A Quick Stop at Irondequoit Creek

Small stream in fall should never be ignored

On a recent trip out to the dentist’s office I found a brief window of time to look in on a great little fishing spot that I hadn’t visited for some time – Irondequoit Creek.

This small stream gem of a trout stream flows unimpeded from its headwaters (which lie South of the throughway,) North for miles and miles before emptying into Irondequoit bay and Lake Ontario.

It fishes really well at all times of the year for both resident brown and rainbow trout, but during the fall it receives a push of lake run fish that make the creek one of the only small streams in the Rochester area to have both.

It’s small stream charm of overhanging branches and tight quarters are not lost on this fishermen during the fall months when the leaves are brightly colored and there are fish to be caught, no matter how much time I have to catch them.

The first of a handful of these little guys

On this afternoon, for a short while, I found a few willing fish of both variety. But I had to work my way up to the lake run fish.

Working my way up with a nice resident brown trout

A lake run that required more than one hand

My teeth have been repaired and the pain that went with it is now gone, but the visual wonder and feel of this small stream will linger. And that is good!

Fishing with the Boys – November Edition

Ethan with our first brown trout of the afternoon

This weekend I finally had the opportunity to fulfill a promise I had made at the beginning of the fall – Take my boys fly fishing for giant lake run trout and salmon.

The reports I had been getting throughout this fall have been very promising, and even when I have had the chance to get out there have been plenty of fish around to make things interesting.

The only downfall has been the lack of sufficient rain to keep our local freestone tributaries at a good flow, or even better, bump it up to high and stained, which is what I and the fish prefer. 

Jonathan with a nice female brown trout

We finally got on the stream around noon and after navigating our way downstream after a short walk, we began to see fish. The boys were very excited and couldn’t wait to catch a few salmon.

Over the course of the next couple of hours we saw only two other anglers and had many of the places I had planned to fish with the boys vacant.

We found some very willing lake run brown trout and even a few post-spawn salmon that intercepted some big streamers on the swing.

The trout took a #10 gold colored nuclear egg pattern and #6 Cone head brown buggers. We found them holding in pocket water, but did our best when we found small pools that where formed by fall-downs near the bank. Here, the fish felt right at home and seemed eager to eat.

Jonathan with his first ever solo caught king on the swing

Many of the salmon we saw were either in spawn or post spawn mode with some carcasses already littering the stream.

Our best success with the salmon came while fishing a long deep riffle section. Here we could see numerous females and males holding throughout its course, with some of the males chasing each other around. This is where we decided to slowly swing big streamers in front of the fish to take full advantage their aggressive behavior – and it worked!

Even dad caught a few - Photo by Jonathan Bradfield

While working a fish with my youngest son, I could track the fly as it swung right in front of a big male chinook. As the streamer passed about a foot in front of the fish, it turned and swam up to the fly, opened its mouth and inhaled it – Fish On!

This worked quite well on a few other fish, but not every salmon was willing to bite, so we moved on.

Ethan does battle with a nice king

We all know that these big kings are in the streams to spawn and then eventually die. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t take a fly. I have seen aggressive fish, like the ones we had on this day, move to intercept flies before. The trick is to be patient, stay off the fish as much as possible and get that fly in front of them. Keeping the fly off the bottom is key. And in these conditions we used a floating line with a long six to eight foot leader tapered down to ten or twelve pound test while swinging a weighted three and a half to four inch rabbit strip streamer to match the many baitfish in this stream. This setup allowed us to control the depth of the fly and keep it in the strike zone with lower water conditions. This same tactic has worked well for me at tail outs of pools as well.

Ethan holds his first ever king salmon with some help from his older brother

Fishing with the boys this past weekend was a blast (as it always is,) but on this day the fishing turned into a whole lot of catching. 

Another nice lake run female brown

Big smiles and sore arms were the norm for this afternoon!

All fish were released

Tributary fly fishing with friends

Bob giving some instruction to Kim as they fish the head of a long pool

The fall run seems to be well underway with plenty of Chinook salmon entering our local tributaries each day. There have been reports of some trout making there way into our WNY tribs as well. And the number of trout in each system will depend on where you fish. For instance; Oak Orchard creek will have more trout than smaller freestone streams this time of year. But, as October nears it's end, more and more trout will be found in all the WNY triubutaries.

This past week I had the opportunity to fly fish a local tributary for Lake Run trout and salmon with some really good friends that I don’t get to hang out with that often.

Bob burrows is a very dear friend of mine that helped me get settled out here in the Rochester area, and at my job, back in 2000. He took the time to talk me through all the various streams, lakes, and ponds found throughout Western New York, and even took the time to show me a few spots. In short – We spent some really good time together tossing flies to the local fish.

It is a friendship that I still cherish today and try to take full advantage of when I can. So when he called me up and wanted to get together and fish on October 15^th, just like we did last year, I had to make it happen.

A rather fresh hen Chinook salmon ready for release

In fact – Last year Bob landed a rather large 42” inch male Chinook salmon, the biggest of the day, just as I arrived at our meeting place and was glad to be the one to take a photo for him.

Kim was also one of those great people I had the blessing of meeting through the same job years ago. She was always very kind and would always listen to my stories and adventures.

Both she and Bob are now married and often find themselves on the stream fly fishing together….what an amazing couple.

They had already both caught fish this fall and so had I, this meeting was more about spending some time together and finding fish that weren’t pressured by the growing number of anglers in pursuit of these lake run giants.

There were plenty of other cars in the parking area and we wanted to find our own stretch of water to fish, so we headed way downstream in search of some vacant water….and found some!

And, YES! I did find a trout!

Kim and Bob set up shop at the top of the pool and I ventured to the tail-out. I was in search of some big lake run trout. We saw a few fish, and began to make adjustments and work the pool.

In the end I was able to land a few and Bob hooked up quite a few times himself. But with six pound test tippet you aren’t going to land a whole lot of salmon.

At the end of my time I had remembered why I enjoyed fishing with them so much. They both enjoy being out there and learning about the sport as much as I do. And more importantly, it wasn’t about the number of fish we caught or didn’t catch. It was about fellowship in the stream and enjoying the experience together.

Hope to see you out there!