Doing Everything Right.

Today was not what I expected. Maybe my goals are set to high. For the most part I think I'm doing everything right. I'm going to all the right streams. I'm using the correct tackle. I'm where the fish are early and stay late. But my numbers of fish are down. One or two per day is not going to get me into the pros.

Today I had time around 2:30 to go to Oatka creek. When I entered the stream a hatch of Hendricksons were in full flight. Browns were nipping the tops of riffles and rising in the flats. I tossed my first cast in fast water and my #14 dry rocked over the riffles into a feeding fish. It was on and off again, for I was not prepared to set the hook on my first cast. But my expectations increased. I threw my second cast and another roll of a fish and another miss. Now every time I think I'm going to score, It seems I find a tree with my back cast. So I lost my dry. I tied on another but the fish stopped rising. I retied a #14 hares ear nymph and fished the same run and again I got two hits with no result. The fish would spit it out as soon as he took it.

The sun was warm and the hatch continued. I moved down stream, thinking these fish have seen to much action already. I came across a rise near the creek bank. I slowly snuggled up against a large tree and began presenting a dry to the hungry trout. No strike came after placing a few nice casts dead nuts in the drift. I then tossed one outside the drift and swung it to the trout. He took the fly and I could see he was writhing with torment. He rolled and I held him back realing in my slackline. I was sure to land this one because he was pulling the rod tip hard. But my excitement soon ended as he rolled again and came off. This is how my luck has been going. When moving around the tree I was resting against I realized how bad my luck is. Poison ivy vines as big as my arms were clinging to where I had been leaning.

Five Streams in Five Days

Well, it's been a week since my last post. What have I been doing you ask. What else.... Fishing!

Did you ever binge fish? That's what I like to do on my vacation. I took the week off to relax, but I can really get bushed traveling to my favorite places.

To bad the weather turned sour Friday. I got a late start leaving from Bloomfield. Arrived in Roscoe at 2:00 and found a motel right on the Beaver kill. A fisherman was there who filled me in on the motel, also the local events happening this weekend. He had already caught five trout that were just stocked that morning. I unloaded my stuff and was in the stream by 3:00. The temp was about 44 and the water temp around 48. The wind made it difficult to fish dry flies. Junction pool seemed to be the place everyone was coming to.

I fished until dusk, learning a new section of this stream. I only saw two fish landed. So where did the 160 stockies go? A local hatchery stocked the 16 inch browns.

Saturday I was at it again at 6:00 AM. Entering the Willowmoc was cold and the snow was falling for a spell. The wind had gotten worse. I managed steady fishing till 11:00 AM. I only saw one angler pull four or five out. There were plenty of lines in the water. I packed in my gear and drove to the no kill area hoping to even see something. But all I saw were hundreds of thousands of caddisfly larvae cases and stonefly nymphs doing summersaults over top of the caddis. I fished till 11:00 without a hookup. Did not fish the evening.

Sunday I returned to the Beaver kill for an hour and tried a new spot. No Luck! Then spent the day with my new grand daughters. In the afternoon I traveled back home, not knowing why fly fishing had failed to produce fish. I had developed a toothache.

Monday I went to the dentist to stop the pain. So I got a late start again getting to my next stream. I traveled to Siho, NY, hometown of Jason L. Dunham Medal of Honor recipient.

http://ourmilitaryheroes.defense.gov/profiles/dunhamJ.html

http://www.jasonsmemorial.org/about.html

"sometimes toothaches seem very minor in comparison to what others go through."

I fished the Genesee River south of Belmont for about two hours and saw fish rising to a caddisfly hatch. I caught my first brown of the week. A 14 inch on a #10 black stonefly in fast moving water. I left there to go to my cabin in the woods. There is great satisfaction knowing my favorite spot in the southern tier is dependable.

Tuesday, this morning, I got to the Genesee River about 7:00 AM. I started a little further upstream from where I was Monday. I fished nymphs and woolly buggers. I landed two more nice 14 inch browns. These were all stocked fish. From there I went to my afternoon spot which I thought would be a heavy producer. But instead I had to really work the Ischua Creek in Franklinville. I ended up walking a good mile of creek and hooked two fish on wet flys. I was surprised... the creek seamed as if it were barren. I left the Ischua at 6:00. On the way home I stopped at Wiscoy Creek in Pike. Just before dark I landed the best wild brown of the week. 10 inches, casting to a rise, #12 henrickson wet fly.

Wednesday I hope to get some rainbows out of Sandy Creek before I go back to work. I saw a lot of water, and plenty of wildlife and insect hatches. That's what I did on my spring vacation.

What's for supper?

When I tell people I have been fishing, they always ask, "do you eat the fish you catch?"
My standard answer is "Not always."
Many fishermen practice catch and release exclusively. Solely because they do not like to or do not know how to clean fish. Others prefer beef or chicken over the taste. Still others are convinced they will die from heavy metal poisoning if they eat fish out of Lake Ontario or the canal.

I have different theories on catch and eat vs. catch and release. I practice both depending on where I am fishing, how much time I have to clean fish and whether the law prohibits it. As for the dirty fish scenario, consider where your Easter ham slept for the past two years as apposed to living in fresh water all your life. I do not know of one person going insane from to much mercury in their blood. I do know many people who have allergies to processed foods or suffer from high cholesterol.

Yesterday I picked up some Codfish and a farm raised rainbow trout. I got home from the market and melted 2 tbps of butter in a fry pan, washed the Cod fillet and tossed it dripping wet into the hot butter. I sauteed it gently so as not to burn the butter for 3 minutes. Salt and pepper. Placed two sprigs of asparagrass along side the Cod and flipped the fillet for another 3 minutes. Served with rice and the pan drippings makes for a nice Monday meal.

Tonight I scrapped and washed the Rainbow. I floured it and seared it in olive oil covered for 4 minutes. Flipped it for 2 minutes, turned off the heat and left covered till I was ready to eat.
Served with green salad and baked potato.

I like to eat fish, including fish I have caught. That was the reason fish were invented was to catch and eat. Even Jesus knew how to cook fish for breakfast. [John 21:9] I also understand that if all the fish are harvested, there will be none left to reproduce. But I think the survival of the fittest best applies to nature caring for its self. I do try to always release the first fish I catch. I'm more concerned with land development around streams.
Don't ask me to return a fish, when you are satisfied to eat beef, fed by corn, grown in fields that drain mud into the stream bed.

The rainbow trout cost me $3.05. It cost me much more than that for fishing tackle and gas to get to and from the nearest trout stream. Certainly it pays to eat farm raised trout. But they are not fresh as the day I fish for them. Consider the farmed salmon sea lice plight....

....We should just fish and not worry our minds about things we can't control.
Be happy... eat fish. I invite your comments

I decided to volunteer for the Canandaigua Lake Trout Unlimited Chapter - Project Healing Waters (PHW) program. We will launch the first PHW program on Tuesday April 27^th at 7:00 PM. It will be held at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, Building #5, 400 Fort Hill Ave., Canandaigua, NY.

The VA Hospital and the Veterans Outreach Center are now recruiting veterans for this first evening of fly tying and casting instruction given by us. This first evening will consist of working with the veterans to tie a wooly bugger and receive casting instruction from 7:00 – 8:30 PM, followed by a brief volunteer organizational meeting.

We now have everything we need to begin our PHW program.

I'm Looking forward to a new venture into the healing waters program.

http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/

Opening Day of Trout

April 1st traditionally marks the start of the trout season in the Finger Lakes. We who brave the elements have already caught our fair share of fish in 2010. But "Opening Day of Trout" still is a good excuse for some time off from work. I had planned to go to Avoca even before signing up for trout stocking. (see pevious blog). Having fished low waters of the Cohocton last summer, I determined then to spy it out during the early spring.

My plan was that while most fishermen would head for the Naples Trout Derby, I would fish in Avoca before sunrise and go in to work by noon. This morning, about 6:00 am, I drove through Naples. The streets and creeks and back allies were already filled with waders and spinning rods. I did not stop, was certain of, and proceeded to my destination in Avoca. About sunrise I pulled into the parking area where I'd been one day earlier. Not a fisherman in sight!


I wanted to explore a section of creek I had never walked. This may have been a mistake because I walked more than I landed fish. But I do enjoy just being out. Catching is not the most important part of the game. Sort of like playing hockey and not scoring a goal. It's still invigorating.

The air was biting crisp. Frost lay on the ground waiting for the suns rays to hinder it. The burdock stickies sparkled like sugar candy. Soon the fog would lift off the stream and reveal its hidden secrets.

While casting to the first large pool of the morning I noticed a beaver though the fog. He paddled against the current, along the far edge of the stream. The first dabs of sunlight cast shadows on the shore above him. Silently he would disappear beneath the surface and reappear in front of a wake created by his tail.




Sometimes
it really is fun to score a goal!


...one in the net.
Prince, water temp 42, 12 inch, 5x











What I planned all along.


About 11:30 I passed through Naples again. The creek there was teaming with about 500 hardy boys still after the illusive rainbow trout.


To be continued...