Well the flows finally came down enough to make the Oatka fishable on Friday.  We were hovering around 3.0 ft (3.4 ft is the upper limit).  As I am writing this the creek has made its was up to 5.36 ft over the weekend.  Looks like a complete blow out.  Glad I fished on Friday.

Another reason I was glad I fished on Friday is because I did quite well.  There was very little surface activity with a occasional BWO and caddis coming off.  So I went right to nymphing.  I started with a prince but did not have any success.  Since the flow was quite strong I put a beadhead pheasant tail on and put two split shot on.  This seemed to do the trick.  I immediately started to catch 10 – 12 inch browns.  Most hit on the tail end of my drift.  The fish were lively and jumped several time.

On one of my last casts I had a brown come up and hit my indicator.  I quickly tied on a small elk hair caddis and after 4 or 5 casts he came up and slammed the fly.  What a great way to end the day.  Ten browns, warm sunshine, birds singing, and spring flowers in bloom.  It was the perfect day on a beautiful Western NY trout stream.

Columbus Day offered a pleasant forecast, beautiful foliage and the opportunity to spend time on the water. During the school year, I don’t get many chances to fish on a weekday.  Thus, I jumped at the chance to fish during non-weekend hours.  I decided to fish Irondequoit Creek late morning, then join friends on Oatka Creek.  I expected to find trout at both locations, but didn’t expect the quality of fishing to differ so greatly.

I packed my 7 weight rod and my game plan was to throw streamers on both waters.  For a backup plan, I brought a box of hefty foam terrestrials.  The first stop was Irondequoit Creek.  My intention was to target greedy, pre-spawn browns.  At the same time, I knew that there was the odd king salmon hanging around.  Over the course of half a mile of creek, I saw a total of four salmon.  More empty redds than salmon.  They were in such shallow water and so vulnerable, that I mostly left them alone.  It sure was tempting however, to creep up behind one and nearly grab it by the tail!  Fun to see those guys rocket through shallow water and spray everything!  Each season, the spectacle of salmon in shallow water reminds me of my adolescent angling adventures and chasing salmon every which way.  It would have been easy to purely target salmon, if the browns weren’t so darn aggressive.

Each cast into a pool w/ any depth yielded an attack from a 6″ to 14″ brown.  On some pools, I landed several trout.  I missed more than I hooked.  They would quickly strike the dark brown streamer the instant it landed in the pool.  The immediacy of the hit and the  visual enjoyment of seeing these predatory browns charge, was reward plenty.  In one particular plunge pool, I landed four gorgeous browns.  No huge fish, just decent small creek browns averaging 10″ or 12″.  While I prefer to fish a custom t-14 sink tip in lengths of 5′ to 7′, the water was so shallow that I was fished a standard 9′ fluorcarbon leader.  I added a single split shot above my cone head streamer.  That weight allowed me to comfortably cover depths up to 5′.  Another benefit, is that the standard leader casts easier without the custom sink tip.

For a change of pace, I drove to Oatka and met up with two friends (Will and Dave).  It’s always nice to catch up with friends and enjoy quality fishing time.  They were able to pick up a couple on sunken terrestrials and nymphs.  I managed to fool one brown on my third streamer imitation.  Good water flow, minimal angling pressure and I wasn’t getting cooperative trout with streamers.  A common rule in fishing is that you don’t leave fish to find fish.  I left really good fishing to find fish. If friends weren’t involved, I would have stayed on Irondequoit.  After a mediocre two hours or so on Oatka, I drove back to Irondequoit Creek and opted to fish a slightly lower stretch of creek.  Not to my surprise, the first pool w/ decent crossing logs, yielded a plump 14″ male brown.  It was one of three fish chasing my streamer as it swept across the current.  Over the next hour, I quickly worked several hundred yards of creek and landed another ten or so browns.  Towards the end, I finally landed my first rainbow of the day.  It was a tiny 7″ specimen with red tipped fins that would have rivaled a brook trouts beauty.  I even departed the creek early, well sated with the number and quality of fish that I experienced.  Fall is a special time of year and those brown trout were especially territorial and opportunistic.  Pre-spawn browns are a treat and don’t hesitate to prospect with streamers over the next month or so…

I couldn’t resist an invitation to fish Oatka Creek on Halloween with two friends (Dave and Will).  The moderate forecast, fall colors, good company and a chance to throw some streamers on a sink tip encouraged my enthusiasm.  We split up, each covering a different section of the creek.  I initially struck out w/ an olive zonker and a bronze bugger in the first few promising spots.  When I arrived at a large deep pool, I switched to a dark brown bugger.  Within a few long casts, I hooked a 14″ brown.  Nice colors and a scrappy fight.  I took two more browns from this pool, all swinging/jerk stripping across current.  Moving downstream, I missed two more fish and landed another brown.

The angling highlight was hooking a monster brown against a downed log.  Watching the flash, the head turn, the roll and the sheer size of an unexpectedly large brown was a true Halloween Treat.  After a head roll, and lazy body shake, the hook pulled.  I’m  now convinced there is at least one 2′ meat eating brown in Oatka Creek.  Losing that fish has haunted me all day!  My buddies also managed to find  a few trout nymphing.  All in all a pleasant day on a gem of a trout stream.

My father-in-law and I had grand plans to take Friday off and travel to West Canada Creek in Central NY.  We were looking forward to fishing this Adirondack creek.  Our plan was to fish some Pumpkin Caddis and do some nymphing for some of the larger Browns that are know to be in that fishery.  By mid-week it was obvious that the rain was making West Canada unfishable.  The water levels were just too high to fish it safely.

As a back up we decided to make our way over to the Oatka.  All the years I have been fishing the Oatka I have never fished it in October.  In Western NY, this time of year, we are usually scoping out Lake Ontario and Lake Erie tribs for salmon and steelhead.  When we got to the Oatka we found the creek all to ourselves and a strong blue wing olive hatch coming off.  They were about a size 18 and hatched for several hours.  Most of the fish pushed off into deeper holes and when we finally found a hole it had several 12″ plus browns feeding on the surface.  We had several hookups but only landed the one pictured below.  It was a bit wet and chilly but fishing the Oatka in October will definitely be something I will do again.