Guiding made easy.

Today I guided my friend Alan in hopes of landing a Chinook salmon. We had fly fished together several years back for brown trout. But today would be different.

This morning was very cold when we entered the stream around 8:00 am. But there were no signs of fish to be had. The latest run had to have moved upstream. After seeing someone coming downstream we got the clue that there were only a few up ahead of us. We turned back to the truck and traveled 2 or 3 miles upstream.

(The first lesson: Set the hook hard.)

About 9:00 we spotted our first fish. A nice looking female. I gave some tips to Alan and he tempted the fish until it moved into faster water. He then hooked it, the King then left him as the fly popped out.

Brian, whom we met in the stream, hooked up with a male right quick and headed downstream.

He came back and helped teach where to cast to a holding fish.

We soon found a few more fish moving upstream.

(Lesson two:)

(Don't let your friends tie on the leader you fish with)

Alan hooked up 7 or 8 more times. He broke off two leaders after fighting salmon for a while.

He finally landed a female at 33 inches.

He later landed a male at 39 inches, 21 girth, 22 pounds. Allen landed it on 10 pound test

with a #8 pom pom after about 20 minutes.

He said it was the biggest fish he'd ever caught.

He was pleased as punch!

I had a great time guiding him.

(Lesson three: leave your cell phone at home.)

I had my turn.

I just hooked up with a King, when the phone rang. When I finally got it out of my pocket to answer it, the fish began to take line upstream. I'm glad I landed it.

All in all, I successfully guided Alan into a world of unforgettable fly fishing for huge Lake Ontario Chinook Salmon.

What a great day!

Boy, was it ever raining this morning. The roads were wet all the way to where we would fish. Kim was thinking we would be fishing in the rain. By the time we reached our fishing spot, the wind and rain stopped and the sun came out. There was little time to waste, so into the river we stumbled. Kim spotted the first Salmon running up behind us. We were just getting our feet wet as the last globug was tied on. I ignored the commotion Kim was watching and got us both into an area upstream that would yield fish. We waited for the migrating fish to swim into our ambush. The salmon quickly pasted by Kim and entered the pool in front of me. I splitshot slapped the water a few times and foul hooked a nice King. The fight took a good while but I managed to give the fly rod to Kim. With Kim managing the fish, we landed it successfully.

I took a quick video of some of the fun and as you can hear I'm quite winded.




The rest of the day was beautiful. We only saw one more fish come up through. But there were many other fisherman taking fish today. I was just glad to be out with my honey on a sunny October day.

We also saw one Salmon at Linear Park. What a great day!

First Salmon of the Fall season

I took off work today and went to Sandy Creek at Rt 19 bridge. I got there about 7:30 and right away I saw four salmon moving upstream. I followed them to a slow section, where they seamed to settle in to rest. I cast to one of them and hooked up right away but I was using 6 pound test and broke off. This happen seven times before I changed my leader to 12 pound test. By this time they had moved upstream.

I only saw one fisherman leaving the stream around 8:00. I was the only one on the stream all day. Maybe because it was windy and raining.

I finally hooked one and fought it for a good 15 minutes. It was 34 inches long. I put it on a rope and right after that I caught another one at 33 inches. I did not weigh these two fresh females full of eggs. I decided to leave at noon. On my way downstream, I landed another female at 35 inches. It was foul hooked on the front fin so I let it go. I saw small males and one monster male.

By 1:00, I had seen two pods of four salmon each and about 6 other fish, plus two still coming up as I was leaving, totaling 16 in all . I hooked up a dozen times or more with 8 or 9 really good fights. I landed three and released one. and I even hooked a small brown about 6 inches.
My legs are tired. and I hope to go again Saturday with Kim.

When I got home, I took pictures on my tailgate. I cleaned and froze the two salmon. I grilled some for dinner.

Late Summer Large Mouth

September I had a day when I fished near a beaver dam on a slow moving stream. It was one of those spend the day enjoying sunshine. I managed to catch these two 14 inch Large mouth bass on a shad rapala.

This weekend I spent over 16 hours fishing in two days. And what do I have to show for it? Well, I caught one trout.
I'm not really at the top of my game.

After fishing this weekend in new sections of four different trout streams and coming up short. I started seriously thinking I could no longer call my self a fly fisherman. Although I caught fish in streams where no one else was fishing (in summer) I felt I had not given thought to how long I would stay in one spot and where sneaking up on trout was important. I guess I was just looking for that perfect "honey hole". I think I did more scouting out of the streams than anything else.

Saturday:
I entered the Cohocton river in Avoca, New York around 7:00 am. Located along Rte 390 and 15 where Rte 17 and 86 split. Near the southern ends of Keuka and Canandaigua Lakes in Steuben County. I caught one trout in fast riffles as a morning Trico hatch filled the sky. I had another large brown hit my fly before moving upstream under a tree.

I fished until 1:00 when I finally found the honey hole I was looking for. Unfortunately it found me first. I was walking on the bank on the wrong side of the hole when I looked down and saw a 18 inch brook trout. Beautiful Blue and Orange color swimming slowly about 4 inches below the surface in 6 feet of water. The hole consisted of an uprooted tree and about 3 other logs crisscrossing the river. There was only a drift from the opposite side of where I stood. but I tried nymphs for a while and only came up with creek chubs. I saw two other small browns and one 14 inch brown surface under the same logs.
I left there and drove southwest to where I would spent the night.

Sunday:
I got an early start to fish the Ishua river in Franklynville. There was fog thick as rain until about 6:00 am. It never burned of until the sun was high over the hills. The area was recovering from that tornado and flooding. So what was two weeks ago a clear trout infested stream now was high muddy water. I had to fish it like opening day spring run off without success. I found a feeder stream called Gates creek that flows from Case lake into town. It was shallow and I only caught creek chubs.

I went back to another section of the Ishua for the late morning, I found a huge hole but again with everything I tried I came up short. I found weary sunfish, largemouth bass, carp, crappies and trout all holding around a run off slouth half filled with clear water but they were not having lunch.

So about 3:00 I drove to my last destination, the Wiscoy in Pike. I discovered a nice section west of town and walked it about a half mile. The water was too cold to walk in sneakers. I saw three trout about 6 inches long in 4 hours. Plus I spooked up a beaver. But what a beautiful day to be fishing. About 19 hours of fishing in two days. and I hope to get out tonight again after work.

Keep thinking about the game.

Summer Rock Bass

Recently I left a comment on Brian's blog

.....This creek was my boyhood fishing playground for many years. I learned to fly fish on this creek. Summers, in the evening, I'd cast royal coachman to rock bass and sunfish. I will never forget the time I was casting side arm just off the top water and a Rock bass jumped out of the water and caught my fly in mid cast. I would never had believed it, but this little creek holds great secrets known only to NY residents who fish it regularly......

Which got me to thinking about how it. How much I would enjoy some summer fly fishing for rock bass.

Yesterday, I took the day off from work to go to Garnargua Creek. My wife and I were hoping to get out early, but the morning hours passed quickly. We were at the creek about 10:00 am. I waded in shorts, Kim was in breathables and we hiked through the woods to a spot where the creek has plenty of promise. The water was clear and we spotted crayfish and flashes in the creek. We arrived at a fishing hole I remembered had produced in the past. Before long we had both caught a half dozen sunfish and rock bass on wet flies. Kim set up for dry fly fishing and she concentrated on keeping the slack out of the line. It was great to see the rock bass position themselves downstream of the fly and then strike. Kim got a lot of practice time in fishing drys. We used barbless flys and released all. Before the morning ended, we had unhooked 20 or so nice panfish including two smallies. The next thing I'll get her excited about is removing the fish she catches from her own hooks.

The Natural

I wondered why I am still blogging after a month. I'm not really interested in having anyone read it. It seems I like writing down what happened so I can go back and remember what great fishing enjoyment I had. I think I'm fishing more now just so I can have something to blog. Or maybe I'm just now realizing how much time I spend fishing.

This past week I had the opportunity to introduce another person to fly fishing. I had invited Dan to go fishing and he agreed that I should show him how to fly fish. He had fished before, but never with a flyrod. So I took him to Irondequoit Creek in Penfield in the evening. I really did not think we would do well being it was summer. So I showed him some drifting skills and a simple roll cast. I was amazed at how quickly he picked up on everything I was teaching him. Then I let him practice his technique while I rigged up and drifted a fast riffle. Dan worked some slow back water for a while using his knowledge of Bass fishing to entice the first hit. But I explained that these were trout waters and the fish like oxygen rich water and feed very well along the seam of the riffles.

I could tell he was needing more than a drift cast to prove himself. I then instructed how to cast over head the basic 10,12,2 o'clock technique. After a few minutes he was tossing the fly right on target. I believe Dan to be a natural born flyfisherman. After a couple more instructions on how to manage the stream, I began teaching him how trout feed and their holding habits. We moved into some shallow gravel riffles and drifted wet flys for a while. We continued to find great places to locate fish but nothing was hitting. Dan tied on a dry fly and I had him work a tail out of a deep pool. As we navigated more of the stream we reached my favorite part of this creek: a double pool section where I always find fish holding. And so it was that Dan landed the first Trout. From the markings I determined it was a brown trout fingerling about 4 inches. We continued to get hits and Dan soon learned the difference between hanging up on the bottom and true strike. I connected with a Rainbow about 5 inches. Before we were done we had hooked up with another two fingerlings and Dan held up a 6 inch rainbow. Next year I figure Rainbows will be plentiful in the Spring. Until then, keep fishing!

Ice Fishing on the Fingerlakes

This is my companion, best friend and fishing buddy. We have been married almost four years now.
We fished for Perch on this cold February day.

It was mid July '09 and my friend Gary asked me if I'd like to fish a lake near his home. The day was a Sunday and we'd meet around 3:30 pm and drift fish soft shell crabs. Things looked really promising for us. We would have four poles drifting from his boat in about 20 feet of water. The first hour went by and we talked of what we had been doing at work and for fun. But no fish. I had expected to be loosing more bait, but the crabs were out lasting our casts. I remarked we might not be able to use up all the bait at this rate. Another hour pasted and we had to motor back into the deep water. The breeze was slight but moved our drift south parallel with the shore. We spoke of Spiritual life an what we might plan for the future. But no fish. I tried to lure some pike with a few different spoons. The casting lasted a short time and I went back to the crawdads. It was my job to figure out the correct fishing depth. Then finally a hit, and one pan fish was ours for supper. We motored back out to deep water and by now it was 6:00. Our conversation slowed as we were running out of topics, but our patients paid off. Another large blue gill and then another, but my count was still at zero. 

I rigged up a chartreuse spoon in front of my bait and tossed it ahead of our drift. I let it fall to the bottom, about 15 feet to the weeds below. Then as we drifted over it, I let more line out until the length of the drift about 30 feet or so. I wanted to be sure it was just above the weeds. Before long I could feel hits with every cast, but no fish. The next time I was sure I had a fish biting, I let more line out and then... "fish on". It was a nice size Perch. Again my tactic was right on and it revealed a 12 inch Large Mouth Bass. Then for a third time, before we ran out of drift, I landed a good size Rock Bass.

What fun! And a good fish dinner was had. Thanks to my friend.

Here is something of interest to me. Follow the link.

http://www.gvpennysaver.com/hometown/storydetail.aspx?storyid=749

It's a bit about helping veterans fly fish. Something that has been in my thoughts lately.

Another great weekend of fishing. This time I went alone to my place in Southern New York state. It's not much but I can enjoy the quiet solitude of the woods and some nice clean streams like the Ishua stream that I fished Saturday. I had to drive some hours to get to my destination. I found myself headed for Franklinville Where I stopped and simply fished from shore to some nice size browns. It was after a rain so the water was murky but the trout were rising to feed in the film. I tied on a caddis fly and after my first cast and a miss. I soon hooked up and landed a 14 inch brown which I released promptly. No photos again. Hope some day to put some photos on my blog. I wondered if I would even keep it up. Seems you need time set aside to blog. And Wednesdays are the only days I feel like blogging. I might even include a painting or two.



I painted on canvas Sunday as well as a chalk drawing of an underwater fish scene. There is only two hobbies I have stayed consistent with, hence my handle. Fishing and painting.

What a great weekend. Saturday I took my friend to Spring Creek and we got there at noon. I knew what would be the outcome of fishing mid day. So I gave the day up thinking no fish. This would be a practice day. Guiding my novice friend to schools of lazy trout resting on the bottom. I set her up with a #20 scud and gave her a few tips. The time passed as we both were contend with spooking them with every cast of the fly. She drifted a run and I was confident that if I left her to work the water, she might just enjoy it better.

I walked down stream to a school of browns stacked so thick You could not see the bottom in a 2 foot area underneath them. Setting right on to of the school was a 12 inch brook trout. The water was so clear that with one cast movement of my arm the school recessed. They all dispersed and found cover in shadowy weed infested lairs. Some moved up stream to where 50 yds away I had left my fly fishing companion. Some time passed when She called with a fish on. I managed to arrive at her side by the time she had landed it.

We were both surprised as we took Photos of a small brown. We fished for a few hours with no results but watched many fish swim by.
As it got more toward 3:30 I managed to hook up with a few fish and landed a fat brown before the day ended at 4:00.

The key to guiding late sleepers is to go after supper!

Yes, I did get out and fish last weekend. I went to the outlet of a near by lake and fished for a few hours I caught 5 large sunfish and they were delicious. 

Then Monday as I drove home from the City I managed to stop at a waterfall and cast for a few minutes. Until I landed a nice sized largemouth bass. Not a keeper. I wasn't on the mood to clean fish anyway. Today I was busy making a sign. I could have taken my boat to the lake, but this sign has been promised a month ago. 

I hope to paint a canvas this weekend. Maybe of a park.

Today was a good day. I took my boat to a pond near where I live and rowed across to where I thought I could enter another pond but this year some beavers had dammed up the entrance.

So I fished for several hours and caught a few pan fish. It was nice to get out in the fresh morning air. There were a lot of deer around the pond I saw some button bucks, a four point and six point velvet bucks, a pair of twin fawns and many doe eating on the edge of the pond road. The best thing about being out on the water by yourself is.... being out on the water by yourself.

There was a Great Blue Heron catching frogs on the waters edge. As I fished the cattails a wren was collecting insects in the mud. The lily blossoms had not opened until an hour had past. 

Today was a good day.

Another week has past and I have not found myself wading in any trout filled streams. My intention is to go fishing. But I find myself wading in a stream of blogs and internet folly.

I will try to get away from my computer and concentrate on casting a fly line.

This weekend I'm headed for the Catskills. There I may be able to invest some time in trout wrestling

What else can I say.....

"Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook, or tie down his tongue with a rope?

Can you put a cord through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words?

Will he make an agreement with you, for you to take him as your slave for life?

Can you make a pet of him like a bird, or put him on a leash for your girls?

Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?

Can you fill his hide with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?

If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!

Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering.

No one is fierce enough to rouse him."

What I do

This is what I do. I fish!