Fall Inland brown trout on the fly

Michael Simmons with his inland beauty

Fall fishing for inland trout is one of my favorite kinds of fly fishing to do. One; the stream is almost void of people. And two; the fishing can be outstanding. The only bad part of fall fishing the inland trout streams is that little voice in the back of your head telling you that you need to get out to a Lake Ontario tributary in search of the first salmon of the fall. But experience tells me that adventure is still a little bit down the road.

So…….

Last week on Monday, Michael Simmons of Guys, Flies &Pies and I hit up an inland trout stream for a last ditch effort to convince some of the local brown trout to eat some flies before the lake fish in our neck of the woods make a run for it.

We arrived at location X to witness several trout feeding on trico spinners. A few delicate casts with the JP Ross Beaver Meadow two weight lined with 6X tippet and a #22 black trico spinner pattern promptly put those fish down. But all was not lost as we witnessed a good number of fish sitting near the bottom of a very nicely shaded pool….time to switch it up!

The fish in the pool were now our target and we went at them for a while with various nymphs trying to get the precision drift necessary to get them to eat. But when you have fish stacked on top and next to each other it is more difficult than one might imagine.

We each managed a few really nice trout, with Mike getting the big fish of the day. In fact he boasts that it is probably one of the biggest inland trout he has caught to date! And it was a gorgeous inland wild brown of almost 15” inches.

Enjoy the photos of some of WNY’s finest wild brown trout!

Note: With all the cool and wet weather we have had lately, it won’t be long until we have our first good run of lake run salmon and trout in WNY. I will try and get out and find time to get accurate reports when this happens.

Tight lines!

The beauty of inland winter trout on the fly.

I have had many opportunities to fish our fantastic WNY lake run tributaries this fall and early winter, and the fishing has again been amazing. But as the fishing slows down during the winter, I find myself going back to our equally amazing and fantastic WNY inland trout streams. It is an attraction that I cannot ignore!

The fish here are wild and rested, and more than that, they are a welcome change to the giants from the lake. And what they may lack in size they make up for in beauty. They also offer a different challenge. Precision drifts with ultra light fly gear while drifting small nymphs, midges, and scuds are a welcome change from fishing heavily weighted egg patterns and swinging big flies with big rods. And if the water is just right, I can have a blast trying to find some big inland fish on streamers. It isn’t a numbers game, it’s purely about getting bit!

So with all that said I hope to lure you in with some photos of the beauty that can be had from some of our finest WNY inland trout streams.

#18 pink scud and brown

Streamer caught brown

A big 18" inland brown that couldn't refuse a big streamer

A beautiful wild brown

A #16 red worm pattern does the trick

Afternoon trout in WNY

Over the past week I have been watching the local water levels fall to almost perfect dry fly fishing conditions. And although we aren’t quite there just yet, the bugs and trout are now starting to come together nicely. Thank God for drier weather!!!!

I have been able to get out a few times for an hour or so in the afternoon, and I am now seeing sulphers and March browns popping off here and there with some sporadic caddis emergence. I am still waiting for my opportunity to get out in the early morning or evening to take advantage of a major hatch or spinner fall, so in the meantime I am making the best out of what time I do have.

We have been enjoying some fantastic nymph fishing as of late. And the hot fly has continued to be a #14-#16 gold bead head OS nymph. I have even tried various other patterns to see how the trout respond, but to no avail, they want what they want, and I am always willing to oblige.

I recently had the opportunity to get out to the stream with my youngest son Ethan for a little fishing on a lower section. This particular section gets stocked by the NYS DEC, and gets pounded during the early part of April just after the opening of the state’s trout season. But by this point in the year, the pressure is off, the fish have turned on to the bugs, and you can usually find plenty of stocked fish left along with a few larger holdovers and wild fish.

Ethan and I had a blast during the time we spent together on the stream. We both caught numerous fish up to 16” and ended our time with close to 18 fish landed. Most were stocked, but on occasion I would get a small 5 to 6 inch trout that I know the state does not stock.

I also had the chance to swing some flies for fish as they are now starting to look up in the water column more and more. This technique seems to have been lost by many anglers, as I mostly see guys fishing nymphs or dries. But I still know that there are some of you out there that haven’t forgotten this great technique. One of my favorite methods is to fish a weighted wet fly or nymph. I cast the fly slightly upstream, throw in a mend and let it dead drift near the bottom. When the fly nears the middle part of the drift and the fly line starts to bow, I let it swing up off the bottom towards the upper part of the water column, making the fly look like an emerger shooting towards the surface. And if the fly makes it to the end of the drift without a strike, I let it dangle in the current below me for a minute. Of course this method is best used before a hatch occurs, but if I start to notice splashing rises from fish at any point during the day, I try and make a point to change my technique! Seeing a fish chase down my fly or come rocketing out of the water with it, is an event I never forget!

I have also found a little time for some warm water fishing at another local stream. Both small mouth bass and carp have been willing to take a fly. Although I must admit that the carp have had to take a little more convincing than the bass.

Making lemonade!

Our record breaking rainfall continues, and we struggle to find good water to fish. If we are lucky, we find a window in between all the rain to fish your local WNY stream or travel to find better conditions. But it doesn't last long!!

The bugs have made their appearance, but the trout can't take advantage of all the emerging insects and returning spinners because of the raging muddy water. So when you do get out to your favorite inland WNY trout stream, you throw streamers or drift nymphs along the bottom. And we have caught plenty of fish over the past month and a half, but we are still waiting for good dry fly conditions....well to be honest, at this point I think we will take any dry fly conditions!

So again we make due with another local inland small stream that always runs cool and clear even with all the rain. And the trout remain in much the same condition all year round. The only trick here is to make constant adjustments until you find the right fly. It is a constant challenge, but it is a challenge we take great joy in every time we fish this stream.

So with that said....we fished our little small stream last week amidst all the rain and found many willing trout. Most were taken on small scuds. But the occasional trout would take a small woolly bugger or small midge larvae. And if we are really lucky, a strong north breeze will blow enough spinners onto the stream from the nearby creek that it empties into, making for a little dry fly action.

In the next week or so, we should start to see some sulphers popping on this particular stream. An event that should ease the pain of a horrible dry fly spring season. The only problem with all of this, is every other fly fishermen will also be here if the other surrounding streams can't get back into shape. So we must take the fishing as it comes and make the best out of it...right? I mean we really don't really have a choice. All we can do is make some lemonade!

I have also been out fishing with the kids recently, and when I get the photos ready I will post that story in the next few days...along with a look at Jonathan's new JP Ross fly rod!