And thats how that is done!

Did you ever think of how fish get from the water to the fish market and into your grocery cart?

They don't come out of the river prepackaged in plastic. 

One of the parts of fishing most people don't think much about is preparing the fish for dinner.

People ask me all the time "You eat them? Aren't fish full of pollutants?"

I think the vending machine at work is more dangerous than eating a few salmon.

My recipe  for grilled salmon:
Fresh thin fillets, coated with olive oil, fresh minced tarragon, fresh thyme, lime juice, salt and pepper.
Cooked over charcoal with moist hickory chips for smoke. Grill 6 to 8 minutes per side.

Desire of the Heart

This was the email I got last week.

..."My daughter and I got your name from Pastor Alan. My daughter is 11yo her name is Emma, and Emma wants very badly to catch a Salmon"....

What could I say except... "When are you able to go?"

So off we went to a stream full of promise, but... could it deliver a young girls wish. Rain filled the dibbits in my driveway and I was banking on the rain stopping as soon as we reached the stream. We geared up with sunglasses in hand. The sun came out while salmon were  moving up the rocky slopes of our adventure.

Being Emma's guide, I hooked her first salmon and was directing her as to how to hold the pole and palm the reel. The fish was resting for sometime in deep water. I think Emma got a couple of thrashing rolls out of the fish and then a small run. When the fish took off it snapped the line as if it were 8 0 fly tying thread. 

We saw many more fish moving past us. Emma had developed some nice casting, and even almost hooked one on her own.

It was just about time to leave when another Chinook hooked up. I handed the pole to Emma once more and she held it steady keeping the pole tip up. I quickly clicked some photos of the battle. It moved into a strong current and was ready to run again. I netted it and Emma helped land the salmon she had been hoping for. The smile on Emma's face told me she was hooked on fly fishing for salmon.

October Challenges

I'm all ready to go fishing.

It's Wednesday and the reports I have of salmon in Irondequoit creek are not good. But it rained this week and I'm confident I will find fish this afternoon. I hope to get in the stream by 2:00 and have a few hookups by 4:00. 

To be continued......

Just got back after a long afternoon of scouting out Irondequoit at (Old Linear park). The water is still very low and quite clear. Even with the overcast I could see into the deepest water. Nothing is moving there. No salmon were seen. That means no crowds either, not many fishing fanatics like me were out today. Maybe they are at the Oak. I spoke with one other fisherman and it was a great day to be out with temps in the 70's. Water temps are still too high in Irondequoit creek.

I have prospects for this weekend. The search is on for Big Fish where ever I can find them.
Here are a few closeups of the Big Fish I'm blogging about.

October 2009

October 2008

October 2010

Chub Vermin or Game Fish?

Recently I went fishing for browns and found nothing more than 8-9 inch Creek Chubs
Although I can't see much purpose for a chub they do give the fly fisherman the gentle hits on the float that help keep ones attention.

So I began studying these pesky summer bait fish. I came across this well documented video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0S-ocnSVWo&feature=player_embedded&noredirect=1#!

Lesley Brewer has now become my most favorite sport fisherman.

Salmon Run September 21, 2012

Brian and I were curious if it was too early for salmon. We had been hearing that salmon were in the salmon river and at the mouth of Oak Orchard River. We both like to scout out the areas we know will produce fish. Friday, September 21 we headed up to Hamlin where our expectations were met. On arriving at the Oak we saw fish moving up. Only a few at first. Fish were jumping in the mouth and showing movement by their wake. And yet on this day only four other diehards were getting anxious about the up coming salmon season. 

We fished two hours before Brian had to leave. That was enough to get a glimpse of fresh salmon moving past us. Brian had a chance to make a few casts to one. And I had one pull on my line but no hook sets. We did manage to hook a few small mouth bass.

After 12:00 it was evident that the run was increasing in number. I had seen five salmon swim past me, so I moved up stream looking for holding fish and I found the dark shadows of a pair, and then a tail, and suddenly the side of a female and a shaking tail. From there I could make out in the deep murky water another fish moving up just in front of me. But the pair was still holding just behind a downed tree. I tried what I could, but I did not have the weight I needed to get my wooly bugger down fast before it past them. The tree became an issue with my casting. In fact the tree would prove to be a definitive hazard before the day ended.

Brian, BIC fishing guide 

I continued to fish while increasing my split shot weight to 7 or 8 small weights on my line. At one point the male of the pair porpoised the water's surface as if to say leave us alone. I switched to an egg fly and caught another bass and a large sucker. It was now 1:00 and I estimated around fourteen fish had moved past me. I was now seeing pairs come up through the shallows every ten minutes. Then I saw a tired but still fresh fish moving downstream. Possibly exhausted from the snagging activity upstream. I heard that people had been fighting verbally at the dam pool.

This fish moved me out of my position as I followed it down stream. When I hooked it in the tail, I realized it was time to leave it alone. With a sharp jerk of my pole It was free. I soon found new areas where fish were holding. I cast many times without success until at last a large female connected with my egg fly. I held the beast in a pool as it twisted it's head back and forth thrashing about and loosing ground. then I started to take up slack which gave the girl permission to run. She gave it a go and tore yards of 8 weight off my reel across the river. The drag felt good. Not too much and still holding tight the line. She swung my line across the surface, and headed for the downed tree. A little fearful of getting my line caught underneath it. I put tension on the pole and out popped the fly. My first real hookup made for a teachable experience. 

September 21st on a cloudy day far from home, made real the hopes of a salmon season with promise.

SEASON OPEN ALL YEAR

I know practicing catch and release is a good idea for preserving the quality of our NYS fishery. 

But every once in a while the traditionalist fly fisherman likes a fresh trout cooked over an open fire.

I enjoy eating the fish I catch. I don't care for all fish flavors but I do enjoy young 12 -15 inch trout cooked in a cast iron skillet with the head and tail attached.This cooking method makes deboning the fish so much easier.

So when I took Dennis to a catch and release stream yesterday. I think he may have been wanting fresh fish for dinner.

But releasing our catch is all part of the benefit of a larger quarry. Everything worked out well for our afternoon adventure. The stream was active with hatches and the trout were plentiful. We did make quite a stir in the neighborhood and it was hard work getting the Browns to bite. They may have been resting from yesterday's abundant food supply after the heavy rains.

We did manage to get them interested in some olive scuds.

So how are you going to finish up the Open Season for Trout.

You can still enjoy a stream side fish dinner up until October 15th. 

After that some NYS inland streams are off limits, except for Irondequoit Creek, Oatka, Spring creek and Cohocton River.

These choice streams are open throughout the winter and are mostly catch and release only.

In some areas like the Genesee River from Belmont Dam upstream to Pennsylvania State line (with exceptions)
Trout season is OPEN ALL YEAR --- Keep Any size, Daily Limit 5 - with no more than 2 longer than 12"

and in Genesee county, Oatka Creek, Trout is OPEN ALL YEAR   Any size 5 - with no more than 2 longer than 12"

in Livingston County, Cohocton River and Mill Creek,   Trout is OPEN ALL YEAR   Any size 5 - with no more than 2 longer than 12"

You really need to search the regulations to find available fishing during the off season.

The 2012-2013 Season regulations are posted on the NYS DEC website. Be sure to renew you fishing license before next week.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/fishguide12.pdf

One change in my area for Trout is the limit on rainbow for the Fingerlakes and their tribs.

•The daily limit for rainbow trout has been reduced from five to one in the western Finger Lakes

(Seneca, Keuka, Canandaigua, Canadice, and Hemlock lakes) and from three to one in the tributaries. 

General NYS regulations for inland Trout—Brook, Brown and Rainbow and hybrids of these species;

begins April 1 through Oct 15   Any size - except for specific streams. Daily Limit of 5 

Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River and tributaries

Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout (including Steelhead), Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon, Pink Salmon
Season is OPEN ALL YEAR --- Keeper size 15" -- except 21"  for Rainbow Trout or Steelhead 
--- Exception --- can be 9" in Irondequoit Creek (entire),  3 in any combination not to include more than 1 Rainbow Trout (or Steelhead) in the tributaries

Some of NY states best trout fishing streams are the Catskills. Check out this link for a video about fly fishing

http://www.dec.ny.gov/dectv/dectv122.html

REVIEWING CASTING TECHNIQUES

    This weekend was a chance to review my priorities about casting techniques. I took the weekend and went to my hunting cabin in the southern part of New York state. It was suppose to be a wash out because of the rain and wind. For the most part the weather kept me from driving anywhere from my cabin on Saturday. I did managed to get a few casts in at a pond about a half mile walk from my cabin. And pestered some creek chubs in a small stream high in the Allegany mountains.

     But that's not what you came to read about.  Trout is the reason for this blog and for the most part I have been unsuccessful at catching any. 

I think because I have been lackadaisical about my technique. I had been applying salmon drift techniques to all my fishing. That means I stand on the shore and cast perpendicular to the run and drift the current in hopes I will be on the correct side of the currents seam.

So Sunday I got into the Genesee River upstream from Belmont, NY and walked into the most impressive trico hatch I've seen in a while. The shore rocks were covered with dead Trio's possibly from the heavy rains the day before. Or....and I'm not an entomologist but if I were to guess they had spent their life cycle and had crawled onto the rocks after depositing next years eggs. They were also covering the overhanging branches. A group of three male and three female Cedar Waxwings were busy eating them off the twigs. I do not own a camera, so this link may show you what I'm referring to.

http://stlucieaudubon.org/images/BirdPhotos/CedarWaxwing1.jpg

     Anyway, it was late morning around eight o'clock and this hatch must have been going on for a while cause the water was just boiling with trout nipping at the surface film. I chose a size 22 Trico I had purchased from Panorama Trail Outfitters Fly Shop and began my quest. I was doing my usual thing and realized all I was doing was pushing the trout back into the tailout with each passing of my fly line. So I rethought my tactics for this type of dry fly action. I thought maybe they are following the hatch up from the bottom. So I retied a small nymph with some flash. Then cast it upstream from where I was and drifted it down through a two foot deep cut in the summer vegetation. It was immediately hit by a 14" Brown. After landing and releasing my prize. I noticed the water was no longer boiling with rising trout. So I tried unsuccessfully to raise another out of the same cut.  

     This made me evaluate my position in the stream and where the seam was that was making the tricos gather the trout in great numbers. I moved down into the tailout of the stream and began casting up stream and drifting back so the line was coming back into my legs. And another trout measuring 12 inches took the nymph. There was plenty of casting after that. The rising trout returned and took up their water ballet, so I knew they were still hungry for top water action. I tied on some other flies. Some drifted on top nicely and some that fell below the film. Some small mouth were biting, but only one more trout would I catch. The fish were still nipping the surface, but I did not see any more Tricos floating. It was getting toward noon and I wondered what they could still be chasing after. So I looked more closely at the surface film and on top was a little pure white insect smaller than a Trico with a single tail about an inch long, twitching back and forth. It had not formed wings yet. This is something you could barley see. So I searched my tackle for anything closely resembling what I think might be a mayfly species. And I fished it casting up stream alike an emerger. A few casts in the right place and I hooked up with a nice, really fat, 16 inch brown. I only wish I had photos too show for it. After I released him, I left to go try some deep holes which only produced a dozen or so good sized small mouth bass. 

This river, so far from destructive farming and development, still has an over abundance of aquatic life. I hope any future fracking does not ruin my fishing spot. I saw after noon large mayflies coming off the water.  I spoke with a friend today and he said the salmon were just beginning to come into the Salmon River. But this weekend was a good weekend for fishing the Genesee source with three different hatches. What a great day for reviewing my approach and technique of casting.

Labor Day 2012

Labor day I went to Avoca, to the Cohocton river about an hour from my house. I took my gear with high expectations of landing trout. I wanted to research the river to get to know where the runs and holes are now that the water is low. That way if I fish it in high water, I'm not fishing blind. I left around 6:40 and fished from 7:40 to 10:40.
I covered about a mile of stream bed and only caught creek chub and small mouth bass. While I was making a photographic memory of the river bottom, a slender dark object was swimming toward shore about a poles length away. At first I thought it was a fat snake about 2 inches round and 2 feet long. Someone had told me about a week ago that the Cohocton is filled with snakes. When it emerged from the water it squeaked and ran into the grass along the bank. It was a brown mink. I saw all kinds of water fowl but no snakes.
I discovered several good runs and three large root holes, as well as many under cuts. This river has some farmers field silt over the gravel but it still has plenty of aquatic life. The problem of no trout from a stocked trout stream may be because of over fishing during the week of stocking. The DEC provides a map of the cohocton http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/pfrcohoctriv.pdf

Well, it has not been a plentiful fishing August. And it's not a great start for September, but I'll hang in there. 

Because..... Fishing! What else is there!

Picnic by the Creek

   Saturday, Kim and I picked up a sub at the pizza parlor and headed off for some late evening dry fly action. When we reached our destination it was nearing 4:00 pm. We found a clearing where we spread out a blanket and enjoyed some unexpected company. A variety of insects, mosquitoes, ants, yellow jackets and many other green flying and jumping things too numerous to count were joining us for supper.

After a quick picnic, we geared up and headed for the creek. We were fishing only a few minutes when two white tail deer moved out of the thicket and down to the waters edge to feed on the lush vegetation along the stream bank.
    I thought for sure our fishing would yield more than our last outing. But this is the toughest creek to catch any trout in and around our entire area. You guessed it, We were wading into Spring Creek. I was surprised when we got there at the amount of vegetation and  the minimal amount of trout that were visible. But I was not deterred from my goal. My goal was to get Kim into dry fly casting and before too long she was casting to rises down stream from me on the flats. She was doing quite well without my instruction and I could see her size 20 mosquito skimming slowly across the still flat surface of the evening sky reflection. Trout were rising all around her fly but none would take it. I was casting to a trout under the edge of a small stick and even with great drifts I only could manage one hit. Which was effectively missed.

     But the evening was enjoyable and Kim's casting practice was not wasted time. Our thinking has always been, if you want to catch fish you need to put in your time on the stream. I can't wait until Monday when the holiday will afford me another opportunity to fish.
     On the way home as we headed east we watched the full moon rising in all it's splendor. It is the second full moon of August which makes it a blue moon. Kind-o'-sort of the way I catch fish, once in a blue moon.

Blue Heron on the Stream

   Kim and I had some time to go fly fishing together this week. After I got out of work we drove to a local stream and we geared up for a two hour window of trout fishing. The weather was perfect, very little wind and puffy clouds, at a temperature that doesn't make your legs sweat. If you have ever worn waders on a hot day you know what I mean.
   My hope was to get Kim into some new casting techniques that would produce strikes. The problems I needed to overcome were... the water was low and calm ... the hour was 3:00 in the afternoon. The sun was bright ... and the water was clear as glass. After a few casts we had spooked the trout to the bottom of the pool. But we continued trying to entice one of them to bite. And finally Kim had one on. As she struggled to retrieve the slack, her pole tip lowered and that was enough for the trout to spit out her nymph. So we went over some basic rules of retrieving line. Don't give the fish any slack, keep the pole tip up, strip in the line and don't reel the line in.
  Kim complains there are to many things to remember when your heart is racing from the adrenaline of hooking up. And that is precisely why we love to fish. The rush of catching a fish is like being a kid again. Do you agree?
   As we continued to enjoy our beautiful afternoon date. We saw a blue heron float across the sky in front of us and land in the stream about thirty feet away. Kim got her camera and started recording it. As she did a second blue heron sailed in and landed right next to the first. It squawked and one flew off. Kim continued to film as the bird tiptoed in the shallow water searching for a snack.

                                                                      Kim's video

   Nature is the other thing that makes fly fishing so enjoyable. To be where animals react in their natural surroundings has great benefits to our health and stress reduction. You might find nature on walks and bicycling also. But fly fishing at times can have you standing still with little movement while observing all that goes on around you. Don't forget to take your camera. It's a must for every tackle bag.
No telling when you'll see a whole family of blue heron on the stream or hatching from their nest.
   Kim and I ended up only hooking a few fish but it was well worth the time.

  

Summer Practice Stream

Yesterday, I took my wife out fishing for the afternoon. Kim has not donned the waders for a while. And I thought she needed some practice casting before the fall trout runs start up. I took her to a stream near my home which provides various types of water where different techniques can be applied.

We started with a simple small pool casting downstream with over hanging branches. She practiced keeping the fly rod at waist level and parallel with the water to get under the low branches. She was using a strike indicator and golden stonefly nymph.

Kim's first cast was taken by a small creek chub, and after a few more cast she hooked a small mouth bass. I was glad to see that her fishing had not suffered over the past few months. She worked the fly line like a pro. And as we moved to areas of riffles and shallow runs it was apparent that she knew how to catch and release fish. 

I fished a little drop off at the top of a run and Kim fished the back water in the tail out of the same. Kim had switched over to a dry fly sulphur parachute and was getting hits in calm water. While I was getting crazy with creek chub. I saw a large black bass darting for cover as my line drifted through the run. A few more casts and I got a fat creek chub twisting and turning on my tippet. Then from under the cover of sticks came a shadow that latched on to my chub. It was the black bass hitting on my helpless bait fish. The predator came into shallow water and thrashed about several times. I could see the determination of the bass trying to swallow the chub. But without a larger hook, my line would pull out of his mouth. I retrieved my line and we set off for home.  All the fish were only summer fingerlings, but it gave me a story for today.

Summer Nights

The best thing about the Summer of 2012 is that there is still water in our drought stricken streams.

I'm going to try again to blog some new stories this fall about our favorite sport.
And that's another thing I want to blog about. Why is fly fishing not an olympic sport?

But first I've got to tell you about Summer Night Fishing. If you have not tried fishing after dark than you must put it on your bucket list. This was something I had always wanted to try but never took the time. Sure I had fished evenings and into the twilight hours after sunset. I've been there catching that last glimpse of light hitting the water above of a rising trout. I've waded back across a stream as a thin fog lifts towards the night sky. But this was my first time fly fishing, as it were, starting after dark and catching fish until midnight.

And I mean first time fly fishing...
I went last week and found night time fishing for trout heightens your awareness of fly fishing.  All the things you do while fishing become new to you again. When I got on the stream it was about 9:20 PM. The night sky was already showing stars. The half moon of August had not risen yet. My first mistake was thinking that I could easily tie on a tippet and fly when I reached the stream. So I had an old leader with a wool yarn strike indicator and fly on my line from the last time I had been out. I was not quite ready to go, but was so anxious that I cast it anyway. My first cast was ten feet off my rod tip and something slammed my indicator. My second cast bore the same result. So I stepped back out of the stream and retied a new leader without the strike indicator. I tied on a floating muddler minnow that I had created earlier in the day.

The next few casts were difficult to get use too because it was like casting into the wind. Only instead of wind it was an endless wall of darkness. Not knowing where the fly was landing did make setting the hook more difficult. Finally I caught this nice brown trout.

Get the whole story at JP Ross Site.

http://www.jprossflyrods.com/staff/fishing_log/entry.php?id=1195?blog=17&id=1195