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.