The chips were down...or were they

Greetings from the East end in Upstate New York. Today could not have started out crappier as far as the fishing was concerned. I was really anxious to get out there today and I have been planning today's trip for several weeks. I personally will not go out fishing with flies I did not tie myself and every couple years I start my fly box fresh. So I have spent the last several weeks retying flies in my box, updating patterns, etc. It's been a nightmare with lots of long days and anticipation for the project to be finished so I could go out fishing.

Needless to say I had high hopes when I got to the river today. When I woke up I really didn't feel like driving the hour and a half to the river I wanted to fish so I decided to stay more local and fish a stream I like to call “The Zoo”. I figured pressure wouldn't be too bad since it was Monday and all. Fishing reports from the area have not been phenomenal (which I know can be deceiving to some) so I should be okay to fish there. Much to my dismay the water was high and off color but not altogether unfishable so I waded in and began flogging. What I did not anticipate is that warmer weather was going to bring people out so by the time it started to warm up I had plenty of company, not a ton of people for that stream but enough to make this fish hog uncomfortable. All in all the fishing was alright, at least for the guys fishing sacks, these guys were hooking up regularly to my left and right and really pissing me off. I did manage to get this one brown that I snapped a crappy picture of. After landing that fish I felt quenched enough to take off for the day, four hours of fishing for one fish, a day I consider pretty shitty but it just wasn't happening for me.

While I was packing up my gear at the car I decided that one small fish wasn't enough for me so I decided to head off to a small creek nearby given the high water conditions to look for clearer water and more solitude even though that was doubtful. Yet to my surprise when I got there, the parking spot had no cars in it although the stream looked pretty low. My better judgement got a hold of me though so I got out to check it out and the first pool I looked at held fish. I knew this was going to be fun but I still had my doubts as to success given the skinny clear water but I strung up and headed down.

The first pool was by far the biggest pool on the creek and I wasn't sure how to fish it at first given the pool’s stagnant looking water so I went to a technique I used successfully on small ponds in the dacks and tied on a sparrow. I made my first cast, started a figure eight retrieve and got two fish to follow all the way back to me. Game on. I made my second cast to the head of the pool and did my retrieve to where I thought the fish were and let it sink. Two strips later and I hit the wall. This was a big fish for this water and I had a hell of a time landing it on my six weight but perseverance and a little horseplay got it done, one of my favorite fish to date. Unfortunately my camera was wet in my pocket from the morning so the picture came out a crappy but I did get good video of it.

After all that excitement I wasn't sure I could pull another fish from there given all the commotion but I had tried to keep the first fish at the tailout so I tried again, two strips….fish on. This fish was smaller but put up a great fight and once again, fish in hand. I also managed to get good video of this fish.

After flogging that pool for another twenty minutes it was clear that the rest of the guppies weren't having it so I went upstream to where it gets really skinny and proceeded to find fish after fish in every spot deep enough to hold one. I managed to get two more fish to cooperate by using as much stealth as possible. All in all this was one of my best days steelheading, I've landed more fish and I've landed bigger fish but this was just one of those days where the pieces came together, I made good choices and performed when I needed to, I will remember today for a long time to come.

To sum it up the bigger water on Lake Ontario and Erie in the Buffalo area is high and stained but there are plenty of fish to be had with a little perseverance. The smaller streams are skinny but holding enough water to keep fish and with runoff from the warm weather the next couple days I expect to get fresh runs anytime now. This week fishing pressure is generally low and may stay that way for the remainder of the week. If you have the time I highly suggest coming out this way. Suggestions are the Cattaraugus, Eighteen Mile in Burt, Johnson's Creek, and Oak Orchard.