Local WNY Talent Spotlight!

Jessie Hollenbeck fishing a local spring creek

This week I would like to highlight two Western New York companies that are looking to make a few waves in the world of fly fishing.

First is Wide Sky Fly Fishing. WSFF is run by local guide Jessie Hollenbeck who specializes in fly fishing for the many species of fish that call Western and Central New York home. He has spent numerous hours learning our local streams and can put you on trophy lake run trout and salmon during the run, help you decipher the code of our local spring creek trout, put you in position for excellent dry fly fishing in the spring and summer, and also get you into some great warm water fishing opportunities.

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jessie throughout the years and his dedication and love for the sport of fly fishing is second to none, not to mention that he knows how to catch fish!!! His patience and persistence give him an edge when teaching others how to be successful on the stream, and those who have spent any time with him come away with a better understanding of our WNY fisheries.

You can get more info on both him and the fish pursues at his website www.wideskyflyfishing.com, or just give him a call at 585-314-5089.

The second company I would like to feature in this week’s blog is Silo4. This new upstart company is a four man team with two of them coming from the local WNY talent pool – Matt Smythe and Grant Taylor. They’re goal is to tell stories that need telling, or as their opening paragraph on their website puts it, “Some stories grab you by the collar. Some whisper softly in your ear. However they're told, they still need to say something that matters.”

Both Matt and Grant live just south of me out here in WNY and have been working hard at what they love to do – writing and photography! 

Matt has his own blog www.fishingpoet.com where he continually writes outside of his hectic freelance world. And we are thankful he does!

Grant is an artist as well, but his art comes from behind a lens. His website www.granttaylorphoto.com will give you a sneak peek into his world.

These two WNY artists are joined by two very talented cinematographers Matt White and Dustin Lutt of Rockhouse Motion. Together they are Silo4.

There most recent project is a short film entitled a “Deliberate Life” and it is a beautiful piece that should get some attention this year, as it well should – It’s amazing!

A DELIBERATE LIFE..... FILM TRAILER from RockHouse Motion on Vimeo.
 

I hope that those of you who visit will take the time to stop over to their pages and, at the very least, take a moment to look around. But you may be moved to stay awhile or even leave a comment two. Either way....enjoy!

Good WNY tributary fishing continues!

The first of the day.

Our WNY tributaries continue to provide excellent fly fishing for trophy lake run trout.

As of now the salmon are all but gone! They finished their job a week or so after Sandy pushed through. Their dead decaying bodies litter the shallows and the bank, adding nutrients back onto the system for the betterment of future generations.

A nicely colored male with the fly of the day

Even a few of these rainbow/steelhead made an appearance

In fact, Sandy’s after effects provided some way better than average fishing for me. When the water is high and stained, the fish move and become very active, especially before the cold sets in. And I had the fortune of hitting it at the right time. Fishing was out of this world! I spent a little over two hours fishing a local small tributary, hooking up a dozen times and landing seven – all trout!

High water = Great fishing!

My technique for that day was dead drifting egg patterns, but with a little twist! I had no indicator with me on this day, so I had to resort to an alternative style of fishing. My goal was to keep a tight line at all times but also try to get a natural drift. What I came up with was as simple as it gets. In fact it is what I used to do as a kid when fishing with worms on my local trout stream. All I did was put a medium sized split shot a foot above the egg pattern, cast slightly downstream and allow the egg to drift with my rod guiding it down and across. Kind of like a dead drift/swing combo!

With the tight line I could feel the fish pick up the fly more than half the time, and on two occasions, I had the pleasure of the fish pull the fly just as you would have them do when swinging streamers.

This was a great change from the low water stalk that I have had to employ for much of the fall, and better yet, the fish responded well. But like any high water period during the spawn, this is what you should expect. Plenty of eggs getting washed into the system will always put the fish in the mood for eggs.

Sometimes...keeping it simple is best!