Good water = Good fishing!

We have been blessed with enough water this fall to keep our Western New York tributaries flowing at near perfect conditions since the beginning of October. And now that we are into the middle of November much remains the same!

I can't tell you how important rain is to these wonderful great lake tributaries, and in years past it has been tough going because of low water. The fish just aren't there in big numbers when we don't have a good flow. Last year I would see just a few big trout holding in the same section that I would see a good 10-12 fish this year. Having a good water flow means that fish have more cover to hide in, they can move freely whenever they want, and will spread out throughout the whole system, which means we should have a great winter and spring of fly fishing ahead of us!

I am now seeing good numbers of lake run trout in most sections of all the tributaries, and have been able to take advantage of it from time to time. And it now seems as though the female brown trout are starting to show up in greater numbers, and should be paring up with males in the next few weeks to spawn. Try and concentrate on fishing the pools and deeper runs where you wouldn't see spawning fish - it is best to leave those fish alone, and allow them to do there business. The only exception to this would be fishing to steelhead and lake run rainbows that will station themselves behind the spawning trout and feed off the lose eggs.

All fish as of late have been caught on #10 sucker spawns, nuclear roe bugs, and a few other small egg like patterns.

In the next few weeks we should see a flow increase in all the are tribs regardless of whether we get rain or not. And that will be due to the draining of the Erie Canal. And when that happens, look for even more numbers of trout entering our local tribs....especially steelhead!