June 8th was the day my luck turned for the better. A well planned trip found me headed early Sunday morning to East Koy creek.

This inland stream promises both wild and stocked brown trout and an occasional brook trout.

It empties into the Wiscoy which in turn empties into the Genesee River somewhere near Filmore, NY.

This was my second time fishing this stream. The first time, with no success, was more of a drive-by test run.

That Sunday morning was sunny and warm when I arrived around 6:00. My garb fashioned sunglasses, vest, a wide brim hat, an olive Columbia short sleeve, slacks with rubber bands at the ankles to keep the spiders out. I put on some wading shoes and headed down stream. My heart raced with excitement as I followed along a barbed wire fence line on the bank above the clear early lit water. The blue of the sky sparkled in the glare that hid the possible fish catch I was passing by. Once the fence path ended, I entered the stream. It was frigid, as a trout stream should be mid June. The water was moving fast down hill for a good long ways. I tired many casts to the pockets behind boulders, but the depth was shallow and I could see nothing moving. Each cast took me further into the woods surrounding the creek. At one point I felt lost, as if I had been transported to the Adirondacks. There is a pine grove that lines the East Koy. Fly fishing all the while I looked, expecting to see black bear markings.

Then the sun broke through the tall pines and shined on the creek that had leveled out into a flat. I waited before I moved up on it.

I stood still, scanning the water, looking for a hatch or for a fish rising. No large hatches, one or two mayflies, then…. there it was, one fish nipped the top water just below the film. 

To this fish, I must admit, there was nothing interesting about a rusty old beat up fly. Wasted much time fishing the top water... would take off my dry fly and position a bead head and then another nymph until my thinking was the fish had moved out or was never there to begin with. So I made my way further downstream to come upon a nice, cloudy water hole. 

I tied on a yellow stone fly and drifted it in the 3 foot pocket. And withdrew my first fish of the day. 

12  inch stocked brown released

The next few photos are a bit foggy because while taking pictures of this fish,

I dropped my phone into the East Koy.

There might have been another trout in that hole, and I tried for a while, but my concentration was lost, concerned about my cell. It was stuck on camera and the touch screen was not working. It would not return to the main screen but I could still shoot photos with the manual button. The lens fogged over.

I then moved on down steam where I came across an uprooted tree. I removed the yellow stone fly, not wanting to lose it in the strange hole. I tied on a black bead head to skirt the hanging roots.

A couple of casts drew this 12 inch brown out from under the stump.

Tough to photograph when you can't see the display

Then another smaller trout about 8 inches bit hard on the tippet, jumped about 2 feet out of the water, twisted like a world cup soccer player and broke the fly clean off. 

I must have walked a mile or so and it was getting toward noon when I decided to return to my truck. On the way back upstream, I spotted a hole I had passed up thinking it was too shallow. I looked closer and noticed the creek cut under the bank quite a ways. Using a larger yellow stone fly, I cast into the riffle which pulled my float toward the bank. On the retrieve I saw a flash. My heart skipped a beat and quickly tossed another cast into the same run. Bam! this one was no 12 inch. He fought long and hard with a short run of my reel. I knew from previous experience this was no usual brown. He turned out to be a wild fish,

no damage, clean and no clipped fins. His adipose fin was about 1.25 inches long.

It had a shiny blue spot on the gill plate on both sides. Measured to 18.5 inches.

bright blue gill markings

clean undamaged fins

My day had a great finish and I value the time spent in God's creation. Each day is a blessing when you can relax behind a fly rod. Unless you work in a sporting goods store. Have fun and go fishing.... again!

Oh yes, I put my cell in a bag of rice for two days. My sim card was filled with about 30 blank photos. It's working now, just fine.