This is an out of state fishing report, but it was too cool not to post. We recently got back from a family trip to Pennsylvania. The week consisted of train rides with my little boy, visits to the Amish country, tours of Hershey's Chocolate Factory, and early morning visits to a very fishy creek. 
Before the trip, some research showing we would be in Smallmouth and Carp country peaked my interest. Along with all the essentials for a family vacation, I packed my 5wt and 7wt and a bunch of fly tying material. I tied up some woolly buggers and carp patterns on the ride up. We spent the first afternoon locating access points to Mill Creek and looking for fish. The first stop had plenty of room for fly casting but the only fish we saw were bream zipping in and out of their hiding spots. One of the places we stopped had access to the creek way in the back of a city park. This section of creek was lined with trees that overhung the water. For the first few minutes I saw no fish, but then came across a carp milling around under a tree branch. As a looked, more carp began to materialize and I ended up counting a dozen or more under this one branch. I wondered why they were congregating, until I heard a light plop on the water. After a few more plops, I realized that something was falling from the tree and the carp were eating these things off of the surface. I looked down and saw little purple mulberries on the ground around my feet. I picked up a few and tossed them in the water, and watched the carp rush to them and inhale them from the surface. I ran back to the hotel, to sort through my fly tying materials and come up with some type of berry fly.
The next morning, I was back at the creek at first light with a fly box full of spun deer hair flies trimmed down to the size and shape of the berries. The carp were still there, so I lined myself up to make a cast between the trees out to the carp. The fly landed on the water with a plop, and a carp swam over to it, enhaled it, and spit it back out instantly. I soon realized that it was going to be harder than I thought to trick these carp into believing these flies were berries. I fed about five carp before I had one close it's mouth around the fly... and when he did, I set the hook and he took off peeling line out. 
Over the next few mornings I would spend a few hours chasing carp. The first day was by far the best. The other days had less carp at the surface, but there were also less berries falling from the trees. Almost every carp I cast too, came up to the fly and ate. Only one out of every five or so fish would actually hold on to the fly for the split second it took to set the hook. I ended up catching around seven carp in the 10-15lb range on those mornings. I also caught my first smallmouth, a few largemouth and some sunfish, all on the berry fly. I spoke for a while with a maintenance man at the park who told me that the "berry hatch" only happens for about 2 weeks of the year. I hit the berry hatch by pure luck.
On a side note, we visited nearby Hershey Chocolate factory on the 3rd day of our trip. I punched "fly shop" into the GPS as I was in need of some more material for my berry flies. "Clouser Fly Shop" popped up on the GPS as being 5 miles away. We ran over to the shop hoping it would still be open. We drove into a neighborhood and stopped at a house with a hand painted sign out front that said "Clouser Fly Shop". There was a jet drive jon boat parked in front of the house and two more in the side yard. I walked around the side of the house and into the fly shop which was an extension of the house. As I stepped in, I saw a room packed with materials and flies from the floor to ceiling but didn't see anyone in the shop. I walked to the back of the room and peaked my head into the office, and saw Bob Clouser himself sitting at his fly tying desk. I introduced myself and Bob dug through his tying materials and found me a few pieces of deer hair to tie more carp flies with. We talked for a while about fishing and he was kind enough to give me a clouser fly out of his box before I left. Some of the carp I caught that week, were on flies tied with the materials he gave me. Thanks Bob!
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