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I’d heard two very favorable reports recently on cooperative steelhead on Oak Orchard River.  If it weren’t a longer drive, I certainly  would prefer to fish there.  Oak Orchard and the Salmon River continue to be the most consistent steelhead waters in NYS this time of year.  It’s a personal angling irony that these two superb fisheries require a several hour commitment.  Not having time to drive West, I opted for a short afternoon trip to our local creek.

A pleasant light snow was falling and there were no anglers present in this lower stretch of Irondequoit Creek.  Will and I fished for an hour, without seeing or connecting with any fish.  I have a lot of confidence in my dark stonefly nymph w/ a tiny chartreuse bead head.  It is a consistent prospecting producer fly for winter steelhead.  Will fished a smaller sucker spawn imitation.  Nonetheless, it was beautiful to walk along the snow covered banks and get outside.  Next, we moved downstream to a tiny culvert hole that sometimes contains fish.  After repeated casts and catching every loose twig in the hole, we hiked downstream.  Will managed to spook a small, darker steelie in a riffle.  It promptly hid under an ice shelf and we never managed a cast to it.  Finally, we drove to Linear Park to check out the action.  We fished for another 3o minutes, then called it quits.  No strikes, no fish, plenty of icing up of our rods and line, but a pleasant day overall.  One center pin angler showed us a picture of a hefty, dark colored fish that he landed earlier in Lower Linear Park.  Otherwise, things seemed fairly slow.  We were also surprised by the wind gusts.  Today felt cooler than the anticipated  20 degree forecast.  Those pocket hand warmers sure are nice and it was a treat to get outside on this early February day.

We awoke this morning to fresh blanket of snow.  The forecast predicts more snow on tap.  Between the snowfall, rain during the day, and predicted snow, our creeks should receive a nice boost of water.  Many tributaries will be high and muddy over the next few days. When they settle, I predict there will be some fresh steelhead and hungry browns out there.  If you don’t mind the cold, get outside and make the transition to winter angling.  Fewer anglers, solitude, wintry beauty and a break from the pace of the upcoming holidays are all good reasons to fish in December.

It’s tough to find a more effective fly than egg patterns.  As much as I prefer swinging streamers w/ my two handed rod or presenting a realistic nymph, egg flies catch more fish for me during the bulk of the season.  The cold and snow present a great excuse to tie up some patterns or restock your fly box.  I’m experimenting more w/ various color combinations in smaller sizes.  It’s great how an 8lb lake fish can key in on fly smaller than a pea.  I prefer Fly Foam, but there are plenty of good synthetic fibers out there.  Here is a picture of my fly tying desk during egg time.  Happy fly tying and enjoy the season.

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.

There are still a couple salmon hanging around, the weather is warm (61 degrees), the water is low but the fish are still active.  Yesterday afternoon I decided to venture out to Irondequoit Creek to fish for a couple hours.  There were a number of fishermen looking for the remaining salmon that made the 20 mile trip down the creek from Lake Ontario.  I found two salmon living in a hole with a handful of small browns.  It looked like they only had a couple days left.  I decided to let them be and move on to a larger pool and try my luck with resident browns.  I was able to catch a couple on some variations of a pheasant tail nymph.  I located a 15″+ brown and hooked him 3 times but was unable to keep him on my line. Oh well, it was still a great day to get out before the weather turns ugly.

It was a busy Saturday and I wanted to get outside.  There are fresh salmon in the lower portion of Irondequoit Creek  and it was tempting to mess with them.

Instead, I opted to stay close to home and fished a middle stretch of Irondequoit Creek.  I liked the drizzly conditions and hoped to move browns on streamers.  Irondequoit Creek was low, clear and presented no anglers for the 1 mile stretch of water that I fished.  I tied on an olive zonker (size #4) and cast to a log.  Within my first two casts, smaller browns were charging the streamer.  Despite the rain, it was fun to tempt a trout or two in every decent stretch of water.  Every hole w/ depth produced a flash, slash at the fly, miss, hook up, etc.  My best brown was 14″, but the majority were 6″” to 9″ agressive, well colored fish.  Some were so small that they couldn’t take the long shanked fly, or there wasn’t enough mass to keep the trout hooked.  I lost far more than I landed.  The olive zonker outfished a chartreuse clouser, a golden brown wooly bugger, a dark brown wooly bugger, a black wooly bugger and a white zonker.  Despite my success with an olive zonker, I have yet to determine one, “go to” streamer for Irondequoit day in and day out!  Nor did I see any larger browns or signs of salmon.  That said, it sure was a treat to mess around with streamers and to watch fish pounce on the fly on one of our local streams.

I snuck out for two hours this afternoon to try my hand at terrestrials.  I was excited about having time to trout fish and to explore a section of Irondequoit Creek that I used to fish twenty years ago.  Upon arriving at the creek, I realized left behind my vest (fly boxes/tippet/nippers/hemostats/leaders, etc).   Several of my friends keep a fly fishing specific check out list before each trip.  Not that bad an idea…

Fortunately, I carry a small plastic box of back up/emergency fly fishing items.  I was able to scrap together a few beetles, as well as several streamers (see photo of my limited flies).  Armed w/ half a dozen flies and only 7x tippet, I hiked downstream.  The trail doesn’t follow the Creek, so I ventured through plenty of heavy brush, briars, meadows and swampy vegetation.  It sure seemed muggy and I was soon drenched w/ sweat.

Once on the river, I worked my way upstream casting a beetle imitation.  Early on,  a small fish nipped my fly and a decent brown jumped over my fly as it landed.  Both fish were in the same shady run, but neither hit the fly.  After that I fished several hundred yards w/ not a strike.  Long casts, stealthy approach, prospecting into shady zones and no trout.  Finally, I landed two chubs near a bridge.  Striking out on terrestrials, I tied on a brown bugger and enjoyed three follows from trout in a few short minutes.  The fish didn’t hit the streamer, but the flashing follows were promising.  In hindsight, I should have switched to my limited streamer collection sooner.  Just as I started to get excited about streamers, a thunderstorm moved in, the mosquitoes descended and it was time to head home for dinner.  Nice to get outside and enjoy our local fishery.

Well the first week of May is here and I finally slipped out of the house last night to get some fishing in before dark.  I went down to Irondequoit Creek just in time for the evening hatch.  There were midges, mays, and dark caddis coming off.  I almost never see the fish on Irondequoit creek feed on the surface but tonight they were.  I put on a size 16 elks hair caddis and a beadhead pheasant tail dropper.  My nymph got caught up on the bottom right away so I switched to the just the caddis.  Although my caddis fly was much lighter than what was hatching the fish started striking it right away.  I ended up catching this small but feisty brown and had a couple more on.  One was a 15″ brown that I played four about a minute until he got off.  I think I will go back this week and see if I can pull him out of his hole.  Stay tuned…

It was only a couple days ago and Irondequoit Creek was blown out.  See my picture in the previous post.  Yesterday afternoon I went out and fished at normal water levels with the water almost crystal clear.  It was a nice sunny day with a light wind with temperatures about 60 degrees.  A nice black stonefly hatch came on around 3pm and lasted for about 1/2 hour.  After lighting up a nice Montesino, I caught one 12 inch brown and a rainbow on a size 16 pheasant tail nymph.  If it were not for the shadows I was casting, I think I would have caught a few more.  Spring is here.  Get out and fish!!

Well, I was able to get away for a few hours on Saturday to do some fishing.  I went to Irondequoit Creek and was pleasantly surprised to find my friend Wil there fishing too.  It was overcast and about 40 degrees.  The water was a light chocolat milk color and very cold so we tied on some highly visible beadhead pheasant tail nymphs and tried our luck.  It took a while put I was able to pull in this frozen Brown.  He seemed a bit pale.  I would guess that is because he has not had much to eat lately plus the cold temperatures.  I also used my new Lamson Velocity Reel that I got for Christmas.  I love it.  Real high performance at a great price.  Visit Cabelas to pick up your own or go to Madison River Fishing Company and pick up a Hybrid version for only $139.  Just click on the link below and put IJ-319668 in the “search products” box.

I know it has been a while since my last post but I have been busy getting ready for the birth of my second child.  She came the day after Thanksgiving and my wife, daughter, and I are thrilled that she is finally with us.  Of course I am hoping she will become interested in Fly Fishing.

Before she was born I had an opportunity to spend a couple hours fishing with by friends on Irondequoit Creek in my home town.  Irondequoit Creek is a tributary of Lake Ontario and is stocked with Brown Trout and gets a regular run of Salmon and Steelhead every fall.  My friend Wil and I started fishing with some small beadhead nymphs and we able to pick up a couple Browns right away.  As we were fishing we heard a of splashing down stream.  It wasn’t long before a nice sized salmon was swimming right past us on his journey upstream.  We eventually caught up with him in a hole further up stream but he was in no mood to take our flies.  My friend Wil and Craig caught a few more small browns and we called it the day.  It was a great way to spend a couple hours on a beautiful Western NY fall afternoon.

A week later I was on my way to visit an old friend in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania.  We fished some private water on a creek called the Tobyhanna.  It was a cold Friday afternoon and the wind was moving over the Poconos at a good clip.  We started fishing with a stimulator and a beadhead nymph.  The stimulator got almost immediate attention for me but I was unable to hook up.  I was eventually able to hook a nice 14″ rainbow on a pheasant tail nymph but was unable to keep him on the line.  My friend was able to catch several nice fish and even caught one a few feet up stream of me.  The Tobyhanna is a beautiful creek and reminds me of an Adirondack creek named West Canada Creek.  It is full of nice fish and I probably would have caught plenty of trout if I had paid attention to the size of my tippet.  Unfortunately I discovered that I was using 3x tippet and that really discouraged the fish from taking my assortment of stimulators.  Even so I really enjoyed my time on the Tobyhanna.  Thanks to my friend Andrew for spending a Friday afternoon to take me out on this beautiful Pennsylvania creek.