Fly Fishing for salmon – October 7th 2018

Ethan with the first fish of the day

Fishing in the early part of the run can be a bit of a struggle. There are always a few fish around, but the majority of those are just blasting on through without stopping, leaving us fly anglers little opportunity to toss flies at resting fish. 

One of Jonathan's, caught on a black woolly bugger

Last weekend I had a great day with the boys and my father in-law trying to do just that…..swinging flies for salmon.

And as the day played out, we realized that there were plenty of fish holding and others blasting on through or to stop for a bit, which allowed us many great opportunities. More than I have seen in years fishing this early.

One of the major keys to our success was our willingness to walk to find fish, and to frequently change locations to find new fish. 

Jonathan with a big fish on!

We used more natural colored bead headed woolly buggers in brown, olive and black, in sizes #6 - #4, and swung them in front of holding salmon. We used a 9 foot tapered leader on a WFF line with an additional small bit of split shot on the leader above the fly to keep in the zone. Too much weight would keep the fly on the bottom and produce a greater chance of foul hooking fish, and too little weight would not allow the fly to stay in front of the fish. We could have tried using sink tips on a short leader with unweighted flies, but I didn’t bring the tips with me.

Each of us were able to bring at least one fish to the net, with a couple of us landing several.

Jonathan's big Chinook salmon

We did see several reds in each of the locations we went to, but only encountered one post spawn female salmon, and no active spawning was witnessed while we were there. Half of the other female salmon we caught had loose eggs, while the other half were still firm.

Ethan resting a salmon before it's release

Jonathan helped guide his Grandpa to his first salmon on the fly

Even I get to land one

Ethan with the last fish of the day

I suspect that by the end of the month, there should be a good number of salmon in all of the WNY tributaries with a good number of trout to follow.

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!

Fall tributary season - edition 1

As of writing this blog post, the WNY fall salmon and trout run is now in full swing.

We are off to a great start this year. The boys and I have already taken several trips to our local WNY tributary and have all found a little success in landing a few fish.

September 30^th - Our first outing was intended to be more of a scouting mission. Our goal was to look at the condition of the creek at various locations and even spend some time walking in to find the many recent changes that always happen over the course of the summer.

Jonathan with a large female king

Our first stop was at a bridge that was less than a mile from Lake Ontario. It also marks the first good fly fishable water. Here we found a few cars in the parking lot, and one salmon swimming nervously under the bridge.

Ethan with his 1st king of the year.

Our next stop, which was the second bridge up from the first, revealed just how far along the run had progressed in that last week of September. A good half dozen cars lined either side of the street leading right up to the bridge. On our walk up to the bridge, we saw an anger fishing to four or five salmon that were holing in a run on the upstream side of the bridge. Once we got to the bridge and were able to look into the pool below, we counted a good 19-20 salmon. We watched for a good five or ten minutes before we headed to our third location.

At this point we knew that there were fish in the stream. So at the next bridge upstream we got ourselves geared up and headed down the trail.

A fresh hen from "round 2"

It took a little bit of walking before we found fish, but when there is nobody else around, we could take our time and swing some #6 olive and brown woolly buggers in front a few salmon.

We each landed one fish before we left for the day. A great start to the season for sure. 

October 6^th – “Round 2” was even better than our first session, as we all had a few hook ups and once again we were able to bring a few fish to hand. 

Jonathan's kyped out king from "round 2"

We ended up fishing a section of stream in the lower end and once again had the place to ourselves. We spotted a good twenty or so fish in and around the main pool area, with a few more that were moving up from down below. We once again used olive and brown buggers and Ethan spent some time fishing a large olive and white rabbit strip streamer.

This is a far better start than what we had last year. And the numbers of fish should steadily build from here on out, especially with a bunch of rain in the forecast.

Ethan gets ready to release his king from "round 2"

A little October color