Today I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing fishing guide Eric Stroup and his client Terry Jones as they fished the Little Juniata River in Pennsylvania. I had met Eric at the Somerset Fly Fishing Show and a few weeks later we set up to shoot this trip. They set the trip time at 10am so I left Ocean, New Jersey at 330am and made the LONG 5 hour and 45 minute trip out. It was a breeze through to Harrisburg but from there on Route 76, to 75 to 641 to 522 to 22 and then I was there. I met up with both guys at a campground that sat on the Little Juniata River in Barre. After some introductions and some video interviews and pictures we
were off. Eric had his client nymphing most of the day high sticking a triple rig set up. Through the day we had hard sun, overcast skies and a downpour or two. The bug of the day was the grannom, or little black caddis. There were strikes throughout the day and some fish on and I think three to the net and then released. The river seemed a little fast and the rocks slippery
but I did my best to shoot from either side of, in the middle of, and from under the water. They fished half the day and we broke for lunch and it was a needed break for Terry, who worked the entire time on the water and for me, who needed to regroup and change some batteries and get the water housing ready for some underwater shooting. The afternoon went quick and they wrapped it up about 530. Just before they ended Eric used Terry's rod to fish a short stretch before we left. Me wanting to get a shot of Eric fishing, jumped in and kneeled down for that perfect angle. As soon I went down and got a few frames off I jumped up, I had forgot I had the Edirol audio recorder in my pocket. I tried to blow it out, dry it out, pray it back to life....later, it's done. So I was a little done after that, disappointed that I couldn't multi task with still, video and audio equipment without getting it wet. We headed back to the campground and said are goodbyes and I passed up on a beer and hit the road for the long ride back home. I stopped
to fished the same stretch we had fished and picked up two on a single bead head prince nymph. Before I left the river I practiced my "Take your limit, please" by grabbing three pieces of trash from the bank of the Little J. On the way home I traveled up to State College and jumped on
Route 80 for the LONG ride home. As I drove home I did everything I could to stay awake but I briefly left the roadway on Route 287 around 130 am and it scared the sh*t out of me when I woke up to the tires vibration on the side of the road. I pulled off the next exit and slept for an hour before finally getting home at 330am. So my day 24 hours, 618 miles, a coupla dollars for my work, one ruined recorder, spent the day with two great guys on a river in central PA fly fishing, priceless!