flyfishingchronicles.com

Thousand Islands Angling – July 4 to July 11

craigdennison1 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:07:12 +0000

I took my Tribalance kayak to the Eel Bay /Wellesley Island Region of the Thousand Islands in early July and enjoyed a pleasant week of fishing and family time. Many days I fished 3-4 hours, exploring various flats, rocky points, drop offs, weed lines, tiny rock islands and other visible structure. . Windy conditions and rain made sight fishing difficult, but most nights I was treated to a superb sunset

I fished w/ an 8wt intermediate clear line and a 7 wt floater. During the trip I landed 7 pike up to 28″, several dozen smallmouth up to 3lbs and a posse of scrappy rock bass and perch. Most fish fell for a chartruese clouser or some type of leech/crayfish imitation. Anchored up or slowly drifting, I was able to catch fish between 3′ and 20′ of water. All of the pike hit on weed edges and I only used 12lb flouro leader, only breaking off 2 pike the entire time. The flourocarbon leader provided more hook ups over wire, and smallmouth were more likely to hit w/out the wire. The smallmouth seemed to prefer broken structure/mottled bottoms and transition areas. Oddly, my two best smallmouth each fell for a tiny 1.5″ clouser.

It is worth noting that I did miss a hefty 5-6 lb smallmouth that taunted me within feet of our Island (where we stayed). In addition, I spooked a hog of a muskie one night as I was admiring the sunset and taking pictures. There certainly are bigger fish around. Next time you have a chance, consider making a short trip to the Thousand Islands. This regional warmwater fishery w/ a fly rod is very manageable and there are plenty of perch/rock bass/sunfish/smallmouth/largemouth/pike to target.

4th of Oatka

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:43:31 +0000

Went fishing on the Oatka with my father-in-law and my friend Will. Water levels were high but they were on there way down from several days of rain. At 3.1 in height and 250 cfps the water had a brown tint but was clear enough to see the bottom in most places.

We thought we would try beatles and found only rising fish would take them along the banks. There were not a lot of risers but Will caught one nice 16″ brown this way. Most of the fish were taken with either nymphs or streamers. Other than Will’s none of them had any size. We only fished from 11am to 3pm. I think if we had more time we would have dialed into some larger fish. Regardless it was a very nice way to spend an afternoon on July 4th.

West Branch Delaware River – June 2009

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:39:11 +0000

Another year another Spring trip to the West Branch of the Delaware River. This year’s trip included about 14 members from our Canandaigua Trout Unlimited Chapter. As always everyone had a great time fishing with each other and enjoyed their stay at the West Branch Angler.

Every year I think I have learned enough from the previous year to think I can conquer the West Branch. Every year the West Branch teaches me a lesson. This year I learned how important it is to have long leaders (at least 12 foot), to cast down stream to a rising fish, and to learn how to nymph between hatches (make sure you are scraping the bottom with your nymph). These lessons prevented me from getting closed out of fish on this trip. In total I caught 6 fish two of which were of any size. That may not sound like much but for me it was a victory. I know I have more to learn but the West Branch is such an incredible challenge and beautiful place those victories are very rewarding.

In fact this video shows how challenging the West Branch can be. Watch as my friend, Dave, gets shut out by 3 very large brown trout. If you have ever fished the West Branch you will feel Dave’s pain. Watch and weep.

Here are some pictures from this year’s trip:

West Branch Delaware – Day Trip

craigdennison1 — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:47:55 +0000

The front that moved through Saturday brought gusty winds, rain, hail, sunshine, no wind, rainbows, bright sun and then clouds. Challenging conditions for fishing the ever fickle West Branch. We saw decent tan caddis and a limited hendrickson hatch (2:30 pm) w/ spinner fall (5-7 pm). Between the shifting winds, we managed to locate a number of rising fish. Attached are a few photos. I don’t know of any other East Coast fishery where you can consistently land a 20″ or greater, wild brown trout on a dry fly. Long leaders, drag free presentations, specialized flies and spooky fish are the rule, but they sure are gorgeous if you can fool them.

May Brown

Mon, 04 May 2009 14:33:15 +0000

Well the first week of May is here and I finally slipped out of the house last night to get some fishing in before dark. I went down to Irondequoit Creek just in time for the evening hatch. There were midges, mays, and dark caddis coming off. I almost never see the fish on Irondequoit creek feed on the surface but tonight they were. I put on a size 16 elks hair caddis and a beadhead pheasant tail dropper. My nymph got caught up on the bottom right away so I switched to the just the caddis. Although my caddis fly was much lighter than what was hatching the fish started striking it right away. I ended up catching this small but feisty brown and had a couple more on. One was a 15″ brown that I played four about a minute until he got off. I think I will go back this week and see if I can pull him out of his hole. Stay tuned…

Spring Steelhead

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:15:32 +0000

A friend of mine called me up a couple of weeks ago and said that his brothers-in-law were coming to town and wanted to go steelhead fishing. Of course I said I would join him and suggested that we go to Oak Orchard in Carlton, NY. My friend had never been before but heard quite a bit about the legendary fight of these Lake Ontario steelhead. We went out last Saturday. It was a beautiful but cold day. The sun was shining, but the water was still around 47 degrees. The fish seemed happy rolling like tarpon as they moved upstream, but nothing. We threw egg patterns, streamers, and even a tube fly at thess fish but nothing. Since we drove separately I decided I would leave at noon but my friend Cody and his brothers-in-law decided to stay. They fished from approximately from 9am til 4:30 pm and finally caught the steelhead pictured below. I believe they caught this one on a streamer, but had the advantage of site fishing. I wish I was there for the catch, but I understand it was a thrill for my friend Cody to catch this fish. Looks like yet another who is addicted to our wonderful New York steelhead. Tight Lines Cody!

Fly Fishing Film Tour

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:32:29 +0000

Need something to do while you wait for the first hatch of the season? Go to the Fly Fishing Film Tour in your home town. It is a series of high energy films about fly fishing. They are the kind of flims that will make you want to grab your gear and go fishing right after the film. Our Trout Unlimited Chapter – Canandaigua, NY, announced that the Fly Fishing Film Tour is visiting us on March 21st. If you live in the Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse areas, you are not going to want to miss this. Click here for ticket information.

Lake Ontario Browns

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:49:33 +0000

We are truly fortunate and thankful to live in Western NY where we have great trout streams and rivers. In addition to this we also have world class steelhead and lake run brown trout fisheries. Yesterday I got out with a few of my friends to try our luck for some Lake Ontario steelheads and browns. The conditions were a bit tenuous with quite a bit of snow and rain with very cold temperatures. The first Lake Ontario trib we tried was running too high and cold. The fish were just not responding to our flies. After a few hours we decided to try a tailwater to Lake Ontario which would have some better water conditions. It did and as a group we were able to land 6 large lake run browns. Although the browns do not fight like steelheads, they are beautiful and do put up a good fight. It was a nice way to start my Thanksgiving holiday.

Creek Foam

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:56:00 +0000

On Saturday I decided to go take a look at some of the streams closer to my house. Most of them have been subjected to heavy farming and runoff and don’t look so hot. They tend to be very muddy, have lots of algae and have limited bug activity. From time to time when I am on streams like this one I have noticed foam on the water. My first reaction when I see something like this is that it must be polution. Fortunately I have a fly fishing friend who is a toxicologist. He once told me that the foam is not pollution but a break down of organic material that is agitated by the stream. Just in case you ever wondered about this there is a more detailed explanation on this site: http://www.lakesuperiorstreams.org/understanding/foam.html

Adirondacks – Indian River

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:08:49 +0000

Well I decided to spend my last morning of vacation fishing the Indian River. I had a number of hits from Rainbows but was only able to pull in the two pictured below. I caught one on a stimulator and the other on a beadhead nymph. They were nice little fish and fought hard. I would like to spend more time on this river because I know there are some larger fish and some brookies here.

farney_steelhead

mjfarni — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:57:08 PDT

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mjfarni — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:55:07 PDT

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mjfarni — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:55:03 PDT

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mjfarni — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:54:57 PDT

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mjfarni — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:54:53 PDT

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