In search of Lake Runs - Part II

I know its June, but I am going to go back to last month to share a bit from a great day on the water with my oldest son and my daughter.

Jonathan's May Steelhead

It was May 6^th and we were in search of one last drop back steelhead.

Even though it had started to warm up a bit, the water was still quite cold and starting to drop and clear. Just about as close to perfect conditions as you can get for this time of year.

Jon's 1st smallmouth bass

We decided to walk a ways downstream first, and then walk and fish our way back up to the bridge where we came in.

Our first stop was a good sized pool with a great fall down at the top and some great ledges for the fish to hide by in the middle and tail-out.

Jonathan took position at the top and Katie at the middle.

Katie's 19" smallmouth

In that first half an hour. Jonathan managed a beautiful drop back hen steelhead, and a nice sized smallmouth bass. Katie got a good pull, but was never able to connect. When we felt as though we caught what we could, we moved on.

Our next location proved to be more of the same, giving up a few fine fish and then turning off. The pool gave up a rather large nineteen inch smallmouth to Katie, while Jonathan landed a very respectable rock bass. I hooked a large smallmouth in the tail-out, but couldn’t seal the deal.

Our last couple of hours we worked our way back up to the bridge, hitting all the major pools and deep pockets and runs. We each managed some very nice fish, but Katie’s twenty inch smallmouth bass was the fish of the afternoon.

All fish where caught on woolly buggers in olive and brown, and craft hair streamer patterns.

Katie's 20" smallmouth.

Even I managed to land at least one.

I managed to take some great photos and video. I’ll post the photos and try to get the video up when I can…..Enjoy!

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!

WNY Spring Tributary Season

Drop Back brown in the Stream Walker net

Spring seems to have arrived a little early this year. Warmer than average temperatures have cleared up all the ice and started to warm up the water in all of our WNY tributaries. Add in a good steady stream of precipitation, and you have the perfect ingredients to help draw in plenty of fresh steelhead from the big lake.

And if you just happen to be in the right place at the right time you can intercept both the newly arriving steehead and the drop back brown trout that have wintered over in many of the area tributaries. In fact, just after ice out is probably one of the best opportunities you will have to get into good numbers of brown trout. 

White woolly bugger did the trick - Photo by Tony Horton

Male steelhead in spawning colors

As temperatures start to climb a good bit above the freezing mark, thus warming the water, and all the spring run-off has run off, the brown trout numbers will continue to diminish as they drop back into the lake. By the end of April they are all but gone, with the steelhead soon to follow.

Ice out drop back brown

Maybe the weather pattern will revert back to what is normal for WNY, with cold and snow, and prolong our spring tributary season. But I’m not holding my breath.

So get out there and enjoy….I’ll see you on the stream!