A change of heart!

A week ago I found myself fishing a small LO tributary that has been very kind to me this fall. In fact it has probably produced more big brown trout in the past few weeks than it did in just the past few years. The reason is simple....water!

We haven't had any big rain event where we see an inch of rain or so at one time, but just enough here and there to keep this particular stream a good 4 to 6 inches above what I have seen in the past 4 or 5 years. And because of that fact, we are seeing large numbers of brown trout make their way upstream. And last Friday I was able to capitalize on the current state of affairs, landing 5 trout in a few hours. And better yet...I was able to enjoy it with some friends, who also caught a bunch of trout.

This week I made it back to that same stream hoping to find conditions in much the same manner as I left them last Friday. But in the back of my mind I had a sneaky suspicion that I was in for change. And that change came in the form of an excess of water, both from mother nature and man.

Every year at this time many of the streams that empty into Lake Ontario along the Western part of the state get a boost of water from the Erie canal. The draining of the canal has been in the past, a way to get a fresh push of fish during low water periods. And in those years, we eagerly await this event because it greatly improves the fishing. This year however, we received plenty of rain to go along with the Erie canal water, and on Wednesday the stream was the color of chocolate milk.

So...yesterday Ethan and I made our way to a small inland trout stream. And I'm glad we did! And to be honest, I missed fishing it's crystal clear spring water that is filled with wild trout. It's a much different game than the one we play with tributary fish. It's a light line and small flies king of game. The fish are a bit smaller too, with the average trout being somewhere in the 10-12" inch range, and not the 6-8 lb. average of the typical tributary brown. But there is something special about fishing to these fish that draws me back to this stream, even in the midst of an incredible fall tributary season. I could have gone to another tributary yesterday that is a tail water and doesn't suffer the same as the smaller tribs, but I didn't. Maybe the reason I headed inland was for the chance to get a wild 15" or 16" inch brown on something smaller than a size #10 egg pattern. Or maybe it was just that I was lazy and didn't want to drive the extra 20 minutes to get connected with a monster. Either way, I was more than happy to be spending my time casting my 4 weight to a smaller foe.