The search for Freak Nasty

Freak Nasty is defined as: Describing something vulgar or exceeding the norm of acceptable nasty content.

Example : “dude, did you see the wedgie on that fat chick”… Yeah that was Freak Nasty

Ok, well we have our own definition of Freak Nasty.

Bent Rods definition: Describing one nasty looking fish, usually obese, disgustingly big, and almost always sports one mean looking kype. One that prefers its meals large, and as many women as it can get.

With visions of Freak Nasty on our minds the BRM crew and I loaded the wagon headed North. We had three days and miles of water to cover. It was gonna be a blitzkrieg style trip, little sleep, lots of junk food, and the smell of rotten salmon.

$5.00 if you take one bite!

We spent three days fishing our asses off. We woke well before dawn to hit the water before the hoards, we explored new stretches of water, we tied on countless flies.  The fishing wasn’t easy, most of the fish had seen everything but the kitchen sink, and the unusually warm weather and blue bird skies took a toll on the fishing. Like most people we stocked a small flyshop in our packs, but as luck would have it, we were back at the vise concocting new patterns to doop those wary fish.

For those who haven’t fished Western NY, the land is flat, the corn, cabbage, apples, and roads are endless. There are countless tribs flowing into Lake Ontario, and some of the biggest baddest browns, steelhead, and salmon around. The area is best described as poor mans Patagonia, with a strong emphasis on poor mans, as the crowds will give you nightmares.

Most of the trip was a blur, I am not sure if it was the lack of sleep due to Murphy’s snoring, or the visions of my hands around Mitch’s throat for stealing the net and costing me the fish of the trip. It was a crazy three days, fish were lost, rods were broke, and after a slow, slow first day on the water we re- grouped and found Freak Nasty, not just one but many. I learned one thing, never let Mitch carry the net, he will stick the proverbial knife in your back every time. Mitch is now known as D-bag (Sorry Dave, you have been promoted).

Here is a collection of our Freak Nasty pictures from the trip.

Ryan

One of the little ones

Mr. Freak Nasty

Murph's Atlantic

 

Chrome

Is that a shark or a steelhead?

 

There were still a few around.

Butter.

I think I crapped my pants! Seriously, I feel something wet!

 

Preparation

Preparation sounds easy doesn’t it?  For Bent Rod Media (BRM) it’s always a challenge to prepare for a trip.  There are 4 of us with BRM, all leading vastly different lives.  Dave “Nymph-O” is a full-time guide and grad student on top of being a brand new daddy to Jed.  So his spare time is now devoted to his family.  I used to envy fishing guides, but after meeting Dave I’ve come to realize they don’t get to fish very often.  Which must suck since most of them, like Dave are on the stream with clients 5 days a week. 

I’ll try not to pick on Mitch too much since he is always on our shit list, not having any time for himself.  He is a 9-5′er, what he does is a mystery now after leaving the bank.  Now with some type of government accounting something.  One of those budgeting jobs where a government toilet seat costs 9K.  Him being a new father and husband also limits his BRM time, and who wants to work (filming, photography, editing) when you haven’t been out having fun on the stream in 6 weeks.

I have been pretty lucky so far with a work schedule of only 3 days a week.  Thankfully I’ve accumulated almost 300 vacation hours and a wife that has been pretty lenient of my fishing habit.  I to have my husband duties and homeowner chores to complete and it’s not always easy leaving.

Ryan’s fishing days outnumber us all since he is pretty much within 2 hours of every type of fishing possible and he is his own boss.  His days have dropped off recently with an unfortunate family illness but he still seems to get his greasy mexican ass on the stream a lot more than the rest of us.  He even tricks his wife into thinking she can fish so that he can get more time on the stream by bringing her.  Sneaky bastard!! 

So with BRM it is always a never ending challenge to plan a trip.   Someone always seemingly gets left behind pouting like someone stole their bicycle.   This upcoming trip was no different.  Mitch took the lead throwing out the dates he could make the trip.  Ryan followed suit.  Dave was on baby watch so he was a no-go and my schedule is usually flexible so I was in like flint.  Also our good friend and BRM consultant “Frodo”, who has joined us on many trips like Missouri, Nicaragua, and Patagonia, decided to join us.   

Unlike the majority of our trips the planning on this one was fairly easy.  Especially since Mitch forgot about when his wedding anniversary was, but somehow weasel his way back into the trip.  Mitch and I did our usual bickering about who is driving, paying, departure and return times.   Our fearless leader Ryan basically sat by and said he didn’t care who was coming he would be there without us.  The forecast is calling for rain and possibly snow for the weekend.  So with our vast onslaught of rain, fishing, and camera gear we will be on the stream before dark on saturday fishing well into the night.  Hopefully the fish gods will smile upon us and grace us with Leroy Browns presence.  

To Be Continued…………

 

*BayE*

Friday Picture Day

Every Friday we will throw some pics up from our vast library of all things fish. Each week will have a theme, very similar to the weekly all you can eat theme special at your local exotic dancing establishment.

10/09/09: On the Road

ON THE ROAD

10/02/09: To Busy For Friday Picture Day

Hippity Hoppity Goes the Hopper

Oh Kids.  It has been quite the week for you friend nymph-o.  The highlights include Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, which means that I spent about two days on the interstate cursing the ill fate that brought me to that concrete jungle in the first place.  I also threw the annual swine sacrifice fundraiser for my local TU and managed to raise a few grand to keep our cold water’s cold and clean, oh yeah and  did I mention the boys and I spent two days in N. Georgia filming the sickest terrestrial fishing this nymph has ever dreamed about on the East Coast?  I didn’t mention that? Well shit, I suppose that would make as good a blog post as anything else I could pull out of my ass today.

A few weeks ago a new friend of ours, Capt. Kent Klewein (I believe he is a Captain much like Captain Kangaroo only with out all the alcoholism and child molesting…well at least the molesting part), called up and invited us down to shoot some film on what  was supposed to be the best river for hopper fishing anywhere east of the Mississippi.   The name of the creek is Noontootlah Creek.  At first I thought Noontootlah had way too many o’s in it, but I looked past my “o” caused anxiety, packed the truck up and headed out, for what  turned out to be some of the best fishing any red blooded fly flinger could hope for.

Before you boys get out the Georgia gazetteer and start planning a Sherman like march to Georgia, this river is strictly pay to play.  I am not a man that frequents the various trophy private water’s our area has to offer, as I am of meager means (I do, however, where tweeds, use silk line, and only fish upstream with a dry fly) and these waters are not something that I can pass off to my wife as necessary spending.  Due to my not atypical socioeconomic situation I have always looked at the guys who fish private waters exclusively as the sort of folks who would hand me there car keys at the hotel assuming I am the valet and then expect me to park their Jag.  This usually results in a wild night of me stunt driving a Jag.  I have not been a fan of private water guys.  After two days on Noontootlah I plan on getting a fourth job in order to fish this creek as much as humanly possible.  See, these private water guys aren’t only rich but they are also smarter than you and me.  Who needs to put up with the bullshit of dealing with tubers, bait chuckers, poachers, swamp things, and wookies on public waters when you can pony up your hard (or not so hard..whatever the case may be) earned loot and fish to trout that see a tenth of the pressure and have the whole creek to yourself.  At Noontootlah Creek Farms this also means fishing to trout up to 30″ with 80% of the population being wild.  If this isn’t enough to make you wanna throw up your nose at public water, they also love to eat huge foam. 

These facts have seriously made me consider changing my name to Robin Leach, tattooing, “…champagne dreams, and caviar wishes,” on my ass and calling it a day.

I won’t bore you with all the details of the trip because I don’t want to ruin the video we are making from the trip, but we all caught and landed multiple fish over twenty inches, with Ryan proving once again that there is no rhyme or reason as to  why good things happen to bad people hoisting two over twenty five inches.

All but a few of the fish landed were taken on top with size 8 or bigger hoppers, beetles, and ants.  That my friends is sicky, sicky, gnar, gnar any way you add it up.

Till next time,

- Nymph-o

Nanner Boat

 Finally the Day came to put the Nanner Boat on the water.  What the hell is a Nanner boat?  Creek Company Pontoon Boat   Around 2 pm I gave my dad a call because once again Mitch pulled the proverbial wool over my eyes and danced around lauch times.  So the old man and I loaded up the trucks and headed for the West Fork.  We floated roughly 4 miles in a little under 5 hrs.  Flows were low in places and the Nanner was  loaded down with gear (beer) and 500 pounds of Homo Sapiens.  Still we were able to draft in a little less than a foot of water.  Maneuvers like a sports car and gets up on a plane in 2 strokes of the oars.  Anchor system is kinda cheap from those I’ve used and seen used before but it works and thats all that matters.  There is storage everywhere in the boat and 2 dry lockers.  I do need to raise the rowers seat about a foot and put swivels on both seats.  A bigger anchor or anchor bag, rod holder and a spare oar.  So if any of you “Sponsors” out there want to get your name of the side of the boat, fork over the dough and I’ll sticker that yellow bitch up like a Nextel cup car.  

The fishing was slow since the old man doesn’t fish much.  We or he did manage to boat 20, 15 smallies and 5 rockies.  We saw plenty of wildlife.  Turtles, carp, suckers, gar, bass, blue herons, deer, damsel flies everywhere and plenty of hillbillies.  I cannot describe, especially since in left the camera in the truck, how beautiful the west fork is.  Well it’s beautiful from a distance.  There are sections on the stream that do not even look anything like the west fork.  Amazing. 

It was a good maiden voyage of the Nanner.  I found things I needed and things I need to change.  No one fell out and nothing was broke, lost or injured.  Except a few beer cans.  Until next time my fishing friends .   **BayE**  

It PAYS to have a good Camera and Net Bitch.

Let me preface by saying if anyone has problems with any of my pics let me know and I’ll edit them…..

Murph and I set out Southward Saturday morning to the WV Coal Fields. Our plan was to fish there on Saturday and Sunday, then trek to Eastern TN to float the trout laden tail waters….The latter never panned out due to not having enough boats and our unwillingness to shell out another $100 for a hotel….or sleep in the truck without showering.  The truck had already reeked of beer, cigarettes, and hot foul rancid wetness.

We arrived on the stream later than normal because you would have better success shoving a noodle up a wild cats a$$ then you would getting my wife out of bed before 9 a.m. on a weekend….We got to the stream around 11ish and saw that the stream we intended on fishing was high and muddy, like Dave…..muddy (I’ve got nothing).  So we proceeded to drink a few adult beverages and get geared up…We tried the muddy water selection on the said stream but got no takers. While I was watching Murphy fish downstream and eating a few streamside berries a local yocal came down to the hole I was fishing in with a can of corn and a bucket??!?!  (Andy Griffith Show Music Blaring!!)

Wild Yum Yum's

I thought to myself, what the he!! is this guy doing. I admit it was a hasty observation because after talking to the guy he turned out to be cool. He was trying to catch some chubs to go to a local lake and chase some catfish. He gave us some good info about a stream over the mountain, turn left, right, left, left, pass some houses on the left, then a row of houses on the right and on the left there is a house and on the right is a low water dam…..that we should try out. So we headed to the said stream (which we have no idea what it was called or if we were in the rite spot) and started to fish. My third cast I landed a nice smallmouth and thought that it was a waste of time. Then Murph stuck a nice healthy wild rainbow….

Wild Wv Rainbow Trout...YEEEE HAWWWW!!!

Show us your PINK BITS LOVE

A few casts later I had a follow by a submarine looking fish…Next cast and BAM!!! The fight was on. I was fishing from the top of a log…The fish kept bull dogging to try and get under the log. I knew if he did I would lose the fish, my tippet, and possibly tear up my line…So I horsed him as much as my 4x tippet would allow. My knot finally faulted. I did leader the fish once and he was in the 22″-25″ range. A big streamlined rainbow. Very intrigued we fished upstream….. We landed around 10 wild bows up stream. All were very spunky and didnt want to come to hand….

More Pink Bits

We left the stream thinking we may have just stumbled upon a thriving wild fishery with some hog bows in it?!!?

The next day after a night of debauchery was spent on another wild trout stream. I wont go too much into this day because it was one of the most frustrating days of fishing that I have ever had. If it wasnt for the 40′s of Bud Light and pizza I probably would have thrown my rod down and drowned Murphy. The water was stained and flowing good. I started with nymphs and stuck some nice bows. Murph started with the most god-awful streamer I have ever seen and caught two nice browns right off the bat….

Brown anyone?

Yes I'll have some Bee Rown

ME not You

Bye Bye Brownie

Then a 3rd brown…then a 4th…then a 5th……I was playing nice and taking pics for him, but wanting to beat him with the net….Most of his fish were stuck on a white streamer…So I tried a white streamer. NOTHING….I fished in front of him and he caught fish…I fished behind him and he caught fish….It was the strangest thing that day..Here’s the rest of the onslaught of pig browns…..

This Never Gets Old.

Give me a RICK FLAIR WOOOO!

Don't Eyeball me!

Curves Like a Super Model

 

Catch and Release

I like em Thick and Easy

Stink EYE!

Leopard Print

Connect the Dots

Salmon Trutta

I will BITE YOU IN THE ASS!!

LEROY BROWN!!!

Fan-Futin-Tastic What a Fight!

 And his nice bow to boot!?!?!

Wild Wv Rainbow

All in all it was a good weekend. I stuck my fair of good wild fish, but not the big one….And definitely not 5 browns in the 16″-20″ range….I did brush up on my camera skills, because that all I got done…But a kudos to Murph and his ability to land the big one….I guess even a RA-tarded squirrel finds a nut every once in a while ….I need a new hobby….or a drink.

Mitch (Duke303)

We found the Last Dodo Bird....well not the last.