 |
| Ethan's first fish of the fall |
Reports of a big push of fish have been nonexistent to this
point. It seems to be a slow and methodical march for the Salmon that have been
slowly making their way upstream in many of our WNY tributaries, with a few
trout following close behind.
A good, steady, 3 day rain would certainly help, but until
then we must contend with low and clear water. Each year is different,
and I have every bit of confidence that by late fall there will be plenty of
fish around.
 |
| Ethan doing battle with the mighty Chinook |
Even with these less than stellar fishing reports, the
streams are filled with eager anglers looking to hook into a trophy salmon,
brown trout or steelhead, so it has been hard to find a spot that hasn’t been
already run through. So when we arrived at our fishing destination and found
only a few cars at the pull off, I was very optimistic.
We spent the first twenty minutes slowly walking the bank,
heading downstream looking for the huge dark finned shapes of lake run Chinook
salmon that we have come to know throughout the years of fishing this stream.
Even a hint of white from the mouth of a trout would be a welcome sight….nothing.
 |
| Released! |
We finally settled into a nice pool where I set Ethan up
with a woolly bugger under an indicator. While he began fishing I went back to
the bank and started to set up my switch rod. I had just gotten finished with
getting all the line through the guides and started to get a new length of
tippet ready when Ethan yelled out “Dad I got a fish!” I looked over to see his
rod bent down to the cork with the line and indicator rapidly traveling
upstream. He held tight, only letting line out when the fish went on a run up
or downstream. Soon the fish began to tire and Ethan could bring it closer to
shore where we could see he had hooked a large male Chinook salmon. I grabbed
the net and headed just downstream from him and waited until the fish made for
the shallow water. A quick scoop and a tight grip on the tail was all I needed
to do to help Ethan land our first and only fish of the afternoon.
 |
| Ethan gives our fishing trip 2 thumbs up |
After a short break we were back at it, but no other fish
found the bottom of our net. And even a long walk downstream didn’t do much to
change our situation. We only spotted three other fish and none of them were
willing to even look at our flies.
That’s fishing on the tributaries for you. Some days you
catch a run of fish and some days you don’t.
I had a blast either way.
Watching my youngest son cast,
hook, fight and land such a giant is
something I will always remember.
