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| Our first Steelhead of the spring |
I guess spring is here…isn’t it? I mean all those giant snow
banks are gone and the grass is starting to become green again, trees are starting
to bud, and I have even seen a few flowers starting to poke out of the ground.
But there is something not quite right. We had snow yesterday and this morning’s
temperature was a mind numbing twenty three degrees.
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| High stained and cold water didn't help on this morning |
Before yesterday every indication that spring was really
here as pretty much a foregone conclusion and maybe that was the problem. Day
time temperatures soaring into the upper seventies made it all too easy to
envision resident small stream brown trout rising to those first emerging
Hendrickson duns that struggle to work their way free of their nymphal shucks,
and dare I say…even a little top water fly fishing for bass?
We daydream of those first fish caught on dries before
giving the spring steelhead season it’s due.
Problem solved - The cold weather and snow gave us back our
steelhead season!
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| Jonathan with his first largemouth |
We needed that shot of cold air, snow and sleet to extend
our tributary season. If it warms too quickly and stays that way for a prolonged period of time, our spring steelhead season will be shortened. And I for one would love to be able to fish for these big
fish for a little while longer if I can. Besides we also want those big feisty drop
back browns to take full advantage of our big swung streamers…right?
So, for now we are back on track.
The boys and I did however take full advantage of our brief
stint with near summer like conditions with a few trips to a favorite lake
Ontario Western New York tributary and a local pond.
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| Ethan with his 1st fish on his new fly rod |
Our first trip produced no fish at the local tributary as
conditions were not very favorable due to high, stained and very cold water.
Luckily we did find some willing participants at a local pond that seemed more
than willing to help us out on that day.
A few days later and we were back at our favorite WNY tributary.
And on this morning we were able to
connect with a few fish and even land a nice twenty six inch steelhead buck. We
even started to see many suckers moving upstream for their annual spring spawn.
It won’t be long now until it will be difficult to drift through a pool and not
hook up with at least six or seven suckers to every trout.
The warmer weather and our first dry fly action will come,
but for now, I will welcome the colder conditions.
