Cory Pratt's Blog » Fishing

I actually won something

Cory — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:30:46 +0000

So back in September I saw a random tweet come across the wire from Moldy Chum about a contest that Mountain Khakis was holding. The grand prize was 5 days / 4 nights at the Resort at Squaw Creek, plus a TON of swag including two a bunch of awesome clothes from Mountain Khakis, Bugslinger, Keen, Osprey, Sage, Redington, and Scientific Anglers, and of course a half day guided trip with Matt Heron. I generally enter contests like this when I see them, without even thinking I am actually going to win any of them. Well, needless to say about a week later I got an email saying:

Hi Cory,

Are you sitting down? We have exciting news for you – YOU WON the Mountain Khakis & Resort at Squaw Creek Fly Fishing Vacation Sweepstakes today!!!

I was able to take a guest, so I asked my wife to go with me on this adventure to Squaw Valley. We booked the trip for an early weekend in October which Matt claimed was his favorite time to fish the river’s around there, and he wasn’t lying.

After long 9 hour drive from Central Oregon and an interesting stay in Susanville we arrived at the resort ready to relax and enjoy the same area we actually honeymooned.

The first day guided day (I say first because my wife bought another half day trip for me) with Matt was awesome. He took me to the Little Truckee river where he claimed browns measured in pounds were coming from the reservoir to spawn. When we arrived I looked down from a hill at this creek that was like the Fall River and the Crooked river mixed thinking to myself, “umm, 20+ inch browns and rainbows in there?”

We started the walk down to the first hole on the river that was an amazing little buck and seam where about a half dozen fish were brought to hand. 16-18 inch fish were the norm on both dries and nymphs.

The day continued on and the fog burned off, brining some very hard to read hatches. At one point, at least four different types of bugs were hatching! Continuing down the river we came to some beautiful tail outs and holes holding some very big and finicky fish. The day ended with Matt pulling in this beauty.

The second day was more of the same. The morning started out like this:

And peaked with my trophy for the week being landed on a size 20 nymph. 24 solid inches of brown trout!

Outside of the fishing, I had a great time with my wife and our daughter Grey. We explored more of the Tahoe area, including a “rousing” trip into Carson City for the heck of it. Many thanks to all who contributed prizes to the trip. The clothes are great, loving my Mountain Khaki pants and Bugslinger gear. Matt is an awesome guy who has a serious passion for fly fishing and teaching. Look him up if your in the Tahoe area and go fishing with him!

In rememberance of C.D. Pratt Jr

Cory — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:35:43 +0000

This morning we (the crew) pushed off for a trip to scatter some ashes along the north shore of Molokai on the Waipoui. The area was one of grandpa’s favorite places to go and one that I have had the privilege to share with him.
His boat, a 46 foot sampan he designed and built 30 years ago now carries some of his ashes in the anchor post on the bow, now adorned with a lei for the duration of the trip. Thank you grandpa for the memories and the amazing legacy you built and left for us to enjoy.

You can submit hatch info..

Cory — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:38:19 +0000

If you have information you’d like to share and include in The Hatch, please feel free to use the link at the top of the page titled “Submit Hatch Information”. You will be presented with a form asking for the state, river name, bug, and month’s you’ll find the bug hatching. These updates will be included in periodic updates to the app.

Thanks everyone.

Skunk is off for the year

Cory — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:43:00 +0000

PHEW, didn’t know how long the skunk would go into the new year. A buddy of mine and I went out for a quick trip to the Crooked today. I haven’t been fishing there in over a year but had heard that fishing had picked up in the last few months and the weather was decent, so why not?

We arrived on the river at about 1pm. The temp rose about 6 degrees on the drive over to a nice and balmy 45. I’m not sure what the water temp was, but there was still ice on the surface of some of the slower water.

Brett hooked a good sized whitefish right off the bat and we started working our way downstream. On the way down we noticed a few rises about 100 yards down stream so we promptly switched out the nymph’s and went for some small BWO’s. They ended up being the ticket, we totaled 8-9 trout a piece in one small section of water!

We were off the water about 3 hours later and had a great time of fellowship and fishing.

New The Hatch 2 feature….Sneak Peak

Cory — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:13:15 +0000

Working on a new feature as I can find the time. I think you’ll all enjoy it.

The Hatch is available again!

Cory — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:53:10 +0000

Waiting for the new version has been like having to wait for the salmonflys on the Deschutes! It’s finally here again and I’m really excited about the new release! Make sure to check out the updated version of The Hatch 2 for your iPhone or iPod Touch! Version 2.0.4 boasts a new logo and PICTURES, and lots of them!

You can find it over on iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/apps/thehatch

Make sure you check out the new website for the app over at http://www.thehatchapp.com

An update to the lite version will be coming shortly, so hang in there.

Targeting Bull Trout

Cory — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:05:57 +0000

A couple weeks ago I got out on the Metolius in search of some bull trout. The Kokanee were in spawn mode, the bull’s were just done with spawning and that is generally a good combination. I hit the usual spots and landed a few decent trout. Streamers and egg patterns worked well.

I picked up one of those camera’s that can go underwater, so I played with taking pictures of a few of the Kokanee that were spawning. I wish the camera wasn’t so automatic, it’ll be interesting to learn the nuances of it. No pictures of the bulls, but one showing a nice bend in the 8weight.

View the gallery for larger images:

The Hatch will return shortly

Cory — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:15:48 +0000

Some of you may have noticed “The Hatch” isn’t on the app store right now, well, your right. Unfortunately I had to pull it from the App Store due to an issue with the logo. A new version has been submitted to Apple, and now it’s just the waiting game until it’s approved.

Sorry for the inconvenience, it should be resolved shortly. I think most everyone will be very excited for the next version 2.0.4….can anyone say “pictures”?

The Hatch 2 emerging on the web

Cory — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:03:20 +0000

Over the past couple weeks there has been a number of blogs and sites mentioning The Hatch 2. It’s certainly fun to see that people are enjoying it enough and willing to take a good look at it! Many of these are great blogs that certainly deserve a spot on your RSS feed if not already!

The following is a list of where you can find various reviews and posts:

http://www.flyfishingnotes.com/2009/08/20/hatch-2-0-ipod-and-iphone-app/

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=102

http://thesierranevadas.com/?cat=6

http://wcflies.com/blog/2009/08/yeah-theres-an-app-for-that/

http://www.otterbox.com/employee-spotlight-mary-knaus/

http://www.dsflyfishing.com/fishing-blog/the-hatch-2-fly-fishing-app-for-iphone.html

http://www.kiene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17442

http://www.moldychum.com/home-old/2009/10/6/hatch-chart-app-on-itunes.html

http://eastcoastangler.blogspot.com/2009/10/best-iphone-fly-fishing-app-hatch.html

http://www.facebook.com/fishpond.usa?ref=mf

http://blog.fishykid.org/10/07/2009/112

http://thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.com/2009/10/iphone-hatch-app.html

http://thenorthernangler.blogspot.com/2009/10/hatch-2-for-iphone.html

http://flyfishingsherpa.com/the-hatch-2-for-fly-fishing-theres-an-iphone-app-for-that/

http://mouching.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/la-bonne-mouche-est-au-bout-du-fil/

The Hatch is buzzing around the web

Cory — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:17:42 +0000

Every once and a while I scour the web trying to find mentions of The Hatch, just to see what others might be saying. Most recently, Dave over at http://www.paflyfish.com gave The Hatch a nice writeup. Turns out he’s friends with Mr. Carroll who has provided photo’s for the app. Dave has a great web site that has product reviews and good information covering fly fishing in Pennsylvania. Living in Oregon, I tend to forget, actually, not even think about fly fishing in other states. Be sure to check out his site, if I ever make it over to PA I will certainly bring by rod along as it looks like a beautiful place.

You can see his writeup at http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=102