The Salmon are Here!!!!

Yes they are here...the Salmon are here!

I stopped off at Sandy creek this morning after dropping Ethan off at pre-school. My hopes were high and my expectations low. A great combination that would help me feel better about myself if I couldn't find any fish. After all, it was early in the season. Right?

And to make things appear even brighter(although it was very dark and raining cats and dogs) was the fact that there were already two cars parked at the pull off. My brain was now jumping all over the place. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Does it mean that there are fish in the stream? Do I pull out the 6 weight or the 8 weight?(I chose the 6 weight) Will I find salmon or maybe a trout or two? Is there enough water for the fish to make it upstream? Well, you get the idea. I'm absurd when it comes to stuff like this.

Anyway I made it to the creek to see the water was in great shape. Plenty of it and clear. Great for salmon migrations and sight fishing.

I stopped for a minute to talk with an older fly fisherman. He had said that he didn't catch anything but he did see a few fish move upstream. He was leaving for the day so I felt good about my chances of hooking up with my first Chinook salmon of the 2009 fall season.

A short walk upstream proved to be a good choice as I found two nice salmon sitting at the head of a run. I put on a #6 brown woolly bugger and worked my way just upstream from the fish. I began casting to the fish in hopes that my fly would swing right in front of them triggering a strike. But on one of those drifts my line stopped moving and I picked up to find a fish on the end. Fish on! This fish gave me one amazing fight. Big runs, head shakes and plenty of brute strength. Just what you're looking for in a salmon. Ten minutes passed before I had my hand around it's tail. First fish landed! I took a few photos and released the male back into the creek to continue his journey.

I spent the next forty five minutes looking for more fish. I found some here and there. And even landed one more fish before it was all said and done. A very nice fresh female Chinook salmon. She took a #6 pink woolly bugger and spent more time thrashing around than running.

All in all a fantastic morning. Better than I had hoped. And I can now say that I landed a 20lb. king salmon on my 6 weight fly rod. Not once...but twice!!! The eight weight would have been a much better choice. And next time I will use it.

Get out there and catch some salmon!!!!!

Fall fishing on the Oatka

This past week and a half I have been making the short drive to Oatka creek to try and catch a trout on my new 7' Beaver meadow 2 weight fly rod. And up until this Wednesday I was batting a big fat zero! My problem has been trying to get into a good spot to fish. And up until this past Wednesday the parking area has been full of cars with fellow fly fisherman trying desperately to take advantage of an ever dwindling morning trico hatch. This has left me trying to find my own piece of water to fish where there is trout and no fly fishermen. It has been a difficult task to say the least.

Okay.....Wednesday morning I dropped Ethan off at pre-school and drove to the Oatka hoping and praying that I would be the only one that decided to fish that morning. And to my delight, I was! I quickly got my gear ready and slipped on my waders. I then jogged my way up to the "honey hole" Yes I jogged. I would have run, but it is very difficult to do wearing waders, a pack, net and rod. So I jogged.

I came in below the "honey hole" and worked my way across the stream and up to the spot I had been waiting weeks to fish. Tying up my nymph and indicator proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Especially when I can clearly see at least 30-40 fish holding in the pool. Some of the trout looked really big too! I pulled out a bunch of line and began casting and drifting right in the middle of all those fish. It took maybe 6 drifts with a #16 blood worm pattern, and I was into my first fish on my new 2 weight. The fish went airborne several times before I got it into the net. And after a short onshore battle, I unhooked it and let it go. Okay....now I could take a deep breath. The pressure was off. I could just concentrate on getting into some bigger fish. But, after hooking several more fish and landed none of them, I realized that it was not going to be that easy. I did land one more trout before I had to leave, but I had landed only 2 out of the 6 fish I hooked. That is the way it goes. It is fishing after all....not catching.

Thursday - Ethan wanted to go fishing with dad, so headed back to the honey hole. This time I brought my 4 weight in the hope that it would solve my poor landing record. I was thinking that I heavier and longer rod would help eliminate some of that, but it didn't. I came to the conclusion that it was not the equipment that was the problem, it was the fly fisherman.

The fishing was pretty good. Not great, but good. We caught 2 trout out of about 6 or 7 we hooked in 2 hours of fishing. Some of the trout were pretty good sized, but after a few big head shakes they were gone. Ethan proved to be a very good "net man" as he helped me land the first fish of the morning and the last. All fish took a #16 blood worm pattern and a #18 gray scud. Ethan also scrapped the bottom of the stream with the net looking for bugs. We found many scuds, small water beetles, and an isonychia nymph. We had a great time together.

The tributary season is here!! Orleans Outdoor has been posting daily reports on the Oak. Today he reported a good number of fish up by the dam. Sandy will have fish soon. Hopefully I will be able to report on that next week!!

Family Trip to Inlet, NY

In years past we have had the wonderful opportunity to get up to visit my parents at their camp on Fourth Lake in Inlet, NY. This year however was a little different. Instead of our regular mid- summer visit, we had to settle for this past Thursday (September 3rd.) And when I say settle, I don't mean it in a bad way at all. I Just mean that we were not able to be there when many of our other family members were there. So we had to settle for the next best thing! Plus it was great to visit with my Dad for the weekend.

Anyway - the ride up was great! We saw plenty of wildlife that included deer, turkey, a pair of bald eagles and a coyote. In fact I was beginning to believe that we would see a bear at any moment. But that didn't happen till the end of our stay.

The fishing was good and everyone that wanted to catch fish, caught fish. I played the role of guide for most of our stay. I put worms on hooks, took fish off of hooks, released fish back into the water, and gave some great advice, like "Make sure you look behind you before you cast." We all caught our share of perch, rock bass, smallmouth and largemouth bass, and sunfish.

We did other things too of course. We took walks into the town of Inlet to get donuts and bread one morning. Ice cream the next evening. We swam at the beach almost every day. We took a hike into Ferd's Bog. And we took the "barge" down to Old forge and back. I even got to explore a small stream for small wild brook trout and landlocked salmon. But that turned out to be more of a bush whacking adventure than a fishing adventure. But I did get to fish my new 2 weight Beaver Meadow fly rod. And it performed great!! I can't wait to get a nice Oatka brown on it.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that happened on our trip, happened on Saturday evening. We had put Katie and Ethan in bed and were making our way out to the dock to fish. On our way out, I heard some noise in the tree that is maybe 10 feet or so from the front doors of the camp that look out to the lake. In fact we pretty much walked right under the tree when we made our way out to the dock. After we got out to the dock and began to fish I heard some more noise and saw lots of shaking branches. My dad, who was still inside the camp with Jake, opened the doors that looked out to where we were fishing and loudly stated that there was a bear in the tree! A bear? What a relief....I thought it was an extremely large squirrel ready to lunge in a desperate attempt to kill us with his large nut cracking teeth. At that point the bear made some more noise and shook more branches. Apparently the bear did not like the idea of being caught between us and my dad and Jake. My dad then asked what we were going to do. I said we were going to stay right where we were. I'm not one for making a run for it and giving the bear the idea that I might be it's prey trying to flee. Besides, the bear was the one in the tree. He was more afraid of us, than we were of him. At least that is all I could come up with at that point. Meanwhile my dad was now outside standing almost direclty under the tree with Jake in hand looking up at the bear. At this point I was thinking that I might end up on the evening news having the dreaded task of telling the viewing audience what went wrong in a seemingly harmless situation. But the bear just made a low menacing hissing noise. The very kind of noise you would think a wild animal would make when it's trapped or really really mad. At this point I had my dad go get a flash light for us. Hey, we needed light and my dad was obviously feeling brave. After the flash light delivery my dad and Jake made it safely back into camp. They stayed there for a little while(possibly thinking up more stunts to pull) and it was at this point that I heard a scrapping sound on the tree. It was the sound of the bear coming down out of the tree. Colleen was near by and saw the bear start to move on it's way. My dad, who obviously wanted to let the bear know who was boss, yelled "hey bear!" It's my guess that that's what you say to a bear if he isn't going fast enough. Again, for brief second, I saw my self sitting in a chair talking to Diane sawyer or Charles gibbson or whoever does those morning TV spots. It was a good thing that the bear had better things to do! I really didn't want to have to come up with an explanation for this. I mean what would I say?

That's pretty much it. We left the next morning having had a good time and our limbs still intact.
Now it's time for school and those sorts of things. And hopefully soon a run of salmon and trout!

Late August is Crazy!!!!

August has been a great month! A bit on the crazy side, but great none the less. In fact it has put off my usual blogging until now. So I will try my best to combine several weeks of info into one blog.

Here it goes - Almost two weeks ago now, Luke spent some time fishing Spring creek and Oatka creek. And has been joined on various occasions by the likes of James, Jessie and a new friend Ian. They have, like pretty much every other time, put a pretty good beat down on the fish. But it has been Luke who has set the bar high. On one of these outings he landed many brown trout in the 15" to 16" range and a rare 19" fish that took him nearly an hour to hook up with. And then 10 minutes to land. And this all happened in one day! A high bar indeed!

Last week I had the opportunity to get out with my boys for some warm water fishing on black creek for a little while. And the fishing was pretty good. At least it was for us. We caught a bunch of smallmouth bass on conehead streamers and woolly buggers with white and chartreuse being the hot flies. Jonathan even managed to catch the only largemouth bass of the day all by himself. There were others fishing, but they only managed a few sunfish. Like I said "the fishing was pretty good"

Late last week on Thursday I had the opportunity to fish solo. I sent the "fish" signal out to all prospective parties. And as it turned out only Bob could answer the call on this day. The plan was to meet early. A little after 6:00 am at the cow bridge. Upon my arrival I saw two other cars parked at the pull off. Neither of them were Bob's! Was this going to be a crowded morning? And in the middle of the week? What's up with that!?!?!? I knew that the tricos were still around but I didn't know that they still had a following. I was a little disappointed. But that didn't last because I knew that it was a blessing just to be out fishing by myself and a friend. And that just doesn't happen all that often any more.
I took my time getting my gear together and slowly walked down to the creek. While I waited for Bob at the bridge, I took some time to look around and take some photos. At around 7:00 Bob came down and we headed off downstream to a spot I call the "block pool." The block pool is a nice deep pool about 20 feet in length or so with a large cement block rising out of the water on the north side of the creek. It is also a pool that has been good to me in the past. In fact my best wild trout to date came from this spot, a 17" male that gave me a great fight on a 6 weight.

Today would be different. Today we would be fishing mostly nymphs. And our morning of fishing started like the temperature.....cold! And just as we were starting to get into our rhythm a guy appeared on the opposite side of the stream. At first I didn't even notice him. But when he yelled across at us explaining that we were standing in one of the best runs for the trico hatch, I could do nothing but stare in horror. And I'm pretty sure Bob had the same idea because he just stared at the guy too! He continued his unwelcome banter as Bob and I did our best to ignore him. It was clear he wanted "his" spot. He could have gotten up earlier, but he didn't. And we were not ready to give it to him. Not when both of us have little opportunity to fish alone or together for that matter. Even Bob mentioned to him at one point "I bet you would like to fish here?" Which for a second rendered the poor fellow speechless. A few minutes later the guy realized that all his talking was not going to move us, so he moved. But not far!

We then had to find our focus again. And after numerous fly changes and little adjustments, my first fish of the morning came in. It was fooled by a #22 brown midge larvae fished on the bottom. The next 45 minutes to an hour brought more fish to hand, including a nice brown trout of about 15" and a bigger fish that pulled free after just a few seconds. Fishing was now good. And you would think that I would be happy with the outcome so far. Well you would be sort of right. I was happy that we had now caught fish but I wanted to try and fish the "honey hole." So what did I do? I moved. And in doing that I broke one of the rules of fly fishing - Don't leave fish to find fish. And I can honestly say that It didn't turn out all bad. At least from a learning standpoint. Our "honey hole" turned out to be occupied. And it's occupant was fishing to trout that were now rising to trico spinners. All was not lost. While we were in the vicinity for the remainder of the hour we had to fish, we saw him catch a good 4 or 5 trout. And we ourselves were able to cast small dry flies to some of our own trout just below him. I even had a few takers to make it interesting. But I couldn't seal the deal.
In hind sight we should have gone to spring creek. But the lure of the Oatka was too strong for me. It is, after all, my favorite Western New York inland trout stream. Plus each time I step foot into it's water with fly rod in hand, I learn something new. And that is a good thing!

To finish the month off and this blog. I would like to congratulate my sister and her husband on their brand spanking new baby girls. Two very healthy twins that weigh as much as an average Lake Ontario tributary brown trout. Congratulations guys!!!

It's been a while!

Like the title of this blog says, "it's been a while!" At least that is the how it feels. And I mean since I last wet my toes in the cool water of one of my all time favorite streams.....the Oatka! And this time I was joined by my oldest son Jonathan. And that made the morning even better!

I had made the decision to fish the Oatka that morning. There were thunderstorms and heavy rain last week that had blown out the creek and the water gage was reading at over 3.2 the previous night. But that morning when I saw that the flow rate was at 2.0 and the gage was now reading 3.0, I had to give it a try.

As we arrived at the parking spot I saw that we were the third car in line. There was an older fly fishing guy getting his gear ready. And for a moment I thought we might not get our spot. But that fear was put to rest when we made it up to the "honey hole" and saw that no one was around. I rigged one rod with a woolly bugger and the other a san juan worm. We began tossing our flies into the water, and after a while of nothing, we changed flies. More casting and more of nothing. The older fly fisherman we saw at the parking spot had now worked his way up from somewhere way downstream, to fish right below us in the flat water. He seemed to be casting dry flies to places he thought would hold fish. But like us, he did not hook a single fish. And after a while longer he left.

Jonathan and I continued to fish. Actually I fished, he played in shallow water and had some snacks. We saw two other fly fisherman come and go that morning. Neither of them caught anything. They were looking to fish the trico hatch. A hatch in which many serious fly fisherman enjoy because you can catch weary trout on small dry flies. The only problem with that is you can't catch those weary trout on top when there aren't many bugs around.

We stuck with our game plan to fish nymphs deep. But it wasn't until I tied on a #16 flash back pheasant tail nymph, did the fishing change. And after a few adjustments, the indicator finally dipped. And when I set the hook, something pulled back. A trout!!! Finally. I quickly handed the rod to Jonathan, and he carefully played and landed our first and only Oatka brown trout of the morning. I took a few photos and then Jonathan revived the trout and let it swim away. I was proud of him. He stuck it out with dad and spent the extra time to make sure that fish was ready to swim away.

Our morning came to what seemed like an early end. But not before I hooked one more fish that got off before I could even see it. We left feeling good that we had caught a trout, and had done it together!

See you guys on the water!

Irondequoit creek revisited

Okay so this will be a shorter blog than my usual lengthy rant.

I came across the opportunity to fish Irondequoit creek at Linear Park again last week for about an hour. It was in the afternoon. And fortunately for me the fish responded well to a #12 stimulator in summer flow conditions. And to be completely honest, I don't think it mattered what I had on, as long as it floated!

My first cast was.....well it wasn't really a cast. I pretty much stripped out some line and dropped the fly in the water. And as the fly floated downstream in a good moving riffle, I fed line through the guides. And to my surprise, a small trout came to the surface and crashed the fly. Of course I missed the fish. But on the next pass, when my fly got ambushed again, I was fast on the trigger and I landed the first fish of the afternoon. A small rainbow trout.

I then positioned myself below the run and began casting upstream to every fishy looking place I could get to. And almost every little spot held a rainbow that couldn't resist the stimulator.

This went on for a little while until I exhausted the fish at this section of Irondequoit. So I moved upstream picking away at the fish as I went. Soon I was at a place called the "bend pool." This place is a favorite for all fisherman during the fall and spring for lake run trout and salmon. But today it was occupied by a few swimmers.

Just above the pool is a section of faster water that will often hold fish depending on water conditions. Today it looked good. But after picking it apart, and having no fish to show for it, I moved on. At the head of this run on the opposite side of the stream there was a small piece of pocket water that looked good. My first cast brought a splashy rise and a missed fish. My second cast brought a nice brown trout to hand.

The only other trout I saw in the last 10 minutes I had on the stream was a dead brown trout of at least 16". It was a little sad to see such a wonderful fish wasted. But it is apart of fishing. Sometimes we forget how fragile our natural resources can be.

On a positive note - The fall salmon, steelhead and brown trout season will be hear soon!

Lessons learned; Black creek

A lot of times as a fly fisherman I have to check myself at the door. And by that I mean, I can't get to comfortable with what I'm doing every time I go fishing. I enjoy the challenge of not knowing what is going on with the fish all the time. Solving puzzles is a lot of fun. But I sometimes will fall back on what I know or am comfortable with. I usually catch fish. And sometimes I have great fish catching days. But that does not always translate into me becoming a better fly fisherman.

Have you ever started to feel like you were getting to know a place, and then have something happen to totally reverse that feeling? And I'm not talking about a good feeling turned bad, or the feeling that that you missed out on something. I'm talking about a feeling of revelation!!

This past Friday I took my two boys to Black creek for a little fly fishing. It was a good morning, as we all caught fish. But what made it even better was the shared insight of a passionate seasoned angler who spends all his time fishing Black creek. He is not a fly fisherman. But a fisherman none the less. And he was not one of these "old timers" who now spend their retirement fishing every day either. No! He was a young man in his teens. And his passion and knowledge reminded me of what fishing was like to me at that age. And for that matter, still is today!

He walked around with a seine scrapping the bottom of the stream trying to get some live crayfish to use as bait. He then would put them in an empty coffee cup, and when he had enough, he would start fishing.

We had seen him before, and he recognized us right away. We watched him work as we fished. And soon he was joining the fishing just below the spillway on the opposite side of where we were fishing. We talked back and forth. And he shared with us some fantastic stories of fish caught and lost that would make any ones eyes light up. Stories of giant fish that he had caught right where we were fishing. He told us of walleye that he was catching recently along with some big pike(up to 38" long.) He also told us of a few big 20" smallmouth that he seems to catch every day. He even shared a story of a really nice sized trout that he caught in the spring below the dam. And this is supposed to be a warm water fishery! And finally, the icing on the cake, was a story of an almost unimaginable small child eating 52" beast of a northern pike. Sorry, I had to embellish the "small child eating" part. Anyone who has seen a pike that big will surely tell you that they would not want to swim in water where a fish like that lurked. He had said the big 52" northern took a large creek chub that he was using for bait. And he then told me that he had caught the creek chubs in his seine in another part of the same creek. If even half of his stories are true....it is still an impressive resume'.

This is someone who has made a study out of Black creek and has come to know it well. His use of every bit of knowledge that he has gained was impressive. His enthusiasm and passion for fishing Black creek made me realize how much more I needed to learn about this great place. I am now thinking about how to tie flies to meet the requirements for catching a large northern pike. I am also in process of tying some crayfish patterns for some big bass.

It was a great experience for me. And when I got home I came to the understanding that I was learning from this young man. Usually I focus on fly fishing and how I can learn from my friends who I get to fish with from time to time. But this time I was able to gain insight from a "non-fly fisherman" who had a lot more knowledge about Black creek than me.

When I was a young fly fisherman there were many times when I was able to watch and learn from more experienced guys. And every now and then there would be this one guy who seemed to have it all figured out. He would catch the biggest and the most. He seemed to have the right fly at the right time. He knew where the fish were and how to get the right drift every time. He knew the stream and the fish that lived there so intimately that he was always a couple of steps ahead of everyone else. This is where I wanted to be as a fly fisherman. And to some extent...I still do! I have worked hard to learn from those guys and on my own to try and get there. I know I'm not there yet. But I am always trying to learn more and become the best fly fisherman that I can be. Sharing my passion with others who are equally passionate will only help. And this past Friday the tables were turned and I was able to learn from a younger guy who didn't fly fish.

So I'm sending a special thanks to all of you who have shared the passion with me and with whom I have learned a great deal from. You know who you are!!!!! You are all a blessing....keep it real. Or is that reel? Ha

See you on the stream!