I've kept myself busy over the past couple weekends getting out and doing some fishin', so I thought I'd update with some notes on the experiences.
The weekend of 11/2 we went out to Syracuse to help out with car related stuff for the old lady's brother, so after that I decided to take a quick drive up to SR for my first time fishing there during lake run season! Conditions were in the forties with clouds and some drizzle. A glance at the water flow before I left confirmed that the river was flowing a bit heavy after the few days of rain we had had as it was flowing at ~2200 cfs. Being my first time there, I didn't really know what to think about the water level, but after finding a handful of cars at the better known spots, I thought what the heck and started having a go.
At least with limited time at Sportsman pool and spots upstream of it, I couldn't find a good position to get good casts in to start working a run. I did seem to find spots I'd have more room to cast on the North side of the river, but decided to try another spot altogether instead of drive to the other side.
A call to the friendly staff at Whitaker's had me try out the upper fly zone in/near? Altmar. I now know why they're named "fly zones" at least in reference to the river side features. A good 1,000 feet of river bank on either side is fairly clear of large obstacles to get a good back cast going if needed and the river edge doesn't drop off too quickly for easier wading if flows allow.
Alas, the water flow skunked many of us fishing from what I saw during the few hours I was there. I did see one hook up a bit further downstream of the upper fly area on the North side of the river, but that was really it. I called it a day once it started raining a bit harder but that urge is always there to actually catch a fish, you know?! Luckily, I got out to try again the next day!
As flows at SR were still high on Sunday, I called it a weekend on trying to catch my first lake runner and did some inland fishing at a small stream near Marcellus. Unfortunately, the only gear I had was my 9wt! I thought, "oh what the heck" and went out anyway. It was much of the same action wise, though I'm sure much of it had to do with the giant 30-20-10 lb leader I had constructed for the big guys. But I did actually hook up once! High sticking a run with a small size 20 PT on 6x? tippet I left attached yielded a cutesy of a brown, the only fish of the weekend, but hey, you win some, you lose some :)
This past Sunday featured more inland fishing as I was too lazy to make it out to my favorite spots on "Granular Particles" Creek west of Rochester lol. Conditions were cloudy in the 40-45F range with 10-20 mph gusts. This made casting tiny nymphs on light line with my Kabuto 7043 a bit difficult, and after an hour of errant casts, I decided to move on.
Trying a few of my favorite spots at another creek nearby that's tributary to the Genesee River yielded a bit more luck. Nymphing at this particular stream is still not my forte. There are many lies that seem like they could be fruitful, but I need to spend many more days on that stream to make those determinations. I decided to go with some small woolly buggers as a searching pattern and after moving to a couple of different spots, I finally found one that produced some action. Interestingly I had most of the action at the end of my swing in the few moments the fly was just hanging out below me. I hooked into two and missed a few more opportunities, but the angle I need to set the hook proved my undoing and I landed no fish on the day. Not quite as frustrating as the previous weekend, but it beats working!
I recently read an article on Midcurrent and the author wrote about a problem I've been having in my fly tying hobby. It was that early in his fly tying "career" he would always tie these onesie, twosie type extravagant but unique patterns because he would get bored, then keep moving on to the next one. Over time, and as he gained experience tying flies, he began to notice the "systematically" tied flies began to yield more success in actual fishing than his one-off type of flies. At least in his case he realized that his "systematically" tied flies allowed him to approach certain sections of a stream/river he wouldn't necessarily approach with his other flies because he had more of them. He wasn't afraid of snagging on the bottom or in the trees because he had multiple back ups. That elimination of timidity allowed him to cover more water, and so his strike percentage increased.
Reading that article really helped me move forward in my fly tying. In the end, it's still about adding creative touches in patterns here and there, just need to tie more of them at one time!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
But autumn's here!
Date: 10/12
It's been a few months in the making, but I finally got all my gear together to tackle some autumn tributary fishing. Being somewhat skittish of tackling a larger river like the Genny for my first time out, I decided on a small creek to the west of the city. It was Columbus Day weekend which made it out to be a bit more populated than normal I guess. No matter, just a little stroll downstream a bit got me to a small pool I could have to myself. Now I hadn't seen a fully grown salmon in real life before (I mean alive, yes, salmon fillets are large) so I hadn't really prepared myself to see a 3+ foot monster swim past me on the way down! If I didn't catch a fish, this was definitely going to be an experience!
Conditions: partly cloudy to sunny, 70-75F
Time: 8:00-11:30
Autumn means tributary fishing in our little corner of the world, but I'm dismayed to say that I hadn't tried it out....until today!
It's been a few months in the making, but I finally got all my gear together to tackle some autumn tributary fishing. Being somewhat skittish of tackling a larger river like the Genny for my first time out, I decided on a small creek to the west of the city. It was Columbus Day weekend which made it out to be a bit more populated than normal I guess. No matter, just a little stroll downstream a bit got me to a small pool I could have to myself. Now I hadn't seen a fully grown salmon in real life before (I mean alive, yes, salmon fillets are large) so I hadn't really prepared myself to see a 3+ foot monster swim past me on the way down! If I didn't catch a fish, this was definitely going to be an experience!
Conditions seemed to be less than optimal after talking to a few other fisherman. We haven't had our typical fall weather lately and it's showing in the water level and and air temperatures. I had tied up a few bunny leeches in white, purple, and chart with hourglass eyes in sizes 2 and 6 for the occasion and chucked them out there. With the water so low and only tying weighted streamers, I didn't have much choice except to swim them past and keep them out of the weeds.
By the end of my time there I had seen about 10 salmon truck past me, but hadn't hooked into one. It seemed they were somewhat skittish of the swung fly and may have responded better to a dead drifted presentation.
Next time, I'll tie a few lightly dressed flies to deal with the low water. I also learned something new yesterday in researching more flies to tie for trib fishing. Salmon actually eat eggs! I was under the impression that they don't eat at all while migrating/spawning. Whoduhthunk?! So I'll tie up some egg sucking leeches and other egg pattern flies for the next time out.
Till next time!
By the end of my time there I had seen about 10 salmon truck past me, but hadn't hooked into one. It seemed they were somewhat skittish of the swung fly and may have responded better to a dead drifted presentation.
Next time, I'll tie a few lightly dressed flies to deal with the low water. I also learned something new yesterday in researching more flies to tie for trib fishing. Salmon actually eat eggs! I was under the impression that they don't eat at all while migrating/spawning. Whoduhthunk?! So I'll tie up some egg sucking leeches and other egg pattern flies for the next time out.
Till next time!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Aaaandd summer's gone...
Date: 9/29 Conditions: Sunny, no significant wind, 74F
Time: 8:30-13:00
Predominant Bug(s): Big ol trico swarms
Gage Height: 2.43'
The day's journey started out at my favorite partially spring-fed inland trout stream. Though the calendar says summer's pretty much over, the weather said otherwise and it shaped up to be a beautiful day indeed. The creek is definitely still in summer flow mode with basically no rain for the past week. That meant our fishy friends dropped back to some of the deeper pools for some extra cover over their backs.
Alas, with the day shaping up to be so beautiful, the fishing ended up being slooowww. All manner of ants, beetles, nymphs, and streamers couldn't rouse some of the more adventurous trout. After a good hike upstream to a few of my favorite spots, then back down again chucking a streamer in vain, I called it quits.
Because I'm such a poor blogger, I hadn't written anything about the Kabuto 7043 rod build that I had introduced in the past. I loved the personalization opportunities that come with building your own rod. Every component and detail meant something and it truly becomes one of a kind. Well I finished that rod, it was sitting right in the car, beckoning to be cast. That coupled with the irresistible urge to, you know, actually catch a fish...
So wandered over to our spring-fed creek nearby, intent on only spending a half hour at most before heading home. I had taken somewhat of a risk in choosing a fiberglass blank for my new fly rod, but I didn't expect it to be so sweet! Effortless roll casting from 5-20' and no false casts from 20-30'. Trout responded well to size 20? PT nymphs but no action on size 18 midge larva. 6 hooks but only two landed, probably could have had more with a size change. Could be the fishing pressure they see all the time, but I noticed these fish respond well (don't spook) when they're lined, though maybe a 4 wt line is light enough that that doesn't happen? I don't know. I had my fair share of errant casts and the targeted fish stayed in their feeding lane or didn't move.
Overall, a nice day to get out on the water!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Report - 7/28 How time flies!
Location: That O' Creek, 2.66'
Conditions: Rainy then clearing, 71F
Time: 9:00a-11:30p
Predominant Bug(s): Tricos!
It's been a very busy summer with activities coming around like camping, festival season, July 4th, and vacation planning! As such, fishing opportunities have become sporadic at best, but I've found a few hours here and there the past few weeks mainly warmwater fishing. I was up for a change of pace yesterday and headed out to our favorite inland coldwater stream.
This most recent outing was a particularly great one only because I got to get my trout fix on for the first time in months! Yes months! Gloomy was a good descriptor of the morning's weather as I set out for the short hike to one of my favorite sites within the park. Once there, the familiar sights and sounds of splashy rises greeted the senses. A quick glance in a small eddy revealed the hatch of the moment. Tricos!
The spinner fall was full on at riffle upstream, but due to the incoming rain, I couldn't keep the tiny flies at the surface where our friends were feeding at the moment. After a few minutes of trying to make do with a now drowned trico imitation, I added a small pheasant tail dropper and indicator and began working the pool.
On my third or fourth good drift through the smack dab middle of the pool, I saw my indicator hesitate, I set, and it was fightin' time! Clearly agitated by a hook in his maw, the little ball of energy put on a beautiful aerial show for me before succumbing to a gently placed net. It ended up being a very nice 12" Oatka wild brown. I need to take more close up pictures of these guys as this one was particularly vivid!
I didn't have much more luck as the spinner fall was ending around 11am and everything seemed to quiet way down. A little more time with nymphs and streamers still yielded nothing, so I decided to call it a day.
Family and friends are coming into town for our much belated Housewarming Party so Saturday will be a wash fishing wise. Hopefully, dad and I will be recovered enough come Sunday morning so I can bring him to our wonderful fishery for the first time!
That's it from me! Till next time and I hopefully you'll heed my advice more than I do myself when I say get out there and fish!
Conditions: Rainy then clearing, 71F
Time: 9:00a-11:30p
Predominant Bug(s): Tricos!
This most recent outing was a particularly great one only because I got to get my trout fix on for the first time in months! Yes months! Gloomy was a good descriptor of the morning's weather as I set out for the short hike to one of my favorite sites within the park. Once there, the familiar sights and sounds of splashy rises greeted the senses. A quick glance in a small eddy revealed the hatch of the moment. Tricos!
The spinner fall was full on at riffle upstream, but due to the incoming rain, I couldn't keep the tiny flies at the surface where our friends were feeding at the moment. After a few minutes of trying to make do with a now drowned trico imitation, I added a small pheasant tail dropper and indicator and began working the pool.
On my third or fourth good drift through the smack dab middle of the pool, I saw my indicator hesitate, I set, and it was fightin' time! Clearly agitated by a hook in his maw, the little ball of energy put on a beautiful aerial show for me before succumbing to a gently placed net. It ended up being a very nice 12" Oatka wild brown. I need to take more close up pictures of these guys as this one was particularly vivid!
I didn't have much more luck as the spinner fall was ending around 11am and everything seemed to quiet way down. A little more time with nymphs and streamers still yielded nothing, so I decided to call it a day.
Family and friends are coming into town for our much belated Housewarming Party so Saturday will be a wash fishing wise. Hopefully, dad and I will be recovered enough come Sunday morning so I can bring him to our wonderful fishery for the first time!
That's it from me! Till next time and I hopefully you'll heed my advice more than I do myself when I say get out there and fish!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Report - 5/4/2013
Location: Oatka Creek, 2.80'
Conditions: Sunny, 79F
Time: 8:00a-1:00p
Predominant Bug(s): Nothing significant hatching
It was a beautiful day on the water but unfortunately, the weather and casting practice were the highlights of my day. Nothing was coming off the water in significant numbers, so I set up a nymphing rig (sans indicator), and went to town. It seemed size 16 and 20 baetis nymphs would do the trick after some rock turning, but after an hour of nothing, I decided to switch up and move.I decided to spend a little time photographing the bugs I'm trying to emulate while I'm tying. In my previous post I had discussed how I had caught my first fish on a nymph. In researching flies to tie during the very first days of my fly tying adventure, I took to Jason Neuswanger's excellent website, troutnut.com, for some details on the flies I was trying to replicate. And details I found...If you've ever been Jason's website, I'm sure you've found whatever information you were looking for, and probably more.
Perhaps I'm alone in this, but visiting his website and trying to absorb that much information while still so green to the activity was overwhelming! So...I did what I probably should've done just starting out fly tying, copied some of the classics! BH pheasants, Prince's, Hare's Ear's, etc.
Well after photographing a few of these early season (Hendrickson? and Golden Stone) specimens, I realized that I need to be tying smaller! Those Hendricksons anyway were on the order of size 20-22 I believe, but I'm wondering if they're smaller earlier in the season? I'll have to research that a bit.The rest of the fishing day was much like the beginning. I did hook into a couple, but broke them off. I need to improve those knots, maybe I'm not wetting them enough before seating them? Maybe the Davy Knot isn't what I hope it would be?
Overall, still a great day to get out and enjoy the water. And I learned something new about this little creek of ours!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Report - 4/6/2013
Conditions: Sunny/partly cloudy 44F
Location: Oatka Creek, 3.08'
Time: 1:00P-3:30P
Predominant Bug(s): A midge landed on me, saw a couple popping off the surface but didnt ID them
Thought I'd take advantage of some nice weather and do some fishin! I've tried and failed in the past to fish with nymphs, so I thought I'd give them a try again. I tied on a gold ribbed pheasant and an unweighted pheasant, both 18s to a couple feet of 7x tippet, and made a couple casts with a couple splits and an indicator. I tried a couple fairly uniform riffles with no luck and decided to move after I broke off on some rocks.
I switched up to heavier 5x with a size 12 prince and a size 18 transluscent bead pheasant and cast a few times to a riffle with a nice seam on the right hand side. Now it was a little too choppy in the riffle for me to discern much adverse indicator movement, so any semblance of a quick set was out the window. I was snagging bottom fairly regularly, which I understand is a good thing, so I got into a rhythm of putting some tension into the snags to free them. So you can imagine my surprise when the rock I thought I had snagged on started moving! My first trout on a nymph and first of 2013!! It was a beautiful 14" brown and what a great fight it put on with a couple of nice runs. He actually made me feel like my first day fishing all over again, I could get him in the net, had to dunk him back in the water multiple times to breathe because I couldnt get the tippet out from under his tongue. But amidst all that, that fish reminded me what it was all about, what a great thrill it was.
It was unfortunate I found that nice seam with so little time left available. A few casts later rewarded me with another tight line, but alas he broke free in the midst of a scamper downstream. If only I knew which fly fooled him.
Overall, what a great day on the water!
Location: Oatka Creek, 3.08'
Time: 1:00P-3:30P
Predominant Bug(s): A midge landed on me, saw a couple popping off the surface but didnt ID them
Thought I'd take advantage of some nice weather and do some fishin! I've tried and failed in the past to fish with nymphs, so I thought I'd give them a try again. I tied on a gold ribbed pheasant and an unweighted pheasant, both 18s to a couple feet of 7x tippet, and made a couple casts with a couple splits and an indicator. I tried a couple fairly uniform riffles with no luck and decided to move after I broke off on some rocks.
I switched up to heavier 5x with a size 12 prince and a size 18 transluscent bead pheasant and cast a few times to a riffle with a nice seam on the right hand side. Now it was a little too choppy in the riffle for me to discern much adverse indicator movement, so any semblance of a quick set was out the window. I was snagging bottom fairly regularly, which I understand is a good thing, so I got into a rhythm of putting some tension into the snags to free them. So you can imagine my surprise when the rock I thought I had snagged on started moving! My first trout on a nymph and first of 2013!! It was a beautiful 14" brown and what a great fight it put on with a couple of nice runs. He actually made me feel like my first day fishing all over again, I could get him in the net, had to dunk him back in the water multiple times to breathe because I couldnt get the tippet out from under his tongue. But amidst all that, that fish reminded me what it was all about, what a great thrill it was.
It was unfortunate I found that nice seam with so little time left available. A few casts later rewarded me with another tight line, but alas he broke free in the midst of a scamper downstream. If only I knew which fly fooled him.
Overall, what a great day on the water!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Kabuto
When I was still a fresh, wide-eyed fly fisher only a few years ago, I used (and still use) the internet to explore concepts, equipment, strategy, and other things that were new to me. I've highlighted a few sites in previous posts, but the ones I found early and keep going back to even today are brianonthefly.blogspot.com and Jordan Ross' jprossflyrods.com.
Early on in my quest for trout and searching for good reading to pass the time in the evenings, I stumbled upon bfly's blog Brianonthefly. It offered great tips and techniques to me, especially on local streams which I had been looking to learn more about at the time. In one of his posts he mentioned commissioning a rod builder to build a custom fly rod for him. It was to be a delicate piece built especially for very small creeks with spooky native brownies that take exceedingly small flies. That builder ended up being Jordan and one visit to his website got me thinking about a custom fly rod of my own.
The next few months were spent pondering a seemingly eternal question. Sparing the details of the journey and for reasons I have yet to fathom, I've decided to progress to the next phase of my fly fishing adventure, ROD BUILDING!
The best feature of custom rod building is obviously everything is DIY (well almost everything anyway). This being my inaugural fly rod build, I knew early on that I wanted to dig in to my roots for design. In case I hadn't discussed it previously, here's a brief synopsis of my background.
I was born on the island of Oahu in 1985 to my parents Dawne and Edwin and am of Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Spanish descent. My fiance is six different nationalities, so to say our children will be mutts is understating it! I was raised in Hawaii until I was 13 years old when my family and I moved almost ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE USA to Albany, NY. After high school, I chose RIT to obtain a very expensive piece of paper showing I had some knowledge of engineering, met my soon to be wife, started my career, and settled down into a house only last year. Whew...
The order in which my nationalities were listed seemed to a be a good starting point for the major components of my rod, so off we went. A cursory google search provided me with my first hurdle, a non-existent Philippine fly rod blank market. Honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting, so perhaps that is what allowed me to leap that hurdle quickly.
I knew I wanted to build something a little different than what the standard fly rod kits offered. I've also been taking to fiberglass rods for a little while too and after searching the webs, decided upon a blank offered by Kabuto Rods in Japan. The builds I got a chance to peruse using his standard, unsanded, translucent white blank were outstanding to say the least. Gray Wolf's build shown to the right is no exception, with the others I saw equally as impressive in build, color, and component combination.
The other elements I chose to reflect my nationalities were:
Hawaiian: Nickel Silver Koa seat/Grandpa's lei feather
Spanish: Red (scarlet) and gold silk thread
Filipino: Grandpa's lei feather
Chinese: "Fly fishing rod" in simplified Chinese
And here were some of the vendors I used for the components:
Vendors:
Kabuto Rods - 7043, white, unsanded
Snake Brand Guides - Universal
JE Arguello Rod Company - Red Agate 9mm
The Hook & Hackle Company - Fishhawk Silk, FlexCoat Lite
RL Reel Seats - Koa Reel Seat
I'll be chronicling the build as it progresses as well as discussing some of the components in future posts, till next time!
Early on in my quest for trout and searching for good reading to pass the time in the evenings, I stumbled upon bfly's blog Brianonthefly. It offered great tips and techniques to me, especially on local streams which I had been looking to learn more about at the time. In one of his posts he mentioned commissioning a rod builder to build a custom fly rod for him. It was to be a delicate piece built especially for very small creeks with spooky native brownies that take exceedingly small flies. That builder ended up being Jordan and one visit to his website got me thinking about a custom fly rod of my own.
The next few months were spent pondering a seemingly eternal question. Sparing the details of the journey and for reasons I have yet to fathom, I've decided to progress to the next phase of my fly fishing adventure, ROD BUILDING!
The best feature of custom rod building is obviously everything is DIY (well almost everything anyway). This being my inaugural fly rod build, I knew early on that I wanted to dig in to my roots for design. In case I hadn't discussed it previously, here's a brief synopsis of my background.
I was born on the island of Oahu in 1985 to my parents Dawne and Edwin and am of Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Spanish descent. My fiance is six different nationalities, so to say our children will be mutts is understating it! I was raised in Hawaii until I was 13 years old when my family and I moved almost ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE USA to Albany, NY. After high school, I chose RIT to obtain a very expensive piece of paper showing I had some knowledge of engineering, met my soon to be wife, started my career, and settled down into a house only last year. Whew...
The order in which my nationalities were listed seemed to a be a good starting point for the major components of my rod, so off we went. A cursory google search provided me with my first hurdle, a non-existent Philippine fly rod blank market. Honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting, so perhaps that is what allowed me to leap that hurdle quickly.
I knew I wanted to build something a little different than what the standard fly rod kits offered. I've also been taking to fiberglass rods for a little while too and after searching the webs, decided upon a blank offered by Kabuto Rods in Japan. The builds I got a chance to peruse using his standard, unsanded, translucent white blank were outstanding to say the least. Gray Wolf's build shown to the right is no exception, with the others I saw equally as impressive in build, color, and component combination.
The other elements I chose to reflect my nationalities were:
Hawaiian: Nickel Silver Koa seat/Grandpa's lei feather
Spanish: Red (scarlet) and gold silk thread
Filipino: Grandpa's lei feather
Chinese: "Fly fishing rod" in simplified Chinese
And here were some of the vendors I used for the components:
Vendors:
Kabuto Rods - 7043, white, unsanded
Snake Brand Guides - Universal
JE Arguello Rod Company - Red Agate 9mm
The Hook & Hackle Company - Fishhawk Silk, FlexCoat Lite
RL Reel Seats - Koa Reel Seat
I'll be chronicling the build as it progresses as well as discussing some of the components in future posts, till next time!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
1/11-1/12 Report
Just have a couple of notes from having a chance to sling some flies around at Oatka for a couple hours each of the last two days.
1/11
Air was 44F and Garbutt gauge was ~3.1 ft. I had tied up some chartreuse and black single and double bunnies for the occasion, but was skunked on those. I'm still getting a feel for where the fish are in the winter, so I tried hitting the banks and the one area I knew to be deeper. But alas, no luck on that occasion.
1/12
Air temp was 57F yesterday and what a wonderful day to be out as evidenced by the full parking lot! However, a glance at the Garbutt gauge may have told me to stay home. I underestimated how much the recent snowmelt swells the creek as the gauge read ~3.9 ft, the highest I've ever fished! As a result, the water was much murkier than I'm used to and I tried compensating with large nymphs on the walk up and a white double bunny on the way down. Skunked again, but really, to have a day like that in the middle of winter was such a wonderful thing.
Have a great week!
1/11
Air was 44F and Garbutt gauge was ~3.1 ft. I had tied up some chartreuse and black single and double bunnies for the occasion, but was skunked on those. I'm still getting a feel for where the fish are in the winter, so I tried hitting the banks and the one area I knew to be deeper. But alas, no luck on that occasion.
1/12
Air temp was 57F yesterday and what a wonderful day to be out as evidenced by the full parking lot! However, a glance at the Garbutt gauge may have told me to stay home. I underestimated how much the recent snowmelt swells the creek as the gauge read ~3.9 ft, the highest I've ever fished! As a result, the water was much murkier than I'm used to and I tried compensating with large nymphs on the walk up and a white double bunny on the way down. Skunked again, but really, to have a day like that in the middle of winter was such a wonderful thing.
Have a great week!
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