Phil floating peacefully down the creek...
My catches for the day...No complaints really....all in all a nice day
Sunday, June 5, 2011
6-5-11
One man's junk is another man's treasure. The waters that I fish are sacred to me. A paradise of sorts...It takes me away from the rigors and stress of day to day life...It transcends me to a higher place...A better place...Back to nature....The creek that I frequent offers a great variety of finned friends to chase, smallies, carp, suckers, walleye, the occasional rock bass, and once in a blue moon brown trout....A great all around fishery. One of my most peaceful places to visit. Today's trip was the first of the big floats for the year, 4 miles. The river has changed...We knew this from my initial exploration a few days ago. It seems as though the transformation runs much deeper then a little structural damage. There were trees fallen, banks further eroded, garbage on the bottom...At one point we passed by what seemed like 20 old tires on the bottom...This water is abused....It is not highly regarded by the masses, including the controlling forces in our great state. The first section of the trip brought us dead crayfish and fish on the stream bottom. No signs of life. Sure, some of this could be winter kill...I feel as though more of it is due to neglect and abuse, such as the silt removal and dumping from the damn. Imagine a nuclear cloud blocking out the sun...Earth would die....Take a large quantity of silt and spread it like a blanket on the river's bottom...Forage dies, crayfish, insects, plant life...then the minnows, sculpins...then the predators...If there is no food, there is no prey...This could be a world class Smallmouth destination with a little love and respect. The thing that annoys me the most, the upper end of this creek is sacred...It's written about, regulated, protected, a thing of Catskill legend..The lower end, the part that I adore...The Devil's Piss Pot....
Phil floating peacefully down the creek...
My catches for the day...No complaints really....all in all a nice day
Phil floating peacefully down the creek...
My catches for the day...No complaints really....all in all a nice day
Friday, June 3, 2011
6-3-11....Nature of things
Fact of the matter is....Any day is a good day to fish....Good weather or not...Unfortunetly we cannot change or adjust the weather...just our attitudes towards it...I am guilty like most of looking outside, seeing dark clouds, too much wind, a little rain, too much sun, bluebird skies...and thinking, man I just should just hit snooze, I'm not going to catch any fish today...We all have excuses...they match that special part of our anatomy where a majority of people that call themselves "anglers" speak from....Truth be told...I didn't want to get out of bed today. It had nothing to do with not being excited to wet a line, I looked outside and saw wind....Lots of wind...Mother Nature has once again thrown a wrench at our monkey and went from 90 to 50 degrees in a day...No notice, no warning, no gradual decline...just a cold slap in the face....The goal this morning was to catch carp...They just finished spawning a day or so ago, they should be hungry after all that rough housing....Well, there wasn't a fish in sight...Not one plume, not one ripple...notta...Wanna know why?....They woke up, felt the temp, saw the wind and hit the snooze button...That simple...and I don't blame them....
So we went to the resevoir instead, thinking panfish and some bass...always a good time.....The people that I run into up there sometimes frighten me in regards to the future of mankind. It's not that they are necessarily bad people, they are just dim witted. Much like Bigfoot, fly fisherman are rare sightings there. Whenever the worm drowners or spin gear heads see one of us, the look in horror and curiousity...then they approach slowly with caution...as if we will bite..."ummm...excuse me sir...what exactly are you trying to catch with that thing...the trout are over there..."...At this point I usually turn and look at them in utter surprise, jaw gaped and if I can, I try to hang a little drool out of the corner of my mouth to add effect.. "oh my gosh...I had no idea....You mean I can only catch trout with this here buggy whip....golly...I must have it all wrong...." I don't blame them for their lack of understanding...I suppose the stigma associated with fly fishing still lies in the hands of those trout guys....That's ok with me...It seems as though my county is done evolving, so I will have to continue to deal with the Geico spokespeople...
It is a good place to fish actually, the bass and panfish can actually be of significant size...We had a tough time for sure today...The weather pushed them down....We managed to bring up a couple....
Dustin's smallie...and yes, that is a Sili Craw hanging out of it's mouth...
My two hookups for the day....
Remember....get out and fish, no excuses....It's so easy, even a caveman can do it...
So we went to the resevoir instead, thinking panfish and some bass...always a good time.....The people that I run into up there sometimes frighten me in regards to the future of mankind. It's not that they are necessarily bad people, they are just dim witted. Much like Bigfoot, fly fisherman are rare sightings there. Whenever the worm drowners or spin gear heads see one of us, the look in horror and curiousity...then they approach slowly with caution...as if we will bite..."ummm...excuse me sir...what exactly are you trying to catch with that thing...the trout are over there..."...At this point I usually turn and look at them in utter surprise, jaw gaped and if I can, I try to hang a little drool out of the corner of my mouth to add effect.. "oh my gosh...I had no idea....You mean I can only catch trout with this here buggy whip....golly...I must have it all wrong...." I don't blame them for their lack of understanding...I suppose the stigma associated with fly fishing still lies in the hands of those trout guys....That's ok with me...It seems as though my county is done evolving, so I will have to continue to deal with the Geico spokespeople...
It is a good place to fish actually, the bass and panfish can actually be of significant size...We had a tough time for sure today...The weather pushed them down....We managed to bring up a couple....
Dustin's smallie...and yes, that is a Sili Craw hanging out of it's mouth...
My two hookups for the day....
Remember....get out and fish, no excuses....It's so easy, even a caveman can do it...
Thursday, June 2, 2011
6-2-11....Exploring
I think it's safe to say that as part of the human condition we all seem to suffer from "the grass is greener syndrome."....Fly fisherman suffer from a special version of this as well...."that water is better then my water"...As an angler I am always on the lookout for new water to explore...It's not that I am unsatisfied with the waters that I fish, I just have this insatiable desire to have more water and see what I might be missing out on. Every body of water that I pass, a small stream, a farm pond, a lake..I can't help but wonder what might be lurking beneath the surface. Well....today was such a day...I needed to go exploring.
There is this lake that a few people in the know talk about. It is lake no one seems to know anything about other then that it exists and it's private. I made a drive last week to check it out. I noticed a small dirt road leading down to it. There were no posted signs, so I stopped at the nearest house and began speaking with the guy outside. The road runs on the outside of his property and suggested that I ride down it and check the lake out. Feel free to put a boat in and go nuts man...So that's what I did today. I kicked the Jeep into 4 wheel drive and drove to the lake.
The overgrown brush and hanging tree limbs did a number on my paint, and the mud puddles went up to my doors but I made it. Unloaded the boat and took off paddling down the channel to the lake...
I walked a bit, climbed over a beaver damn and poled through mud flats to make it to main body of water. A pretty sight for sure, but honestly it was like floating in an overgrown mud puddle. Dirty, dingy water that smelled a little like rot. I saw a few signs of carp existence...Actually one swam under my kayak...I fished for a while, got beat up by the wind and hooked into nothing...By all means, the lake looked like it should have a ton of fish...Other then a few passing carp, I saw no other signs of life. The deepest part was about 4 feet and the entire lake had a soft mucky bottom...not the greatest habitat for fish life...I left after about two hours of paddling and fishing.
It's easy to feel like you wasted your time when you go exploring with no success of hookups, but the fact is if you don't go you don't know....This will be lake that I probably won't visit again, it was a lot of work to get into for not enough payout....
There is this small stream that runs through my town. It's the same stream that feeds the lake I just spoke of. I remember as a kid being able to catch rock bass and little smallies out of it drifting worms. Over the years, farming, insecticides, industrial waste and rumors of human waste seemed to have wiped out the fish population. It is known around town as a dead creek. I recently passed over this creek again and thought to myself what if they are wrong...what if there is life there....I went exploring....As I pulled up and began walking, I had high hopes for this "new" water. I slipped on the heavily mudded and eroded bank and dunked into the water feet first...I saw some crayfish scurry away...Good sign I thought...I fished and fished, with no other sign of life to be found. I'm not saying that there might not be fish in there because I didn't catch any...I'm just saying that I saw no signs of life beside crayfish....The rocks were heavily silted over and the water smelled of decay and manure. I tried multiple spots to no avail...The smell on my clothes at this point leaves something to be desired and I think I may not be going back again. It is ashame really, it could be such a pretty little creek. I was hoping for a hidden smallmouth gem....my only hookup was an insole to someones shoe....Now if I can only catch that other one......
There is this lake that a few people in the know talk about. It is lake no one seems to know anything about other then that it exists and it's private. I made a drive last week to check it out. I noticed a small dirt road leading down to it. There were no posted signs, so I stopped at the nearest house and began speaking with the guy outside. The road runs on the outside of his property and suggested that I ride down it and check the lake out. Feel free to put a boat in and go nuts man...So that's what I did today. I kicked the Jeep into 4 wheel drive and drove to the lake.
The overgrown brush and hanging tree limbs did a number on my paint, and the mud puddles went up to my doors but I made it. Unloaded the boat and took off paddling down the channel to the lake...
I walked a bit, climbed over a beaver damn and poled through mud flats to make it to main body of water. A pretty sight for sure, but honestly it was like floating in an overgrown mud puddle. Dirty, dingy water that smelled a little like rot. I saw a few signs of carp existence...Actually one swam under my kayak...I fished for a while, got beat up by the wind and hooked into nothing...By all means, the lake looked like it should have a ton of fish...Other then a few passing carp, I saw no other signs of life. The deepest part was about 4 feet and the entire lake had a soft mucky bottom...not the greatest habitat for fish life...I left after about two hours of paddling and fishing.
It's easy to feel like you wasted your time when you go exploring with no success of hookups, but the fact is if you don't go you don't know....This will be lake that I probably won't visit again, it was a lot of work to get into for not enough payout....
There is this small stream that runs through my town. It's the same stream that feeds the lake I just spoke of. I remember as a kid being able to catch rock bass and little smallies out of it drifting worms. Over the years, farming, insecticides, industrial waste and rumors of human waste seemed to have wiped out the fish population. It is known around town as a dead creek. I recently passed over this creek again and thought to myself what if they are wrong...what if there is life there....I went exploring....As I pulled up and began walking, I had high hopes for this "new" water. I slipped on the heavily mudded and eroded bank and dunked into the water feet first...I saw some crayfish scurry away...Good sign I thought...I fished and fished, with no other sign of life to be found. I'm not saying that there might not be fish in there because I didn't catch any...I'm just saying that I saw no signs of life beside crayfish....The rocks were heavily silted over and the water smelled of decay and manure. I tried multiple spots to no avail...The smell on my clothes at this point leaves something to be desired and I think I may not be going back again. It is ashame really, it could be such a pretty little creek. I was hoping for a hidden smallmouth gem....my only hookup was an insole to someones shoe....Now if I can only catch that other one......
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
6-1-11...;Smallies
I got up early...the sky looked promising.....I load the yak and hot the road. My buddy texted me saying it was down pouring about 40 minutes west of me...he wasn't going to make the morning outing. The sky was blue and sunny here...Off to the lake I go for some bass bugging....After unloading and paddling to my favorite spot...the sky turned dark and thunder rumbled like a Harley in the sky.....I made it onto the water for about ten minutes and 5 casts....Packed it in...nothing like waving a 7'11 lightning rod in the air while standing in the middle of a lake....Back to the car...On my way home I see the sky start to clear again....I stop off at my favorite creek that has been unfishable since Sept. 2010.....I drive down the path, that by the way nearly tore the bottom of my Jeep off...a little more dugout then last year....The water looked good...real good....the sky still wasn't sure what it was going to do so I just grabbed the rod...I didn't plan on getting wet today but in I walked....I managed a nice little Fall Fish using a Sili Craw....
Packed it up and drove to the next little access point...Frustrated by the overgrowth of bushes and trees already...I unloaded the kayak and in I went....Fished around a bit...the current was still a little strong...The river had changed quite a bit since last year...A lot of silt, more downed trees and the seams had changed drastically...The holding spots of my favorite species had changed....I know this section of creek like the back of my hand. I could tell you where to cast and what to do with my eyes closed....Like all moving water time changes them...A friend of mine once said that he has never fished the same river twice...I fished and fished...I managed one Smallie in a spot I would have never guessed it to be....using the HellYeahGrammite...time to explore a little more.....and relearn my favorite place to be.....
After about 45 minutes or so, I realized I forgot my sunscreen and had to pack it in before I turned into a lobster....The good news...my creek is on....Time to go and earn that moniker of mine....Smalliestalker.....
Packed it up and drove to the next little access point...Frustrated by the overgrowth of bushes and trees already...I unloaded the kayak and in I went....Fished around a bit...the current was still a little strong...The river had changed quite a bit since last year...A lot of silt, more downed trees and the seams had changed drastically...The holding spots of my favorite species had changed....I know this section of creek like the back of my hand. I could tell you where to cast and what to do with my eyes closed....Like all moving water time changes them...A friend of mine once said that he has never fished the same river twice...I fished and fished...I managed one Smallie in a spot I would have never guessed it to be....using the HellYeahGrammite...time to explore a little more.....and relearn my favorite place to be.....
After about 45 minutes or so, I realized I forgot my sunscreen and had to pack it in before I turned into a lobster....The good news...my creek is on....Time to go and earn that moniker of mine....Smalliestalker.....
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
5-31-11 Carp
Back to the carp today....I love these fish....everything about them...the color, their crazy lips, their perfectly even scales...the fact that they are ridiculously difficult to catch with a fly....the fact that if you hook into a good one, it will make your reel scream....It's more like hunting then fishing, I feel like Rambo sneaking through the jungle so the enemy doesn't know you're there.
The carp were in full spawn mode, which made thinga a little difficult to say the least. We managed to hook a couple, but it wasn't easy. Not all of the fish were spawning, some were still eating. Close to shore, near the banks and in the weeds these fish were to be found. The fish that weren't spawning were more spooky then usual. This is a video of some spawn action...If you've never seen carp spawn you should. They make the water boil, they jump, leap, partially beach themselves...
Dustin's hookup for the day, a little channel that was jammed full....
My two for the day...
A nice Perch I hooked into on the way home...
Tomorrow...more fish....Tight Lines....
The carp were in full spawn mode, which made thinga a little difficult to say the least. We managed to hook a couple, but it wasn't easy. Not all of the fish were spawning, some were still eating. Close to shore, near the banks and in the weeds these fish were to be found. The fish that weren't spawning were more spooky then usual. This is a video of some spawn action...If you've never seen carp spawn you should. They make the water boil, they jump, leap, partially beach themselves...
Dustin's hookup for the day, a little channel that was jammed full....
My two for the day...
A nice Perch I hooked into on the way home...
Tomorrow...more fish....Tight Lines....
Monday, May 30, 2011
5-29-11...Fishing Trip
This is a good start to any day....
We took a road trip today to meet up with my brother and do some bug chucking in a Cortland lake. The fish just got off there spawn so the action was a little slow to say the least. We did all end up on fish eventually.
My little bucket....
My brother with his big catch....he was so happy for the hookup he made out with it....but just a little....then it got weird...
Chris still pounding the water as Phil walks away....still feeling the weirdness after the bass to mouth session.....
By the end of the day we were tossing nymphs off a dock hooking little gills. Normally this is not a bad thing, but today it felt like the old days of unsuccessful angling. Fun was had and at the end of the day quality time with family is all that matters. We fished the day with my neices and a Friendly's meal and ice cream....now beat that....
We took a road trip today to meet up with my brother and do some bug chucking in a Cortland lake. The fish just got off there spawn so the action was a little slow to say the least. We did all end up on fish eventually.
My little bucket....
My brother with his big catch....he was so happy for the hookup he made out with it....but just a little....then it got weird...
Chris still pounding the water as Phil walks away....still feeling the weirdness after the bass to mouth session.....
By the end of the day we were tossing nymphs off a dock hooking little gills. Normally this is not a bad thing, but today it felt like the old days of unsuccessful angling. Fun was had and at the end of the day quality time with family is all that matters. We fished the day with my neices and a Friendly's meal and ice cream....now beat that....
Order out
Another order out the door to England. This guy is a Pike hunter and was looking for some different flies. He bought 10 Munch, 2 Articulated Deceivers and 2 Mice...Should be rocking the lakes in about a week when they land at his door......
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