This heat wave significantly elevated river temperatures.  It’s just not prudent to target trout in local streams when the water is low and air temps are in the nineties.  I was supposed to fish and show a friend local trout options for Irondequoit Creek.  Instead, I suggested smallmouth bass on a local, warm water creek.  Smallmouth surface action can really heat up during the warmth of summer.  Besides, bass are much more temperature tolerant over trout.  There are a handful of reputable smallmouth waters around Rochester (Oak Orchard/Sandy/Black Creek/Genny/Mill/4 Mile/Salmon/Honeoye Outlet/Canandaigua Outlet) -just to provide a few places to start.

The temperature was still pushing 90, humid and it was perfect for wet wading.  We hiked to the first hole and I tied on a chartruese deer hair slider, while Jessie tied on a brown crayfish streamer.  On my second cast, a fiesty smallmouth jumped on the chugging slider.  From then on, it was top water time.  Over the next three hours, we landed 12 to 15 aggressive smallmouth bass on top water divers, sliders and poppers.  Great fun to wet wade, tease the fly over promising bass water and anticipate a strike!  It’s funny how some of the smaller bass make the most explosive strikes.  Twitching, stripping hard, popping, slow retrieves, etc all produces strikes.  The deeper holes produced several fish, while the shallow stretches produced zero strikes.  It wasn’t uncommon to walk a hundred yards or more between promising fishing spots.   It was enjoyable to leap frog fishing holes, share techniques and laugh when one of us missed  a strike.  I’m certainly looking forward to my next top water adventure and aim to tie a few more deer hair sliders before now and then.

The hot weather, absence of rain and low water conditions reminded me more of late August than May.  I can’t recall water this low during May on Irondequoit Creek.  Nonetheless, we were able to move a number of smaller browns, several recently stocked rainbows and Brian missed one decent fish.  Logs, drop offs and deeper channels produced our fish.  I felt rusty and managed to tussle with bushes more than usual.  The highlight was the plethora of wild phlox in bloom.  Patches of phlox blanketed stretches of the creek and it was a visual treat.  The other curious angling item, was the march brown spinner fall towards dusk.  Very few fish fed on these, but it’s nice to see larger mayflies coming out of this creek.  I’m looking forward to a return trip to this home trout stream and hope that we receive rain in the forecast.

This weekend was a bit different.  By Saturday evening we were fortunate enough to have a longer stretch of warm weather and the flows started to come down.  A front was starting to move in with its overcast skies.  There was a nice caddis hatch coming off and good overall conditions.

The first two holes I hit didn’t yeild much, but the third hole had fish waiting.  I put on a soft hackle prince nymph on to my 3 wt and started fishing.  After a couple casts I hooked into a 10″ bown that jump into the air and was actually difficult to land.  I was able to hook a couple more and land one.

Moving onto the next hole there were not fish to be had.  Thinking that the fishing was over for the evening I relunctantly moved onto the next hole.  I am glad a did.  Stating off with a streamer I was disappointed.  Not even a single hit.  Then switching back to the prince nymph, I fished down stream from the bank.  I instantly got a hit.  I landed another 10″ brown.  Once again motivated by my success I continued to fish the same hole and was able to hook up several larger fish and finally landing a spunky 12″ brown.

Soon I will be driving longer distances to different rivers and creeks in search of much larger fish.  Not a bad way to spend two hours less than 10 miles from my house.

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I’m blessed with a number of fishing buddies.  That said, some of my favorite fishing companions are my brother and his children.  So, I invited my brother and his oldest son to fish Irondequoit Creek.  I geared up two fly rods (6wt w/ a T-14 sink tip and white wooly bugger & chartruese bead head, and a  7wt w/ a generic sucker spawn egg mass).  My larger brother crammed himself into an old pair of my wading boots/waders and my 13 year old nephew slid into a pair of oversized boots/waders.  Not a perfect fit, but enough to keep them dry.  Scouting and walking the banks of the creek, they became excited upon seeing formations of suckers.  Who says that sight fishing to 16″ suckers can’t be fun?  My nephew  began lobbing the streamer towards a drop off, while my brother bottom bounced a riffle with the sucker spawn.  Within minutes, my brother detected a bend in his rod and was enthusiastically fighting a sucker.  I know that we all prefer to target steelhead and trout.  Nonetheless, suckers offer novice anglers a wonderful chance to read the water, perfect line control, control depth of drift, sight fish eggs, fight and beach fish, etc.  They are also a nice remedy for breaking the ice, for those who haven’t fished nor caught fish in some time. It was fun to support my brother and nephew as they tangled with a few suckers.  They also managed a few tree fish and encouraged me to do better.

I took a few steps upstream and on my first cast, hooked a chunky lake colored brown.  I promptly handed the rod over to my nephew and we enjoyed watching him land this fish.  In my experience, landing a fish on your first cast indicates either red hot fishing, or a prolonged stretch of no bites.  Ever the optimist, I then grabbed the 6wt and flung my streamer towards a current seam at the head of a pool.  Within a few short casts, the white wooly bugger with a chartreuse bead head was slammed!  An acrobatic, post spawn steelead darted across the pool and I thrust the rod into the hands of my nephew.  Again, we cheered him on as this fiesty fish broke the surface several times.  Posing for a few more pictures, we let her go.  Great to see the enthusiasm in my nephew’s face and you won’t find a prouder father or uncle.  There are numerous rewards to taking youth fishing.  Please invite a kid to go fishing with you this Spring!

This unseasonably warm, early spring may shorten our small tributary steelhead season.  By the first week of April, steelhead sightings were scarce in the smaller creeks.  At the same time, present rain activity may drive more fish upstream.  Depending upon the conditions, some years our small tributaries give up steelhead into early May.  Reports indicate that the larger rivers continue to fish more consistently (Oak Orchard/Genesee/Salmon) and these should have fish for another month or so.  We’ve seen dark stoneflies hatching this past week, as well as blue winged olives.  The first caddis and march browns will be right around the corner.  Upstate NY is presently receiving a soaking of rain.  Some creeks may be high and discolored over the next few days.  Don’t hesitate to fish a streamer with off color water.  Steelhead can be caught with 6″ of visibility, as well as resident trout.  Good luck and tight lines.

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Small tributaries are clear and fishing well for fresh steelhead.  The increased water level this past week brought in fresh chrome and plenty of angling opportunities.  I’ve been so busy working, coaching and making final preparations for Angler’s Workshop that there’s been scarce time to chase these aquatic silver bullets.  To further frustration, my friends continue to recount favorable steelheading exploits.  One colleague landed six after work yesterday.

Today’s sixty degree temperature beckoned.  I had an hour of free time, provided that I took care of our 10 month old baby son.  I did what any loving, angling father should do- I took him fishing.  Within minutes of our home is a small, suburban tributary that now and then gives up steelhead.  Strapping my son on the chest pack, I pulled on a fanny gear bag that I use for trib fishing and grabbed my 6wt.  I prefer to use a 7wt for small trib fishing and spring steelhead, but this rod was rigged and time was limited.  Not wearing waders and needing to stay dry, I walked to a dominant plunge pool.  Rigging up was a comical routine, as the baby enjoyed grabbing my leader, yanking on the fly line and reaching for my hemostats.  I made sure to keep the hook well enough away.  Balancing with a baby, casting, managing line, mending, staying dry and other fishing details become a greater challenge  with an active, grabby 10 month old.  Enough that, I was distracted and managed to lose my first fish.

I decided to rest the plunge pool and retied.  Maneuvering around eager hands, I managed to tie on a small, brown, egg sucking cone head bugger.  I walked a portion of the stream, spooking one fish in a riffle.  These guys appear eager to spawn.  Running out of time, I returned to the plunge pool and told myself that I had time for 10 more casts.  Somewhere around the fifteenth cast, I hooked up to a bright fish that took off downstream.  She went under a log and down the rapids.  When I saw my backing, I took action and entered the creek.  Who needs waders anyway?  Protecting the baby, I managed to pass the rod under the first log, later threaded a logjam and finally navigated a few bushes.  Minutes later, I caught up to the fish and brought in a beautiful hen.  That hook held and sometimes you just get lucky.  I was soaked from my knees down, while baby only managed to dampen one sock.  I snapped a few pics, gave thanks for this gorgeously colored steelhead and departed.  It’s my first fish w/ our son and a wonderful experience that I hope to recreate for years to come.

Come join us this Saturday (March 20th) for an awesome Angler’s Workshop at Twelve Corners Middle School. There will be numerous workshops/sessions/fly tying/demonstrations/casting/movies/raffle prizes and more, from 9 am to 3:45.  Cost is $15 for adults and $10 for youth, with gate proceeds benefitting the Canandaigua Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Upstate Fly Fishers.  Click on the Angler’s Workshop icon above, to see specific sessions and the schedule.  This is a special day of fly fishing events and we hope that you are able to join us.

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.

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.

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.