Good WNY tributary fishing continues!

The first of the day.

Our WNY tributaries continue to provide excellent fly fishing for trophy lake run trout.

As of now the salmon are all but gone! They finished their job a week or so after Sandy pushed through. Their dead decaying bodies litter the shallows and the bank, adding nutrients back onto the system for the betterment of future generations.

A nicely colored male with the fly of the day

Even a few of these rainbow/steelhead made an appearance

In fact, Sandy’s after effects provided some way better than average fishing for me. When the water is high and stained, the fish move and become very active, especially before the cold sets in. And I had the fortune of hitting it at the right time. Fishing was out of this world! I spent a little over two hours fishing a local small tributary, hooking up a dozen times and landing seven – all trout!

High water = Great fishing!

My technique for that day was dead drifting egg patterns, but with a little twist! I had no indicator with me on this day, so I had to resort to an alternative style of fishing. My goal was to keep a tight line at all times but also try to get a natural drift. What I came up with was as simple as it gets. In fact it is what I used to do as a kid when fishing with worms on my local trout stream. All I did was put a medium sized split shot a foot above the egg pattern, cast slightly downstream and allow the egg to drift with my rod guiding it down and across. Kind of like a dead drift/swing combo!

With the tight line I could feel the fish pick up the fly more than half the time, and on two occasions, I had the pleasure of the fish pull the fly just as you would have them do when swinging streamers.

This was a great change from the low water stalk that I have had to employ for much of the fall, and better yet, the fish responded well. But like any high water period during the spawn, this is what you should expect. Plenty of eggs getting washed into the system will always put the fish in the mood for eggs.

Sometimes...keeping it simple is best!

WNY tributary fishing is in full swing!

A colored up male Chinook salmon that took a brown bead head woolly bugger on the swing.

The fall fishing in WNY is in full swing with plenty of fish in all the area tributaries.

A 39 inch female Chinook getting ready for release.

Salmon are now at the end of their spawn and soon the big lake run brown trout will begin theirs. Most of the areas larger tributaries have had decent numbers of trout in and around all the salmon, while the smaller tribs have now seen good pushes of trout for the past two weeks. Most of these are brown trout, with a few steelhead and lake run rainbows mixed in. As the end of the fall approaches we will see more and more steelhead and rainbows push in before the cold of winter takes hold.

A big 28 inch male lake run brown trout - Taken on an egg pattern.

This gorgeous 22 inch male brown also took an egg pattern.

At this time there is a very good to excellent egg bite going on, and that will continue with the brown trout spawn coming into full swing in a week or two. As the spawn settles down by mid-November the fish will begin to switch over to nymphs and dead drifted/swung streamers. But with any high water period the egg bite will most likely be back on in high gear as eggs get dislodged from their reds.

The female brown trout will be the first to drop back of their reds and look to feed, often with great ferociousness as they look to quickly add back the weight they lost during the spawn. Here is the time to really put forth the effort in swinging big flies. It may not be a numbers game, but it will be a welcome change from dead drifting eggs for most of the fall. And depending on the day you could also get a late running Coho, steelhead or Atlantic while swinging.

Yet another large lake run brown taken on.....you guessed it! An egg pattern.

As the cold really starts to settle into WNY in late November and December, the fish will begin to drop back into pools and deep holes to ready themselves for the winter. It is at this time that we need to really start to think about slowing our presentation down to a crawl. Again dead drifting flies becomes an important and productive way to take fish. But with the right set up, it is still possible to take fish while swinging. A heavy sink tip with short leader in slower pools can be a very effective way to take fish. The only problem will be to control the speed of the swing. If it is too fast the fish won’t pick it up. You want to have it crawl along the bottom. The take can be very subtle. Sometimes it is just as simple as your line stopping in mid-drift.

I have only had a few opportunities to get out this fall so far, and the fishing has been excellent. I hope that November will be present me with a little more fishing time here and there....maybe I’ll get the chance at my first steelhead of the season?

Enjoy the fall and get out there and fish!

Fall Inland brown trout on the fly

Michael Simmons with his inland beauty

Fall fishing for inland trout is one of my favorite kinds of fly fishing to do. One; the stream is almost void of people. And two; the fishing can be outstanding. The only bad part of fall fishing the inland trout streams is that little voice in the back of your head telling you that you need to get out to a Lake Ontario tributary in search of the first salmon of the fall. But experience tells me that adventure is still a little bit down the road.

So…….

Last week on Monday, Michael Simmons of Guys, Flies &Pies and I hit up an inland trout stream for a last ditch effort to convince some of the local brown trout to eat some flies before the lake fish in our neck of the woods make a run for it.

We arrived at location X to witness several trout feeding on trico spinners. A few delicate casts with the JP Ross Beaver Meadow two weight lined with 6X tippet and a #22 black trico spinner pattern promptly put those fish down. But all was not lost as we witnessed a good number of fish sitting near the bottom of a very nicely shaded pool….time to switch it up!

The fish in the pool were now our target and we went at them for a while with various nymphs trying to get the precision drift necessary to get them to eat. But when you have fish stacked on top and next to each other it is more difficult than one might imagine.

We each managed a few really nice trout, with Mike getting the big fish of the day. In fact he boasts that it is probably one of the biggest inland trout he has caught to date! And it was a gorgeous inland wild brown of almost 15” inches.

Enjoy the photos of some of WNY’s finest wild brown trout!

Note: With all the cool and wet weather we have had lately, it won’t be long until we have our first good run of lake run salmon and trout in WNY. I will try and get out and find time to get accurate reports when this happens.

Tight lines!

Midnight Mousin'

The ride down to one of my favorite inland trout streams at dusk

Last month I had the pleasure of fishing with several friends in what will hopefully become an annual event – Midnight Mousing!

I have talked about doing this kind of fishing for years. I was curious to see if we would have a chance at a truly large fish in a small stream setting. But it wasn’t until last year that I finally made the commitment to just do it! And of course it was good. In fact surprisingly good. In weeks prior to my trip, my friend Lucas Carroll had provided me with a few good stories from his recent outings that made it sound almost unbelievable. But a first-hand experience made me a believer in how good it can be. In fact last year I was able to land quite a few trout with the largest being about sixteen inches – Not bad for a small stream.

The first of many that came to hand via the mouse

I am happy to say that this year’s fishing lived up to the high bar set by that August of just last year. In fact both of my fly fishing friends who joined me this year can also attest to the successes that can be found while tossing flies in the darkness. Both Bob Burrows and Jessie Hollenbeck of Wide Sky Fly Fishing had plenty of action with many fish landed between the two of them.

We had about one fish landed to every four or five strikes, slashes, boils and pulls. And we ended up landing a good dozen fish. That’s a lot of activity! Even though the ratio between fish landed to fish felt/hooked wasn’t all that great, you have to remember that you can barely see what’s going on, even right in front of you. So for me, it was a success!

A little better fish

The key for a better catch rate for me has been to wait until you feel the fish pull the fly. You may hear splashes and even see a glimmer of a boil or splash, but that doesn’t mean the fish has taken the fly. It is far better to let the fly sit and drift in the current and wait for the fish to come back and eat the fly, than to try and set the hook on anything and everything you see or hear. Being patient and waiting for that pull, has made all the difference in the world.

Bob fools one with a muddler

Jessie holds on of a few fine small stream wild brown trout that he brought to hand for the night

A little bit bigger fish that fell for a big old streamer

We didn’t get into any really big fish this year, but I am confident that in years to come we will be able to find a few fish between sixteen and twenty inches. It is going to take a lot of work and experimentation to find what will work the best, but I’m up to the task!

Bassin' with the kids

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go fishing with my kids. All three were super excited to go and couldn’t wait to get a line in the water. And who can blame them….they love it!!!!

We decided on a different piece of water on this adventure. Sure, we got into trout on the last trip, and even a few nice ones for a small stream, but you gotta change it up from time to time. And this time….we headed to Black Creek!

The fishing…fishin’ was easy and I had way too much fun watching the kids haul in fish after fish. Smallmouth, largemouth, bluegill, pumpkinseed and rock bass – they all made an appearance. And they all came to hand from professional youth fly anglers. And I say professional because that’s what they were. They cast the fly,made the fly do things that made the fish want the fly, hooked the fish, landed the fish, and even unhooked a few fish all by themselves. Who needs dad? Well I did unhook a few and take some photos….so I guess that’s something!

All in all many fish were landed and the kids had tons of fun, which by the way is what is supposed to happen when you take kids fishing.

So here are a few photos from our expedition….enjoy!

Next up…a story on midnight mousing!

Tricos on Oatka

Tricos are going strong right now.

Fishing early with all this heat will prove to be a wise decision until it starts to cool off a bit. Right now the fish are starting just at sunrise, taking the many duns that are coming off. Then at some point, only known to them, the trout will change to spinners. And for now, that will end about 9:00-9:30am.

Remember this will be one of the best hatches of the year! Of course you will have to fish smaller flies - like a size #20-#24. But the rewards are so worth it. At times the fishing can be as crazy or more so than any early season hatch. So be ready and be willing to change and adjust often.

Start early in the morning with a dun or emerger pattern. I have had success with a female dun pattern in a size #20. Then as the morning wears on watch the fish. When the rise forms change then that means you need to change! It most likely will be to a spinner pattern.

If you have the chance to continue fishing after a major trico spinner fall....do it! The opportunity to adjust your learning curve will be rewarded with some fantastic fishing. Look for fish below the surface taking submerged spinners. Also look for fish taking small midge larvae and nymphs along the bottom. Just because fish stop feeding off the surface doesn't mean they stop feeding all together. Most of the time these fish will go back to their comfort zone and feed on anything that comes there way. These fish sit in spots that consistently funnel food to them, such as a current break or more often than not a cut in the stream bed or bottom of the stream. This can get very technical, as it may take many changes in weight, flies, and position to get the right drift. But when you find it, that drift may produce fish after fish. So stick with it!

I took the kids out last week for a little adventure and we all had fun taking some nice fish after the hatch.

Jonathan did very well for himself with two fish landed and several others hooked and lost. The rest of us had fun hooking a few and returning them back to their home after they were revived. It was a great morning!