We have fish too

[Jersey Devil]

Downloaded game, have 18 locations... 16 of which are west of the Mississippi. Ya know. we DO have fish here in the east too... and a few are just as beautiful and exotic as those in the west. Typical snobbish trout fisherman... nothing else counts, right? Game is getting old

[paul]

Jersey Devil,

The rivers already shot (most not yet released) for this game include 3 in Connecticut, 3 in Massachusetts, 2 in Maine, 8 in New Hampshire, 2 in New Jersey, 3 in New York, 1 in Pennsylvania and 4 in Vermont. The very first photo shoot I did for this app was through New England, but I was still working out the new photo/video shooting technique to produce the animated scenes, so the quality of the results wasn't always up to my current standards. That's one reason I'm returning to New England this spring.

Of the 18 rivers released, there are actually 5 east of the Mississippi including one in New Jersey, one in New Hampshire, and 3 in Wisconsin. True, there's only 2 in the eastern time zone released so far, but I'm not ignoring the eastern US. The river coming out on April 8th is the Lamprey River in New Hampshire, and the Delaware River in New York will release in May. It will take almost 2 years at a river a week to prepare and release all the rivers I've shot so far, and my release schedule has waters from east, west and Midwest mixed in.

That said, I'm continuing to work on the diversity. This May I plan to shoot:

Letort Spring Branch, PA
Nishisakawick Creek, NJ
Dunnfield Cr, NJ
Paulin's Kill, NJ
Flat Brook, NJ
Sebasticook River, ME
Mattawamkeag River, ME
Penobscot River, ME
East Outlet, ME
Dead River, ME
Kennebec River, ME
Ammonoosuc River, NH
White River, VT
Tweed River, VT
West Branch Ausable River, NY
Kayaderosseras Creek, NY
Clarion River, PA
Spring Creek, PA
Clear Creek, PA

That's the photo shoot plan for May. In April I'll shoot several in Michigan (also east of the Mississippi) a state that I haven't hit at all yet, despite it being the home of Trout Unlimited. Similarly I don't yet have a single water in Alaska, so I'll be shooting there in June. I'm not done shooting the west by any means, either. In September I plan to hit more around West Yellowstone. Next year, perhaps I'll shoot something outside North America. I hear from New Zealanders in particular hoping to see some of their waters added someday, and I'd certainly love to shoot England, Scotland, Finland... The list of places I'd like to shoot is endless.

As I complete these shoots I expect to revise the planned release order, to mix in places from the new shoots with places I've already shot, so some of these new locations don't take years to be released.

At this time the app is very heavily weighted towards trout fishing vs other species, with only one smallmouth bass river released so far. I'll add some more bass waters this year, too. A fair complaint would be the lack of salmon, and for that I need the fish pictures as much as the waters, and I use only photos I've shot myself in this app. The Alaska trip should remedy that. I don't plan to include saltwater fly fishing in this app, but a separate saltwater version might be possible down the road. The animation method I developed for this works quite well with flowing currents, but less so with waves, so surf wouldn't look as good as I would want it to. The same goes for still water fishing. I've shot a few lakes, and will probably publish a few, but conditions have to be right for the water animation to look right using just a few frames, as is necessary to keep the file sizes reasonable.

Pishtech is a one man operation, and the fly fishing app is just one of several that I publish, but I'm working hard to keep expanding the variety in Fly Fishing Simulator.

If you're unsatisfied with the variety of waters, please email me (paul at pishtech dot com) with a copy of your receipt from the app store and ask for a refund.

Paul

[Jersey Devil]

I know you are planning an eastern trip. Just being a pain in the neck. Waiting for the Delaware and all those smallies and walleye and huge channel cats your gonna stuff in there I can't send you into the Pines though. Thought about it and I would be putting you at risk if I gave you some remote spots. Plus I thought about it and I would rather keep quiet about the place.

[paul]

Hey, I totally get that. One forum member suggested a spot to me, and the person shall remain nameless, and the true location of the location shall remain hidden. In the original RWFF I used pseudonyms for lots of the waters to avoid giving extra attention to them. If a place was already super famous, like say, the Firehole River in Yellowstone, I used the real name, since no exposure I could give the river could compare to all the write-ups in books and magazines a water like that has already had. For FFSHD I've been more open about most spots. So far the only place I've shot for FFSHD that will go by a pseudonym is one shared with me in confidence. Having seen the place, and even taken some time to fish it, I wholeheartedly agree that the real location should remain a secret.

I'll confess to keeping a few of my own favorite spots secret for similar reasons. Here in SW Wisconsin there are a lot of streams that have been written up in lots of publications, and considered among the top handful of streams in the country. Timber Coulee Creek is one example. It was once ranked as number 1 or 2 in the country for trout per acre of water, and it might still be that high on the list. It's so full of wild brown trout that it draws people from many states, even including western states famous for their own fly fishing. When I go to fish it myself, I see mostly out of state plates on the cars parked at the access points. This time around I'm not trying to hide that creek, since, obviously, the cat's out of the bag. In the case of that creek, anybody showing up expecting to catch fish every cast due to the high population is in for a rude awakening, anyway. I moved here from Oregon and thought I was a skilled angler, until I fished there for the first time. The fish may be abundant, but they are very highly educated, and don't think much of amateur anglers.

Still, there are lesser known waters in my area that I'd like to keep lesser known. They may not have the numbers of fish that Timber Coulee and some others do, but they have better potential for really big fish. The pines do sound like fun, and that could add a new species to the FFSHD mix, but I don't blame you for wanting to keep the details on the down-low.

Most of the waters I plan to shoot this year are mentioned in books like 50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die, or in other books and various fly fishing magazines. For the eastern trip alone I spent about a week going through all the fly fishing literature I have on the best waters in those states, so most of what I plan to shoot has already had attention in the press.

OK, you mentioned walleye, and, being a fisherman, I can't resist sharing a story. Most people don't think of walleyes as a fly-rod target, and most of the time, I'm like most people. One lunch hour back when I worked in a cube farm, I was fishing a backwater channel of the upper Mississippi that runs through a culvert under a city street. I was catching a few smallmouth on streamers and kept hearing splashes inside the culvert. I'd have bet my rod they were smallies busting minnows over the rocks in the shallow water in the culvert. So I fed line down under the street and stripped it back and... 20 inch walleye. Cast again, another 20 inch walleye. Cast again... well, it stopped at 2. But this was high noon on a sunny summer day. Folks who fish walleye swear by dawn and dusk, if not midnight. And in this area, walleye fishing usually means jigging in 15 to 40 feet of water. But here I was scoring them 6 inches under the surface on a Zonker at noon.

I'm glad you mentioned the mixed species in the Delaware. I think the area I shot for FFSHD is mostly known for its trout, but I'll have to do some more research into that stretch. I only shot it and didn't have time to fish it myself. It sure looked like smallmouth water to me. As for channels, I'd have to go out and catch some for photos to put them in there. Fortunately, unlike those pacific salmon, that wouldn't require a trip. I do a little cafishing every year. I think it's time to get some net shots of fish for FFSHD. Channels may not be a common fly rod target either, but they fight like crazy, and catching one when you expect to hook a 16 inch trout... Well, that's another story.

Tight lines,

Paul

[Jersey Devil]

Paul, the part of the Delaware you are referring to with trout, is probably the East or West branches farter north. Where I am referring to is the main stem thru the Delaware Water Gap. There is everything from bass, pickerel, muskies, walleye, channel cats, spring shad runs, and striped bass headed for New York, but virtually no trout here. If you are really determined to explore So. Jersey pines, Email me and I can give you some locations but be aware that you may need a 4 wheel drive