CNYFlyfish

Here in Central New York, we are lucky to have a beautiful freestone stream that is fed heavily by springs in its headwaters and sporadically throughout its length. This influx of cold water gives this stream spring-creek characteristics and cold water throughout the summer and can provide some great dry fly fishing for beautiful stream-bred brown trout during the summer season.

It was a windy afternoon and evening on 5/31 but between the gusts there was calm. There were a variety of insects hatching including caddis and some larger sulfurs. A couple smaller fish came up to a swinging pheasant tail wet fly during the afternoon and one larger fish missed a skating caddis emerger dry fly. Later in the evening the fish seemed to be taking the large sulfur mayflies and at 7 PM this beautiful golden brown took a Catskill style cream colored dry fly. flyfishing centralnewyorkflyfishing

Shortly after we arrived on Christmas morning, on my very first short cast, using an unweighted fly swung through some heavy chop. This absolutely gorgeous fish aggressively grabbed the fly. What ensued was one of the best battles I’ve experienced, as he took me into the backing twice and jumped multiple times. I felt lucky to finally guide him to a soft spot and get a photo.

In the winter on the Salmon River, swinging techniques may require some adjustments. On 12/22 with a release of 350 cfs from the dam, I used a 12 and 1/2 foot rod, a 54 foot mid belly Spey line with an intermediate sinking leader and an unweighted fly. I fished the entire day without a single tug. The next day on 12/23, I switched to a 14 foot rod, a shooting head and a heavier leader and was able to slow the fly down and present it deeper than the previous day. This beautiful fish grabbed the fly as it swung slowly through the center of the pool. After a battle complete with a few jumps and a few hard runs, she came to the bank.

We arrived early to a Lake Erie tributary to one of our favorite holes. We immediately saw a fish porpoise in the run so we knew there was at least one there. Over the next six hours we enjoyed sharing the pool and fishing a number of different flies as we ended up hooking numerous fish, all taken without split shot or sinking leaders. The fish of the day was one that got away. What looked like a large chrome fish took a swinging freestyle Spey Fly , but came off after the first quick run and head shakes.

I had been watching this fish for a few weeks. The pool where the fish is currently holding has a high vantage point. With the low-clear water of this year, I could watch the movements and behavior and saw that the fish moved up to the shallower head of the deep pool frequently. My goal was to catch the fish on a dry fly, even though I had not seen the fish rise the previous times I had visited. On October 2nd, I arrived at the pool at 6 PM and noticed numerous fish rising at the head of the pool during a caddis fly hatch. I picked the smallest most subtle rise form and casted a No. 14 caddis emerger a good distance above the rise. This particular fly was shown to me by a much older fishing buddy who is no longer with us. He loved fishing this stream. I was lucky to have picked the right rise form. I couldn’t really see the fly very well in the foam line, but I saw the same subtle rise near where I thought the small fly was drifting and lifted the rod. After many head shakes and one huge long run down the pool, I was able to bring this gorgeous fish to the bank.

This colorful brown took an isonychia parachute emerger pattern at around 5 PM on 9/21 during a sporadic emergence of the insects.

My grandfather used to talk about a fly pattern called the White Miller which he used to fish his home water. When I was a kid and through my teen years I hadn’t realized why he had mentioned the fly. I certainly see what he was talking about after years of fishing those same waters.

Mayfly and Caddis hatches are ramping up here in central New York. On a recent outing we experienced multiple species of both caddis and mayflies hatching at the same time with numerous fish coming to the surface to feed. When multiple hatches are happening, analyzing the rise form of a particular fish can help with success, in addition to selecting an appropriate fly pattern. This particular fish was rising slowly with the head coming up first and then the tail being seen as the fish glided back to its original spot. This led me to believe the fish was taking an emergent mayfly that was just below or just reaching the surface and was in the process of molting to a dun. A simple rabbit foot emerger pattern, which sits just below the surface, on a dead drift fooled this beautiful central New York fish.

Over the past month in central New York we can experience, a steelhead on a swung fly, a drop back Finger Lakes rainbow trout on a fly stripped slowly through the pool, and a beautiful stream bred brown trout on a quiet spring fed gem.