Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to reflect upon and appreciate the many blessings that enrich our life.  We live in a beautiful region, in a free country and enjoy public access to numerous fisheries.  Upstate New York boasts a superb  fishery; lake run fish,  wild trout, warm water  fish and every variety of waterway from canal to creek to Finger Lake.  Based on the quality and diversity of our fisheries, you might say that NYS anglers enjoy Thanksgiving every day!

Mike and I were fortunate to receive a Thanksgiving blessing from our wives this morning and we snuck out for some pre-turkey angling.  We checked out a number of local spots, East of Rochester.  No surprise in the low water level, as we still need rain.  We saw a few fish at each spot and managed to stick several, but they sure were spooky.  Dropping down to 6 lb test and smaller egg/nymph patterns also improved our odds.  Playing with different colored egg patterns or various nymphs helped too.  At some spots, we would sneak up and stay low to the ground.  Other spots required a stealthy cast w/ no weight.  Several times, a simple cast would spook a pair of shallow water browns or the odd steelhead.  There are a few fresh browns slowly moving in, but most appear to be waiting for more water before actively spawning.  Several of the steelhead we witnessed already appear roughed up by their scuffles to obtain eggs from browns and salmon.   Of the three creeks we visited, only Irondequoit showed us a pair of live salmon, marginally hanging on in a shallow riffle.  My hunch is that there are plenty of browns in Lake Ontario still waiting for an increase in the stream flow.  Let’s hope we get some rain soon and I can’t wait to see how conditions change as we move into December.