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!

2016 Fly Fisher’s Workshop

In just a few weeks the Brighton’s Twelve Corners Middle School will open its doors to the 2016 Fly Fisher’s Workshop.

This amazing event, that is put together bi-annually by Craig Dennison, will provide area fly anglers, from novice to expert, a place to come together to teach and share their knowledge with others who are interested in getting started in fly fishing and/or looking to become more knowledgeable in certain aspects of the sport.

Doors open at 8:45am, with seminars and demos going from 9am-5:30pm.

Admission is $10 per adult with youth 14 and under free, so make sure to bring the whole family.

For more information on this year’s event, head on over to the Fly Fishing Chronicles website and look over the list of vendors, seminars, classes and door prizes that will be available.

See you there!

Fishing with the kids in the New Year

Katie with her first ever fly caught lake run brown trout.

It had been a while since I had the opportunity to take all three kiddos out fishing, so my expectations for a tangle free, stay warm, don’t fall in fun fishing day where admittedly a little on the low side.

And just to make things even more interesting - We would also be joined by my Father in-law, brother in-law and his son to make up a rather large fishing party, at least for the stream we were fishing.

Jonathan hooked up with 3 large trout, landing one - this nice male.

The kids and I stuck to fly fishing while the In-laws used their spinning gear.

Over the next few hours we all took turns fishing a few different locations. Some of us spent time fishing a couple of nice pools while others took to walking the banks for likely holding spots. And in between taking turns fishing, the kids played in the woods just behind us, built forts, and set adrift a good sized branch or two.

Katie gets ready to release my first catch of the day

Those who fished flies did the best on this day. The kids and I dead drifted woolly buggers under and indicator and hooked seven fish with another hook-up coming via an egg pattern. And even though we tried fishing a swung streamer, no fish wanted to move that much for a meal, so it wasn’t all that surprising that the spin fishing crew couldn’t get anything going with the lures they fished. I think we may have a couple of new fly fishing enthusiasts on our hands.

Both Katie and Jonathan hooked and landed their very first lake run trout, and at the end of the afternoon we put five fish in the net and all of them were brown trout.

Ethan and Katie found a little time to build a streamside shelter

If we continue to have a milder than average winter, we just might be able to find open water to fish right through till spring.

Ethan pulls hard on a nice lake run brown trout

Getting ready to release Ethan's fish

One last fish

All fish were released

Have a great new year!