One fish that has eluded me on the fly rod is the Great Lakes brown trout. Both New York and Pennsylvania now have thriving Great Lakes brown trout stocking programs. The program in New York is more mature and in late October, these brown trout that commonly grow to 30” and larger come into the Lake Ontario tributaries to spawn. Last week I was doing some research on where I’d have the best shot at catching one of these giants and the two bodies of water that kept coming up in my research were both located in western New York, the Oak Orchard and 18 Mile Creeks. I found a video on YouTube that was posted in 2015 by Holsinger’s Fly Shop, and in it, they discuss the great run of lake-run brown trout, steelhead, and salmon that comes up the 18 Mile Creek through Newfane, New York. After watching several other videos, I decided I had to head to Newfane to see if I could hook-up with one of these brown trout.
Read moreLow And Clear On The Erie Tribs
Early Friday morning I drove to Erie, Pennsylvania to kick-off my 2016 steelhead season. I met my buddy Jon at the Green Roof Inn in Girard and we decided to start our weekend of fishing on lower Elk Creek below Uncle John’s Campground. I had been watching the fishing reports out of Erie for a few weeks and the reoccurring theme was few fish and low and clear water. After fishing the Salmon River for a month, I was familiar with drought conditions and low water, but Erie has not been experiencing drought conditions, simply low water. I wasn’t sure what the Erie tributaries would look like but I was expecting conditions similar to the 2015 season. When Jon and I arrived at the state lot below the campground, we got geared up and headed down to the creek. When we got to the water, my jaw hit the ground. I couldn’t believe how low the water was. Our favorite riffle water was down to a few inches at best and there was little to no water movement in areas where it traditionally flows strong.
Read moreSalmon River Chinooks In High Gear
On Wednesday it was still bothering me that my time fly fishing the Upper Fly Zone on the Salmon River the prior weekend had been unproductive. I was thinking of calling it quits on the 2016 salmon season and starting to focus my energy on autumn steelhead or brown trout. Then Thursday evening it hit me I hadn’t looked at the Douglaston Salmon Run (“DSR”) report all week. I surfed over to their website and within seconds of reading their Thursday, October 6th report, I knew what I’d be doing on Friday morning. The line in the report that got me was the note from a guide who fished the Lower Clay Hole that morning who said he conservatively estimated 1,000 fish moved past him. Throughout the month of September, all the charter boat captains were saying that there were huge numbers of marked salmon sitting just offshore. I knew the potential for an epic run was there, but after the last three years, you just couldn’t definitively say it was going to happen. Well folks, it happened.
Read moreChasing Chinooks On The Upper Fly Zone
On September 29th the Salmon River saw the best run of salmon so far this season. The Douglaston Salmon Run (“DSR”) was reporting large numbers of fish clogging the river entrance in their morning report and the afternoon report mentioned a client hooking 100 fish and landing 20. While the fishing slowed on Friday, I was still anxious to get on the water Saturday morning. Access to the DSR for the weekend had been sold-out for weeks. The first weekend in October is a common time that many anglers who do an annual trip to Pulaski make their trek. With the DSR out of the equation, I decided I was going to target the public water in the Upper Fly Zone just above the Salmon River Fish Hatchery. I knew this area was not going to hold the volume of fish that were in the lower river, but for what it lacked in fish, it would make up for in limited fishing pressure.
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