In search of Lake Runs - Part II

I know its June, but I am going to go back to last month to share a bit from a great day on the water with my oldest son and my daughter.

Jonathan's May Steelhead

It was May 6^th and we were in search of one last drop back steelhead.

Even though it had started to warm up a bit, the water was still quite cold and starting to drop and clear. Just about as close to perfect conditions as you can get for this time of year.

Jon's 1st smallmouth bass

We decided to walk a ways downstream first, and then walk and fish our way back up to the bridge where we came in.

Our first stop was a good sized pool with a great fall down at the top and some great ledges for the fish to hide by in the middle and tail-out.

Jonathan took position at the top and Katie at the middle.

Katie's 19" smallmouth

In that first half an hour. Jonathan managed a beautiful drop back hen steelhead, and a nice sized smallmouth bass. Katie got a good pull, but was never able to connect. When we felt as though we caught what we could, we moved on.

Our next location proved to be more of the same, giving up a few fine fish and then turning off. The pool gave up a rather large nineteen inch smallmouth to Katie, while Jonathan landed a very respectable rock bass. I hooked a large smallmouth in the tail-out, but couldn’t seal the deal.

Our last couple of hours we worked our way back up to the bridge, hitting all the major pools and deep pockets and runs. We each managed some very nice fish, but Katie’s twenty inch smallmouth bass was the fish of the afternoon.

All fish where caught on woolly buggers in olive and brown, and craft hair streamer patterns.

Katie's 20" smallmouth.

Even I managed to land at least one.

I managed to take some great photos and video. I’ll post the photos and try to get the video up when I can…..Enjoy!

Fly Fishing for Lake Runs – Birthday Edition

A big post spawn female lake run brown trout

Once again I had the opportunity to get out for my birthday and share some water with a few friends.

Small but feisty lake run brown

Denver on the net for Matt

Bait

It was certainly a day to remember as a warming trend over the past few days put the lake run trout on the bite, with many, many Lake Run giants coming to the net.

Leif's huge hen lake run brown

Leif on the net for Ethan's lake run brown

Matt with the release

Jessie with a nice Kyped out male

Jessie tries to control a steelhead

Fish landed!

Denver, Matt and Leif started their morning at an upstream section of a favorite WNY tributary and enjoyed some fantastic streamer action, landing quite a few nice brown trout on the swing.

I started out fly fishing at a downstream location on some private water before everyone else showed up and quickly put two fish in the net, one of which was easily over the twelve pound mark. The other, a smaller post spawn female, took a lot longer than expected to find the net. In fact, many of the fish on this day would follow its example and put us and our gear to the test over, and over, and over again. 

Ethan with a nice female taken on the swing

Matt tries to make his 4 piece into a five....again!

Denver and Matt with a double

By late morning Jessie, Ethan and the rest of the upstream gang met up with me on the private section of water. We each continued to find our own fish, taking a break here and there to grab a cup of coffee, share some stories and catch up on the goings-on in each other’s lives. The only stop in the fishing came during lunch, when our gracious host Jim provided an amazing homemade venison stew. But, as good as the lunch was, the fishing had been better and we needed to get back on the water.

Jessie with a nice post spawn hen

Over the next few hours more and more fish came to the net. Mostly all brown trout, save one nice steelhead that Jessie landed to ruin the curve. And with his landing the only bit of chrome of the day, he maintains his perfect yearly “birthday” steelhead batting average. A tradition that I don’t think he’ll relinquish anytime in the near future.

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Colored up post spawn female

The fish were everywhere. The riffle sections, pools, pocket water, and slower tail-outs and slack water all held fish. The spawn had been done for a couple of weeks and with the warmer weather, they were on the search for food before the cold started to settle in.

Our fish on the day were on par for the average for lake run trout in any of the Lake Ontario tributaries, which is right around seven pounds and somewhere between twenty four to twenty six inches. Many of us were fortunate to land fish over ten pounds with a few in the low teens. Even then, I still managed to find a pod of lake runs here and there that held one or two fish that were easily pushing the twenty pound mark. A truly massive fish that never found the bottom of my net.

The end of my day finished just as it had started, with two more brown trout to the net. And that was it! I then said my good-byes, shook hands with the guys that were left, and spent the next twenty five minutes on the drive home replaying the day in my head.

My last fish of the day.

Kyped out male brown trout

When the catching is as good as the fishing, you try and hold on just a little bit longer to the memory of each fish. Hoping that they remain separate and don’t bleed together into one big mess. 

Thanks again Denver for sharing a birthday with me, and to the rest of the guys who did their best to drag themselves out there to celebrate with us!

Fly fishing WNY - October 14th edition

Jonathan hoists his big 27" male brown trout before release.

Once again we were able to get out on the stream for an afternoon shift.

This time we would be fishing a good 4-5 days after some major precipitation, which prompted us to dream of large trout.

We fished down on the lower part of the stream and found plenty of salmon holding here and there in each deep pool, pocket and run. We witnessed several nice fish fishing blasting on through, even when the stain of the high water period had almost completely worn off….No trout were spotted.

The boys and I stuck to fishing buggers, even when we could see a few reds that had been made by salmon in a few of the gravel sections nearby. Of course, by the time this blog is posted, the increased number of salmon and spawning activity will no doubt change that. Eggs will be in high demand!

Ethan worked the head of a pool, swinging a large lead eyed rabbit strip streamer, where he could just make out the dark shapes of several nice fish. Jonathan decided to work a few pockets and seems in the lower end of the pool area, prospecting with an olive woolly bugger for what might lurk in each little nook and cranny.

Ethan hooked up several times, but couldn’t seem to keep a fish on. Some he thought were foul hooked and they popped the fly quickly. A few others he said took the fly but he didn’t get a good enough hookset. That’s fishing.

Ethan rests a female king salmon before its release.

Jonathan, who had been quiet for the past half an hour or so, finally yelled “fish on!” and after just a few minutes I could make out the telltale signs of a large brown trout pulling hard near the surface.  Not soon after, I slid the net under a gorgeous 27” inch kyped out male brown trout – the first trout of the fall for the Bradfields.

The rest of the afternoon we kept at it, trying to find the right location and drift to put our flies in front of a few willing fish. Only Ethan came away with a nice female King salmon in the last hour. It was a fresh fish, with a little glint of silver here and there.

Not bad for the early part of October. Let’s just hope we can get out a few more times this fall. Fishing should continue to get better and better, especially as the ever increasing numbers of salmon start to spawn.

Thanks in part to Streamwalker Nets for making these fish possible!