Mid-November Fly Fishing

Jonathan gets ready to release a 29" inch male lake run brown trout.

As of writing this blog post, we still have snow on the ground from last week’s snow. In fact the whole month of November has been more like late December or early January. Colder than normal temperatures rule the day, and rain drops have been transformed into those light white fluffy flakes.

Ethan with his biggest brown of the fall

Even in the face of a lingering cold snap, the fishing has been really good. And that, In part, is due to the release of Erie Canal water into many of our WNY lake Ontario tributaries.

The extra bump in water has provided a continual push of fresh fish into all the streams. Lots of Lake Run brown trout, steelhead and even a few salmon are still making their way upstream. With the salmon spawn done, and the brown trout spawn fully under way with plenty of spawning and post-spawn fish now in the system, the “egg bite” is on!

We have had most of our success while dead drifting egg patterns in pockets, deeper runs and pools. And now that the many of the brown trout are coming off the spawn, swinging streamers have started to take their fair share of fish as well.

A nice big lake run male caught on the 10' 6 weight

Jessie Hollenbeck with a nice steelhead

Even I get to catch a few - Photo by Jonathan

As the season works its way into a winter pattern. Fishing will start to slow a bit, as the fish’s metabolism also slows. This will make the afternoon period better for fishing. Even a slight warming of the water by just a degree or two will often turn fish on to feed. Until then, enjoy fishing big streamers on the swing for some heart stopping action.

In Search of Spring Lake Runs

Ethan with his first spring steelhead

I finally made out on to the stream this spring.

 

With a busy family schedule and weather windows that didn’t match up with any free time, it’s been difficult to find the time to go, even for just an hour.

This week my two oldest children and my wife are helping out with Flower City Work Camp. So I took a few days off to spend some quality time with my youngest son. And Tuesday afternoon, after work, we made a quick run up to a local tributary to scout a few locations for the end of the week. We also brought our rods along and tried out a few spots.

In the net!

The water was in great shape, with a good medium flow (for spring,) with a bit of stain and about two feet of visibility.

The first two locations we stopped at, although they looked promising, didn’t give up any fish. We kept at it and our visit to a third location proved to be the difference maker.

We ended up hooking up with six fish and landing four. Two trout and two suckers. And all of them, save the first fish, were caught on a #6 chartreuse bead head olive woolly bugger dead drifted under an indicator.

Hopefully we can get out a few more times before the spring season is done and find a few more willing lake run trout.

Ethan took this photo of me and my drop back lake run brown trout

See you on the stream!

Fly Fishing for Lake Runs – Birthday Edition

A big post spawn female lake run brown trout

Once again I had the opportunity to get out for my birthday and share some water with a few friends.

Small but feisty lake run brown

Denver on the net for Matt

Bait

It was certainly a day to remember as a warming trend over the past few days put the lake run trout on the bite, with many, many Lake Run giants coming to the net.

Leif's huge hen lake run brown

Leif on the net for Ethan's lake run brown

Matt with the release

Jessie with a nice Kyped out male

Jessie tries to control a steelhead

Fish landed!

Denver, Matt and Leif started their morning at an upstream section of a favorite WNY tributary and enjoyed some fantastic streamer action, landing quite a few nice brown trout on the swing.

I started out fly fishing at a downstream location on some private water before everyone else showed up and quickly put two fish in the net, one of which was easily over the twelve pound mark. The other, a smaller post spawn female, took a lot longer than expected to find the net. In fact, many of the fish on this day would follow its example and put us and our gear to the test over, and over, and over again. 

Ethan with a nice female taken on the swing

Matt tries to make his 4 piece into a five....again!

Denver and Matt with a double

By late morning Jessie, Ethan and the rest of the upstream gang met up with me on the private section of water. We each continued to find our own fish, taking a break here and there to grab a cup of coffee, share some stories and catch up on the goings-on in each other’s lives. The only stop in the fishing came during lunch, when our gracious host Jim provided an amazing homemade venison stew. But, as good as the lunch was, the fishing had been better and we needed to get back on the water.

Jessie with a nice post spawn hen

Over the next few hours more and more fish came to the net. Mostly all brown trout, save one nice steelhead that Jessie landed to ruin the curve. And with his landing the only bit of chrome of the day, he maintains his perfect yearly “birthday” steelhead batting average. A tradition that I don’t think he’ll relinquish anytime in the near future.

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Colored up post spawn female

The fish were everywhere. The riffle sections, pools, pocket water, and slower tail-outs and slack water all held fish. The spawn had been done for a couple of weeks and with the warmer weather, they were on the search for food before the cold started to settle in.

Our fish on the day were on par for the average for lake run trout in any of the Lake Ontario tributaries, which is right around seven pounds and somewhere between twenty four to twenty six inches. Many of us were fortunate to land fish over ten pounds with a few in the low teens. Even then, I still managed to find a pod of lake runs here and there that held one or two fish that were easily pushing the twenty pound mark. A truly massive fish that never found the bottom of my net.

The end of my day finished just as it had started, with two more brown trout to the net. And that was it! I then said my good-byes, shook hands with the guys that were left, and spent the next twenty five minutes on the drive home replaying the day in my head.

My last fish of the day.

Kyped out male brown trout

When the catching is as good as the fishing, you try and hold on just a little bit longer to the memory of each fish. Hoping that they remain separate and don’t bleed together into one big mess. 

Thanks again Denver for sharing a birthday with me, and to the rest of the guys who did their best to drag themselves out there to celebrate with us!