By RANDY BARTLEY
Staff writer
An Ontario-based fly fisherman has become hooked on fishing the Clarion River — literally. Rob Heal, host of The New Fly Fisher television series, spent a mid-May Friday fishing on the Clarion River when he snagged his biggest catch of the day.
Himself when one of his casts caught his left ear.
“It can happen to even the most experienced fly fisherman,” Heal said with a laugh. “A gust of wind came up and it hit me and there it was.”
His guide, Todd DeLuccia, suggested he not waste the small hole and use the hole to display the offending lure.
“It was like watching Rob Heal putting on a casting clinic in high water on one of the Clarion River tributaries,” said John Straitiff, PA Great Outdoors Visitors Bureau executive director who is an avid fisherman. “We are thrilled to have Rob and The New Fly Fisher introduce new anglers and outdoor enthusiasts to Pennsylvania’s Great Outdoors region.”
According to its website, the New Fly Fisher is an entertaining, educational, and informative television and online video series that serves anglers of all ability levels. The series showcases exciting fishing destinations — the places where trout, bass, pike, salmon, and other species thrive. Each unique episode taps into the stories and knowledge of guides and outfitters in Canada, the USA, and around the world.
“We had a great day,” said Heal of the visit to the Clarion River. “We arrived at the end of a cold front on Sunday and the river was blown out. We had to wait a couple of days for it to settle down. That’s fishing.”
Heal said he doesn’t believe he saw the fishing up to its full potential.
“I like what I saw. Had the conditions been more stable we would have done better,” Heal said. “I saw enough big Browns when we were at Johnsonburg area. We drifted about seven miles for three days in a row and we moved one massive Brown. I hooked and fought a couple more and lost them. We saw enough fish that I know when it settles down and becomes stable I think there is a lot of potential here.”
Heal estimated the river was running at three times its’ normal flow but there are not three times the fish.
“The fish that are normally in X-flow are now in X-times three times the normal flow. They are much more dispersed. It makes the fishing a lot more difficult,” said Heal.
The New Fly Fisher television series relies on tourist initiatives.
“We have agreements with various states including Pennsylvania,” explained Heal. “We were actually supposed to be here last year but then COVID hit.”
Fly fishing is more technical than most people realize.
“The traditional fly fishing is very romantic. We are waiting for the fish to jump out and take the fly but that is very little of it,” said Heal, a Nova Scotia native. “That is surface fishing.”
Heal was using “big water tactics” on the Clarion.
The lines he was using are about a 25 to 30-foot tip of the sinking portion of a fly line.
“You still cast it just like you would a dry fly,” Heal said. “The first 30 feet will sink. There are different densities so that they sink at a rate from an inch and a half to two inches per second to six to eight feet per second.”
And the bait was not traditional.
“We were throwing big baitfish imitations,” Heal added. “Some of the flies we were using were six inches long.”
The “streamers” don’t necessarily represent a specific baitfish.
“These are fairly generic attractor patterns,” said Heal. “Some of the others mimic actual baitfish. There are flat-liners that are made to swim sideways. That way it looks like a wounded or distressed minnow. That is what a predator fish will key in on.
“What we would consider as an apex fish, a four- to six-pound range Brown Trout will eat up to half their length in baitfish a day. So if it is a 24-inch fish it will eat six four-inch fish. What we try to do by throwing these is eliminate the smaller fish and go after a trophy.”
The smaller lures are what most people believe fly fishing is.
“The same fish that eat these will also key in on flies,” he said.
Heal ties a lot of his own flies, but many of them were given to him by his friends.
“They are streamer junkies. There is a whole subculture of these guys out there,” Heal quipped. “We did come across some rising fish that were keyed in on the surface. They were taking flies off the surface. That’s what we hope for. That is the reason we do it.”
Heal said the previous day’s efforts led to some rising fish, but they were in an extraordinarily difficult place.
“That is where fish get big,” said Heal. “We were dealing with a back eddy and it wasn’t possible for us to get to them. There were a dozen fish between 12- and 15-inches in there.”
For the expedition on the Clarion River, Heal used a full-framed raft with a bottom designed for fishing. The raft is actually a rowboat.
“It is actually very stable,” he said. Heal’s guide, Keystone Predator Outfitters, owns the raft.
“I have been all over the East but Pennsylvania and Vermont are some of my favorite places — although the people of Pennsylvania are more down to earth,” Heal observed. “This area is stunning. I have been blown away. Our crew actually filmed the (Cook Forest) old-growth forest.”
Heal said that while he was fishing the Clarion River, two other crews were fishing in Canada.
“This segment is one of the first eight shows so it will probably air in January or early February 2022,” Heal predicted.