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.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
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.
.....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.
Friday, August 7, 2009
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!
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!
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