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!
