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.