Any angler looking to take up fly fishing or brush up on basics may be interested in an upcoming fly fishing camp.  This June, I’m collaborating with Creative Themes Day Camp in Penfield to offer an eight session evening fly fishing camp.  Creative Themes Day Camp is an excellent location to offer this fly fishing camp.  There are a series of connected ponds with warm water species and a stocked trout portion of Irondequoit Creek.  In addition to the fishing possibilities, there is a covered pavilion to review gear, knots, insects, fly tying and more.

This hands-on fly fishing camp will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6pm to 8pm.  Campers will receive two helpful instructional handbooks.  In addition to instruction, plenty of practice fly tying, casting and fishing is built into the experience.  Each session showcases a specific fly fishing topic.  The draft outline of the camp includes:

Tuesday June 5:  Equipment and Casting Basics

Thursday June 7: Knots and Fishing Practice

Tuesday June 12:  Insects, Identification and Fly Tying

Thursday June 14:  Insects, Identification and Fly Tying

Tuesday June 19:  Reading the Water and Fishing Practice

Thursday June 21  Reading the Water and Fishing Practice

Tuesday June 26: Tributary, Warm Water and Saltwater

Thursday June 28:  Caring for our Waters, Fly Fishing Ethics and   Wrap Up

The cost is $130 and this experience is open to youth over 12 and adults.  Click here for registration and additional info.   Please feel free to pass along this camp information to any interested fly fisher.

Most of us encounter times when we aren’t able to get on the water.  Between the start of the school year (teaching classes/hosting a student teacher/coaching) and a young family, I’m presently stuck in a non-fishing period.  It’s going to be at least another week before I wet a line.  It’s not ideal, but I can’t complain.   Summertime angling was good to me and there is plenty of quality tributary fishing ahead.  There’s also fly tying, checking gear and decent reading material to tie me over before my next outing.

Speaking of reading material, have you ever read a copy of the magazine, The Drake-For Those Who Fish?  Over the past few years I’ve visited their website and enjoyed the articles/videos.  The website is definitely worth a visit, but their print magazine has now moved to my favorite read among periodicals.  It is published four times annually and I encourage you to enjoy each read.  My thoughtful wife gifted me a subscription for my birthday.  Stuck in a non-fishing period these days, I’m savoring each reading session.  This week, it is my preferred read before bed.  The Drake is edgy, creative, whimsical, visually stunning and refreshingly different from other fly fishing magazines.  You could easily praise this mag for the quality writing, or for the exquisite photos.  For those who think that magazine print is dead,  check this out.  It’s not a cheap subscription, but worth every penny.  Go ahead, treat yourself to this angling diversion.  You just never know when you might be stuck in a period of being unable to get on the water.

In an effort to share some of our friends blog posts and fly fishing information, we have posted our first Fly Fishing Chronicles Weekly online newspaper. We hope you enjoy it.

View Our Online Newspaper

Each Summer our family makes a trip to the Wellesley Island area of the Thousand Islands.  My wife’s family has some property up there and we are blessed with a free place to stay.  As a resident New Yorker and lifelong angler, I never gave much thought to the fly fishing possibilities in the Thousand Islands Region.  Spin/Bait/Troll fisherman have regarded the  Thousand Islands as a well-known hot spot for walleye, pike, musky, bass and perch.  In fact, it was and still is a destination fishery for many anglers in the Northeast and Midwest.  There are countless television shows featuring high profile anglers or tournaments showcasing this region.  Yet, it isn’t as known, nor respected in local fly fishing circles.  For fly fishers looking to pull on fish, that’s a shame.  The Thousand Islands has plenty to offer any level of fly fisher.

For the fifth consecutive year, I just enjoyed another fun angling/family trip to this region.  If you want to target numerous warm water species and catch plenty of fish, head to the Thousand Islands (May/June/July are  best months).  This trip, I never fished more than 2-4 hours per day.  I easily landed 15 to 30 fish per day and could have caught more.   Plenty of fish were caught casting off the dock or from rocks.  Others were caught from an old 15 horsepower,  noisy aluminum skiff.  There was nothing high-tech about the boat I fished, no depth finder and all fish were caught on either a floating, or intermediate line.  I caught pike, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rock bass, perch and sunfish.  I could have caught dozens more rock bass/perch/sunfish if I were targeting them.  It wasn’t uncommon to catch three different species, on three consecutive casts, using the same fly.  I didn’t catch any trophy bass or pike.  My largest pike was around 26″ and several of the bass may have reached 2lbs.  These are small fish by Thousand Island standards.

The fishing was even better a week before.  Bass were finishing their spawn and still in shallow water (2” to 5′).  I heard plenty of pre-July 4th reports about easy catches of 18″ bass.  Once the water temperature rolls into the seventies and the calendar pushes into July,  larger bass move deeper.  This is the likely reason I didn’t locate any 3 or 4 pound fish this year.  I also chose not to fish deep and was content catching smaller fish.  One of my angling goals this trip was to experiment with different flies.  I compared the success of various flies based on silhouette, profile, color, action, water moved and ease to cast.  I tie some beautiful Puglisi Streamers and they nearly catch everything that swims.  I tie a convincing mottled brown goby pattern that is buggy and hugs the bottom.  I tie a sexy rabbit tail streamers that entice pike.  Nonetheless, nothing out fishes a simple chartreuse Clouser minnow.  Bass and pike tear them up.  It may be a glorified jig, but it sure works.  Best of all, the materials are simple, it’s an easy tie and effortless to cast.

Fishing the Thousand Islands is a family vacation that provides me the benefit of being on fishy water.  Before this trip, I’d been looking forward to seeing how my toddler would react to fish.  He has seen plenty of fish, but not held them.  It was a joy to place  small specimens in a plastic bucket and watch his inquisitive exploration of the fish.  They easily slipped out of his two year old hands.  He was eager to get his hands wet and to hold them.  He also enjoyed carrying my fly rod around.  It didn’t hurt the rod to bang it against a few trees.  His holding and having a positive experience with a fly rod, may be one small step towards an incorrigible life as an angler.  I can only hope…

Readers of this blog know that I’m quick to point out nice fish caught.  It’s easy, and arguably more fun, to write up a successful fishing trip.  We all like to catch fish.  If I showcase glowing conditions and excellent fishing, I also need to mention lousy conditions and uneventful trips. Well, my latest pm trip to the West Branch of the Delaware River was tough.  The WBD was downright stingy.  My friend and I barely managed to land a few guppy trout!

We fished several hours and never witnessed large fish consistently feed.  The weather was unstable (rain, mist, sun, rain, sunny, fog, etc).  There were never enough bugs to get the fish to comfortably feed on top.  We heard that we missed decent caddis and cornuta action in the morning.  Mid afternoon to dusk was a disappointment.  Only tiny, splashy risers here and there, with low sulpher numbers towards dark and no spinner fall.  We saw sulphers (size #18-they are already getting smaller), odd tan caddis, sporadic olives (size #20), and even a few remnant green drakes.  We never saw  large snouts working on the edge, working behind a boulder, gently consuming spinners, etc.  Even if there was a decent fish, it never rose repeatedly.  Or, we couldn’t begin to get within 40′ to 50′ without putting a potential fish down.  Perhaps it was the unstable weather, but the fishery never  turned on.  We also experienced an 8pm mini-downpour that dampened any potential spinner fall.

Each trip is unique and not entirely predictable.  A trip like this tempers us.  We have little choice in taking the stingy, as well as the spectacular.  That’s why we value the overall angling experience and the simple pleasure of getting outdoors.  The angling process outweighs the catch.   Stingy conditions help remind us of the greater picture and to fully appreciate each trip.

High water forced me off the West Branch of the Delaware River for all of April and early May.  There were days when water flowed above 4,000 cfs.  During peak flows, it reached over 8,000 cfs.  That’s a lot of water for the WBD!  During all this high water, drift boats ruled the river and streamer fishing was the norm.  If you didn’t have a drift boat, you weren’t fishing the river.  Almost a week ago, water began to consistently drop.  Once it reached below 1,500 cfs,  anglers began to wade and prospect this fine fishery.  A number of Catskill fly shops offer on-line fishing reports and water conditions.  I’ve always found the fishing report at West Branch Angler and Resort reliable, as well as offering an easy link to the USGS water data for the Delaware River System.

I was itching to fish the WBD and convinced a friend to commit the day once the flow reached 1,300 cfs.  We arrived at the upper WBD around 9:30 am and enjoyed a half mile stretch of river to ourselves.  There were plenty of #16 apple caddis on the water and the odd splashy rise visible.  I checked my 15′ 5x fluorocarbon leader and tied on a #16 Tan Iris Caddis.  My friend tied on a #16  Improved Tan X-Caddis.

There weren’t any steady risers, but enough slashing, splashy rises to get our attention.  Within minutes, I lifted up on a nice fish, felt a couple of head shakes.  Suddenly, I ducked, as the fly flew back towards me and wrapped up in a tree.  I chalk that one up to being slightly rusty, not having fished dry flies since August.  Within minutes, my friend netted a chunky 12″ brown.  He stayed around a grass point and fished several risers.  I moved downstream, looking to target bank feeders.

Around 10 am, I noticed a few #14 dark hendrickson on the water.  So, I tied on a dark, snowshoe rabbit emerger #14 and was rewarded with my first nice drift over a steady riser.  It was my first WBD brown of the season and a well proportioned 19.5″.  It treated me to several acrobatic jumps and a long run downstream.  Over the next two hours, I landed another five decent browns, all on the snowshoe rabbit emerger (my friend landed his fish on the X-Caddis).  I also lost two more fish.  One  wasa dandy shallow water bank feeder that might have been my best fish of the day.  Sometimes, the hook just pulls loose and you’ve got to accept there wasn’t much you could do.

After a stellar morning,  we anticipated an epic afternoon of regular hendricksons.  To our dismay, risers became more infrequent and both drift boat and wading angler traffic picked up.  Neither of us landed a quality fish over the next four hours.  The heralded hendrickson hatch was an apparent bust!  As aggravating,  swarms of caddis streamside and those on the water, seemingly were ignored.  We decided to head to the Town of Depost, hydrate, grab a snack and ponder our evening options.

Around 6 pm, we drove downstream to the Upper Gamelands and observed a dozen cars parked at the access lot.  There wasn’t space to park!  So, we drove further below and squeezed in a space on the Lower Gamelands.  Vehicles had plenty of NY, NY, PA, CT and VT license plates.  Angler pressure was heavy.  We hiked downstream to avoid crowds and promptly noticed rising fish.  Even better, we noticed hendrickson duns, hendrickson cripples, spinners and plenty of spent caddis.  I spied a few fish in the middle of the river and nearly took in water, trying to reach them.  I managed to land two average browns (12″ and 14″), but those weren’t the quality fish I was targeting.  1,300 cfs makes wading tricky and fish are able to optimize their location with the added water.  Finally, I found a safer crossing point and positioned myself on a far bank above and across a feeding pod of browns.

Over the next hour and a half, I landed another four browns (19″, 16″, 18″ and 19″), all on a hi-vis rusty spinner #16.  Stealthy wading, good positioning upstream and across, and properly timed, accurate, drag free presentations all helped fool these fish.  It didn’t hurt that the biomass of insects on the water was substantial.  These were happy, opportunistic feeding trout and it was a memorable evening.  When the WBD fishes well on the surface, there are few wild trout fisheries that compare. Happily content with this foray to the WBD, we made the long journey home.  Ironically, my same friend fished the WBD two days later under rainy, overcast conditions and didn’t experience as many risers, nor locate many fish.  The river dropped close to 700 cfs and he didn’t experience much surface action.  Such are the vagaries of the WBD!

Heavy rain dumped plenty of water into our creeks this week.  Most tributaries are still swollen, discolored and slowly receding.  Last night’s rain merely added more water to already swift and off color rivers.  The sump pump at home has been running for days.  At the same time, plenty of water is beneficial for spawning steelhead.  It provides them with extra cover, comfort, and ease to move upstream and spread out.  Temperature is another key player.  Now that we’re into late April, warming water temperature pushes steelhead to hurry.  The closer it gets to 50 degrees, the more likely the spawn is over and fish drop back to the lake.  Our steady forecast of 60 degree plus days will further accelerate warmer water conditions.

Some seasons, things aren’t meant to be.  I never wet a line on the Genesee River this Spring.  It is close to 10,000 cfs and won’t likely drop much.  Even if it was clear, good luck landing a fish from shore with that volume of water.   It’s a beleaguered crown jewel of Rochester that showcases some might chrome.  I’ll just have to look forward to next season for the Genny!

This Spring has presented a minor angling conundrum.  Part of me wants to chase steelhead, the other wants to pursue trout with dry flies.  One of these days, I’m going to completely switch over to trout and warm water angling.  But, it’s tough to leave the promise of steel.  So, I invited my nephews to join me in a final steelhead adventure.  I know of a tiny creek with high water quality.  It drops quickly and  experiences less discoloration.  There were a number of active spawning steelhead and drop back fish present.  I guaranteed that the boys would see nice fish, but couldn’t guarantee any hook ups.

In turn, they had to dress warmly and in drab, non-bright clothing.  Although a Sabres fan, I nixed the bright yellow cap that one wanted to wear in support of the Sabres playoff run.  Stealth is critical for these spooksters.  I provided both boys with polarized sunglasses and inexpensive hip waders.  The youngest was assigned to carry the collapsible net and the oldest to carry the spare rod.  To our surprise, nobody was at the parking lot.  We opted to avoid the well known pool and nearby riffles, choosing to focus our hunt on less accessible fish.  Within minutes of walking the bank, I spotted several large fish chasing each other in a deep, leisurely run.  We crept through briars on our hands and knees and soon presented various offerings.  Those darn fish wouldn’t take small egg imitations, realistic nymphs, ignored stoneflies and avoided streamers.  After nearly an hour of humiliation and various failed attempts to entice these fish, we crept further downstream.  Soon, I spotted a large buck all alone.  Within a few casts, it swerved to intercept my offering.  The next thing my young nephew knew, he had a rod thrust into his hands and was holding on to this mighty fish.  It jumped, thrashed, rolled around and departed downstream to a concrete bridge.  The best part was watching the younger boy fight the fish while his older brother maneuvered the net.  It was awesome to see them work together to land this special fish.  They truly admired this beautiful fish.  We didn’t weigh it and wanted to keep it in the water as much as possible.  It was by far the fattest fish that I’d seen this season and likely upwards of 12-14 pounds.

We spent another hour or so watching spawning fish and hiking portions of the creek.  Before too long, they were able to pick out a fish or identify where a fish might hold.  We also enjoyed a lengthy discussion about fish reproduction.  Aren’t the conversational possibilities of taking kids fishing limitless?

My brother picked up his children and I was left with a final two hours to fish.  I tied on a dark mottled brown, egg sucking crystal bugger w/ a gold cone head, size #8.  I hiked a quarter mile downstream and proceeded to fish every deep bend, curve pool and dead fall tree zone.  Water temps in the upper forties mean more active fish.  In my opinion, it’s the best time of year to fish streamers for steelhead.  I managed a nice 21″ drop back female and lost two more fish.  One lost fish was a beauty that came charging out of a logjam to knock my fly.  It was pure angler error.  I was sloppy, not paying attention and didn’t deliver a good hook set.  I’d like to blame my distractedness on the few random blue quills that I observed.  Witnessing the first mayfly of the season seemed like a welcome symbol of good things to come.  Either way, swinging streamers for steelhead or tying on that first blue quill dry, both sound promising. 

 Having two young children has made it more difficult for me to fish especially in the Fall.  However, I always look forward to Thanksgiving vacation to get at least one day of fishing for steelhead and browns.  This year I was able to convince Craig Dennison to take me out and share a couple of his special Lake Ontario tributary locations with me.  Our first stop revealed a couple lake run browns but nothing that promising.  So we moved on.  Our second stop was much more exciting.  We found a stretch of creek that had from 5 to 6 browns holding in each hole.  I was able to move into a section where 3 nice sized browns were parked right behind a salmon.  They allowed me to move up close where I sent several egg and streamer patterns bouncing off there noses.  Nothing.  Craig and our other fishing partner, Greg did not have much success either.

As if not landing any of these fish was bad enough, I was moving under a highway underpass when my head connected with a steel girder.  Come to find out steel girders are not very forgiving.  Flat on my rear-end I felt the warm trickle of blood making its way down my forehead.  Greg came over to take a look and said “Looks like you will need stitches.”  Greg gave me some tissues and I was able to create a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding.  It didn’t hurt that the windchill on Friday felt like it was about 30%.

After making my way to visit the fine folks at Immediate Care folks in Victor NY, I was able to get 3 stiches to permanently stop the bleeding.  Once my noggin was sewn up, I called Craig to see how the fishing turned out.  He told me that they were able to land several nice browns and were looking to so some more fishing.  My theory is that these fish will sometimes start to feed as the temperatures start to rise.  That is exactly what happened later in the day on Friday.  I am glad my friends landed some nice fishes with no stitches.

The Tiger Beetle originated with Craig Matthews and his crew in West Yellowstone, Montana.  The Tiger Beetle Strips and Zelon Tiger Dubbing may be purchased through the Fly Shop Blue Ribbon Flies.  It is a great, easy to tie terrestrial pattern that both the fish and fisherman can see.  I like to tie this in sizes # 12 to # 16 and fish this pattern from June through October.  Most tiers will crank out a pattern in less than five minutes.  It’s surprising the number of quality trout that I’ve taken, fishing this in the middle of a hot, sunny day.  Approach a pool w/ stealth, use a long leader and splat the fly down on the edge of a pool.  It’s an awesome sight to see a larger brown waking towards a helpless beetle!

Buy Tiger Beetle Kit

Tiger Beetle Material List

Hook:             Dai-Riki #320 #12 to #16 or similar dry fly

Thread:          Black 6/0

Shell Back:     Tiger Beetle Strips:

Body:             Black Zelon Tiger Dubbing:

Legs:              Small Black Bug Legz, Spandex Legs or Rubber Leg Material

After church on Sunday, I made a motivated drive to the West Branch of the Delaware River.  I was motivated to fish because I liked the conditions.  Over the past week, the cubic feet per second (cfs) discharge from Cannonsville Reservoir dropped below 1,000.  Just three days ago, the cfs was in the 600 range.  As I type this on Wednesday, it is now in the 360 range.  Water flows under 900 cfs make for a wadable river.  Combine 4o degree plus water temperatures with moderate flows and warm air, and you will likely enjoy fine dry fly fishing.

I stopped in to visit my friends at West Branch Angler Resort to catch up on news.  Larry, Sam, Matt, and Ben are friendly when I call or make a visit.  After saying hello and supporting a quality local fly shop,  I decided to head downriver to seek slightly warmer water temperatures.  The weekend cold front cooled off the fishing and lessened surface action.  The first Game Lands Lot was packed with cars, so I kept driving.  The lower Gamelands  Lot was vacant and I quickly geared up.  To my chagrin, there were two guide boats parked on the water, along with three spin fisherman.  The wind was also howling.  I didn’t see any bugs nor rising fish, so I threw a white zonker.  I’m still perplexed that I consistently catch fish nymphing, swinging wet flies and on dries, but struggle to pick up WBD fish on streamers. After flogging a riffle stretch to no avail, I decided to hike downstream and scout for bank feeders.  At this point, the drift boats were gone and the spin fisherman back at their car.  Perhaps the gusting wind  chased them away.

Around 2:30 pm, I noticed the first splashy rises.  Between wind gusts, there were also several bank feeders rising.  Flotillas of quill gordons, blue quills and the odd hendrickson ensued.  It’s such a rite of Spring to savor the first solid mayfly hatches of the season!  I removed my t-14 sink tip, placed a new 5x leader on and tied on a #16 quill gordon emerger pattern (dark trailing shuck/natural goose biot abdomen/gray dubbing/snowshoe rabbit wing).  Unable to ignore the splashy, celebratory rise of a trout 15′ away, I cast to it.  The 12″ brown happily gulped my fly on the first good drift.  Between aggravating wind gusts, the next two hours were part dry fly bliss, part dry fly torture .  Wind gusts shut down all surface action, then it would stop and fish would resume feeding for 1-2 minutes..  When the wind diminished and I saw a rise, a good drift resulted in a fish.  I likely landed 8 trout within a 40 yard stretch of the West Branch.  I lost one pig fish in shallow water, but didn’t see as many larger snouts in this stretch.  Even the close, shallow water bank feeders were fish under 14″.  For those who don’t know the WBD, wind can play a significant factor.  Look for fish feeding out of the wind line, especially closer to the shore.  Protected lanes without wind chop that are close to the shore,  often have an insect buffet that the fish are still able to comfortably feed in.  Even with a steady 15 mph wind and gusts up to 27 mph, I was able to time a few casts and capitalize on the window of opportunity. Eventually, the wind took over, fish stopped feeding and I scouted three other stretches of river.  Talking to other anglers and drift boats, not as many big fish were observed feeding today.  That’s a bit of a surprise, because this river gives up numerous 20″ plus fish to the dry fly.  That said, I couldn’t complain with my nice mix of fiesty rainbows and browns.  My quill gordon emerger caught seven fish, before the turkey biot body broke.  I can’t wait to fish the WBD again and hope that you are enjoying some fine Spring Angling.

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