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| Jonathan works a long run with a big streamer |
A little more than a week ago I had the perfect opportunity to take my two boys out to do a little fly fishing at a local WNY tributary. The afternoon temperature was in the low sixties and the water levels, although still high and stained (about a foot of visibility), were on the drop. The fishing looked promising.
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| Ethan gets ready to release a nice drop back hen |
We ventured downstream to a location that is easy to wade and usually holds decent numbers of fish. The foot traffic was high so we passed on our first choice and found our second location vacant.
Each of us tried a variety of flies, starting with streamers. We swung them and dead drifted them for the first thirty to forty minutes, changing our spots every so often, and came up empty handed. A change to egg patterns produced the same results.....nothing!
After a few more casts, we decided to head back upstream and check to see if another pool would produce for us.
Over that last hour or so we managed to hook up with six fish, landing four of them - All drop back brown trout, and all caught on egg patterns under an indicator.
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| Jonathan with yet another drop back hen |
With the high stained water of spring, it is important to not give up when the fish don't seem to come to the net as often as you think they should. It can be hard to find fish in these conditions, but when you do, they will often be bunched up together in one or two particular spots. This is also compounded by the fact that the fish will hold in different spots in a pool, run or riffle during high stained water than when the water is lower and clearer. Remember, these are fish that are on the move, so it pays to keep trying different locations when your first spot doesn't pay out.
It's always a joy to get out on the water and spend some time tossing
a few flies to our local WNY fish. That joy is made even better when I
get to do it with my family. And watching my boys do battle with some feisty drop back tributary browns was priceless.
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| Ethan's big fish of the day - 6lb. male brown |
See you on the stream!
