cm plus range.  Danny would end up landing fish in the 45 inch range.  I'd get a big enough fish that straightened out my size 8 TMC 101 hook.

Danny is an engineer by profession and his approach to fishing reflects that. It' very methodical.  His approach to mahseer is different from Donny's and Cash's.  First he fishes only dry flies.  A Beetle fly specifically tied with a nonslip loop knot.  He casts upstream and strips in the fly.  Pick up line and shot line with minimal or no false casts.  Once the fly passes the zone  take one step slowly forward and cast again methodically from left then to the center then to the right.  Take one slow step move forward and repeat.

We stopped fishing just downstream of the section Danny and I had stopped on my first outing.  I have no ideal how many we landed this day but it was significant.  Mahseer are extremely difficult to catch and most anglers in Taiwan are happy to get a couple an outing.  Most anglers on the Taiwan Fly Fishing pages don't actually believe Danny catches the numbers he does.  They think he's full of it.  Of course I've witnessed it firsthand so I know that's not the case.