Craig and I decided to get up early on Saturday to try our luck at Russell Station on Lake Ontario. Our hope is that we would get into some Salmon or Steelhead. We found that there were a lot of Salmon being caught but they were being caught right off shore. The lack of rain and very warm temperatures have kept the fish from coming into the tribs. I think we will see a good run in a couple weeks though. Here is a Salmon that one lucky guy caught at the mouth of the Genesee River.
New York has some of the best Steelhead fishing in the world. My friend Craig makes this point with the following report from the Salmon River in Upstate NY this past Friday:
Fished on Friday and managed to land a beautiful skamania steelie on the swing. Great fight and a beautiful, well balanced fish. We need water this Fall, but thought that you might like to see my first steelie of the season.
As you may have read from earlier posts I took a trip to Montana with my father-in-law back in June. During that trip we had the pleasure of meeting Tom Brokaw and fly fishing legend Craig Matthews (www.blueribbonflies.com). The other morning NBC decided to do a segment that featured Yellowstone Park and Craig’s efforts to help establish the Yellowstone Park Foundation. If you would like to see it click here and go to the 4 minute mark to see Craig’s part of the segment. Enjoy.
I want to take a moment to pitch you on a product that I bought before my Montana Trip. It is the G.Loomis® Split Bottom Rolling Cargo Bag. This is what I was able to pack into this bag:
Waders
Wader Boots
Fishing Vest
Wading Staff
2 Fly Boxes
4 Piece 5wt rod
1 Reel
2 Rain Coats
Chest Pack
Fish Net
Travel Kit
2 Pair Pants
2 Pair Shorts
Underwear, Socks, etc.
6 Shirts
Sweater
Hiking BootsÂ
I had a few others things packed into this bag but I think you get the idea. What a great bag. It has handles and straps in all the right places and is very easy to pull through the airport on its two rugged wheels. I love this bag and at $180 it is a great value. You can purchase yours at Cabelas.com. Click on the image below and put IH-319024 in the search box at the top of the page and the product will come up. Enjoy.
Well I decided to go down the end of road from where we are staying, near Indian Lake NY, to the Cedar River. I have tried fishing this river a couple times without any success. I thought I would give the ol’ Sirloin a try. On my second cast I watched a Brown go after it pause and then hit it hard. Not a big fish but fun to catch. Shortly after that I caught a little small mouth. I can’t wait to get the Sirloin into some more big fish environments.
Last night we had the privilege to fish with Rich Garfield from Fly Fish The Adirondacks. I hired Rich to take me out about 6 years ago and never forgot the experience. Rich didn’t disappoint last night.
My father-in-law, Al, and I got to Wilmington NY (Near Lake Placid) at 3:30pm yesterday to meet up with Rich. I asked Rich if we could fish the Au Sable. He convinced me that we should go up to the Saranac River. He said we would catch more fish and have a longer window of time to fish because the river is protected with a lot of trees. I was a little unsure of Rich’s advice because I have always wanted to fish the Au Sable but Rich has guided this area for almost 15 years so I deferred to his knowledge. I wasn’t disappointed.
Rich started out getting us used to fishing these tight mountain streams by throwing out stimulators to small brook trout. After a bit of instruction and patience Rich led us into some larger pools where we saw some bigger fish. I started off landing a 12″ brown in a small pool next to a large rock. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to see an aggressive wild Brown hit my stonefly in a spot where I did not think a fish would be holding. We went to a couple more spots where we got hits. Unfortunately once you get one hit in a hole holding a fish you are finished. It is rare to find two browns holding in the same spot on this river.
As darkness started to drift in, we hit the last two holes that would possibly be holding large fish. I went first. I threw out a large stonefly and immediately got a hit from a 12″ Brown but was unable to hook up. Rich told me to shake it off and cast a few feet ahead of the strike. Bam! I hooked up a 17″ Brown. Playing this fish on this type of river is a bit different. It is real important not to let him run. If you do you’re finished. I immediately guided him to the net and Rich was able to net him with no regard for his own safety. Thanks Rich! What a thrill!!
Lots of high fives later we move on to the last pool. Al made a beautiful presentation with a stonefly and got a Brown on right away. After trying to follow a bunch of excited commands from Rich and me (Sorry Al) Al broke the fish off. It looked like it was at least 17″. Rich told Al to give it another try even though we probably disturbed the pool. Al threw the stonefly in again. After a couple casts the water boiled and Al had another one on. Not again! This fish broke off. Okay one more try just for kicks. Al put it out there and got another hit! The water boiled one more time and the fly was expelled with the force that only a wild brown could produce. That was it. That was all the pool could give Al. What a thrill that was for someone who only started fishing a few months ago.
I can’t say enough about the job Rich Garfield did. He is an excellent teacher with an incredible sense of humor and energy. I have yet to meet a guide with his skills and enthusiasm. Next time we are in the “North Country” we will be calling on Rich.
Not only do I recommend Rich I also recommend his orginal fly called the “Sirloin”. We used this fly in pools where we were not getting any surface action. Although we did not land any fish with the “Sirloin” we always got a big hit. It looks to me like the secret is the the coyote belly fur that is used for the wing and tail. It really gives it a unique look that the fish cannot resist. Rich will be selling this fly online in the coming months so keep visiting his web site for details.
I am here in the Central Adirondacks, Indian Lake, for the 4th of July vacation. I decided to fish the Indian River today. The NYS DEC stocks this river so it is full of 12″ rainbows. Just below the Lake Abanakee Dam there are quite a few of these well educated rainbows. I was able to get quite a few hits but could not keep these fish on my line. I watched a number of them take my fly or emerger and spit them out before I could set the hook. It was very frustrating but I was able to pull in a beautiful 14″ Rainbow.
Tomorrow my father-in-law and I go up to Wilmington, NY to fish with one of my favorite guides, Rich Garfield. The weather had been very dry, cool, and plenty of wind. It will be interesting to see where Rich takes us.
This past weekend my friend, Craig Dennison, filed this report from the West Branch of the Delaware River. Thanks for the Report Craig.
Just a friendly summer reminder to my angling friends that one of our Crown Jewels of Angling (West Branch of the Delaware), continues to fish well during the early summer months. On Saturday morning I enjoyed fishing a riffle stretch w/ a few trout feeding on caddis. Fun to pick off several fish in faster water on the surface. The rainbows really run and are acrobatic in the Delaware!
Later in the afternoon, I fished the Lower Trophy Water and enjoyed nearly four hours of solid sulphers, from size #16 to #20. Long leaders, accurate casts, numerous pattern hanges (cripples/emergers/duns) and I landed several quality fish from 12″ to 21″. There were times my fly couldn’t compete w/ the dozens of nearby naturals. I won’t be able to fish it again for a few weeks, but wanted to let you know that there can be some great riffle and sulpher fishing over the next month. Hope that you have a chance to check it out.
This was a bad weather day. Very windy overcast threatening snow and rain. We put the boat in at Windy Point and came out at Ruby Creek. I caught 2 small browns and Al didn’t catch anything. After Ruby Creek, Brian, our guide took us to Raynolds Pass.
Raynolds Pass is a beautiful location with some nice deep riffles. This area seemed be protected from the weather. Things were quite a bit warmer and less windy. Al caught the first fish. It was a 12″ Rainbow. That got things started. I ended up catching 3 Rainbows 12″, 14″, and 16″ and Al caught another nice Rainbow 14″ long. Thanks to our guide and his persistence he saved the day for us at Raynolds Pass.
The evening at Papoose Lodge was very interesting. Al and I got a chance to meet Craig Mathews and his wife Jackie from Blue Ribbon Flies. They are such nice people and are very passionate about fishing and conservation. We talked about conservation, his business, Gary LaFontaine and how Craig and Gary used to snorkel in the river to have a better understanding of what fish see when they are looking at nymphs and flies. We really enjoyed talking to Craig. We also got a chance to meet Tom Brokaw who Craig was guiding on the Yellowstone. Tom had a lot of nice things to say about our hometown, Rochester NY, and his late friend Robert Wegman, founder of Wegmans Grocery stores. Tom seemed like a very interesting and sincere.
We had another great dinner at Papoose and then we were off to bed looking forward to another geat day in Montana.
Woke up had a great breakfast, packed our lunches and went off to meet our guide. The lodge reserved our guide from Blue Ribbon Flies. Our guide was newly hired Brian Wurley. Brian used to work for Madison River Fishing and has been guiding this part of Montana for about 12 years. Brian took us down to Lyons Bridge and got us ready to head out for the day. The Lyons Bridge boat launch is an interesting place in the morning. A lot of the guides and their patrons spend time talking about what happened the previous day. There is also a lot of funny story telling.
Brian started our drift off by anchoring the boat and giving us some instruction. It wasn’t long and we were off and fishing. My father-in-law, Al, was in the bow of the boat and me in the back. Initially we spent a lot of time tangling our lines but Brian was very patient with us and got us working together casting to the right spots on the river. Al was the first one to hook a fish. It was a nice 17″ Mountain Whitefish. Shortly after that he hooked another whitefish on a caddis emerger. After that he caught his first Rainbow on a Fly Rod. It was a lot of fun to be there for that one. We were nymphing and I was not having any success so Brian switched me over to a Trude dry fly with a caddis emerger. When I did that I started to catch some Browns. They were all at or under 12″ but fun to catch.
Overall it was a good day but I was expecting a bit more from the Madison. My hope is for a better day tomorrow.
This was a bad weather day. Very windy overcast threatening snow and rain. We put the boat in at Windy Point and came out at Ruby Creek. I caught 2 small browns and Al didn’t catch anything. After 
