Christmas Week Update

Well, the previous week has been busy, but I have been able to get out on the streams a few times and the weather and fishing continue to be great for this time of year. The same spots I have been fishing all fall continue to produce fish. I have even found a few different spots that are holding good numbers of fish. We have caught fish on both spinners and eggs with eggs being the most consistent for both numbers and size. The highlights the week included: getting my brother Mike out to catch some quality fish, getting Joe out of the tree stand and back into the creek, persuading Carolynne to hold her own fish, watching Bruce land a hard-fighting steelhead that broke his St. Croix noodle rod, and me landing a 15.6 pound, (36inch long by 18 inch girth) dime-bright steelhead on a day nobody wanted to fish with me. I might need to get a reproduction done of that fish since the pictures suck. Since it is New Years Eve, I will sum up my fishing over the past three months. Looking at my journals I found that over the thirteen week period, I averaged four trips a week, with an average of 5 fish a trip. You do the math!

Mid-December Fishing

The fishing and weather continue to be great for this time of year. In a usual year we are covered in snow and the creeks are frozen. This year we have had little snow and the creeks are still open and fishable, but they are deopping quickly and need rain badly. I have continued to fish hard and the fish are still cooperating. The cold water has caused the fish to become less active and I have had to fish harder for the fish I have been catching. But by putting in time and fishing various locations I have been able to keep the bite going. One lesson I have learned recently is to change tactics when the bite slows down or to simple change the length from my float to the hook if the fish are not biting. I look forward to the tiem off over the next week. Anyone who is interested in fishing let me know.

Weekend Update

The fishing continues to be good and the weather is amazing for the middle of December. I was able to get out a few different times this weekend in between trips to the stores. The water is clear and much lower than it has been all fall, but the fish are aggressive and fight very hard in the warmer water. We have been catching steelhead and browns, and most of th efish are average 5- 8 pound fish. However, both Carolynne and I lost fish that would have been much bigger than that. We have been hitting the usual spots but I ventured to a few different spots today and each one held fish. The key has been finding unpressured fish and drifting eggs to them. Lets hope the weather stays nice and the fish keep biting.

Beautiful December Day

Today was one of those days that all I thought about at work was how I would love to be on the water fishing. Middle of December and the temperature was in the mid 50's. I hit the creek after work, but since it gets dark around 5:00 I only had about forty-five minutes. The creek was low but I managed to catch one brown and a beautiful female steelhead. Both fish hit eggs and fought very hard. A beautiful, but short trip. The rest of the week looks good if anyone is interested. I hear the big perch are still active in Irondequoit Bay.

Finally in

Ice out should occur, went by Maxwell on Sunday afternoon. Still crowded and no ice. Only steelhead, no brownies. All fly fishing.

Weekend Update

Well the weather has been cold and the creeks have been getting lower and lower. The combination of low water and cold weather caused the creek to begin to freeze over in some of the slow water sections. Check out the picture below.

The cold weather slowed the fish down and in order to catch fish you had to fish the pools and when we did hook up the fish stayed deep. In the few hours that I fished on a couple of different days I was able to land some nice browns and a few small raiinbows. Unfortunately, since I was by myself most of the time (the cold weather scares away most people) I did not take many pictures and the ones I did take were not very good. The weather looks great for the next week or so. If anyone is interested in hitting the water let me know. I think I am heading to one of the bigger streams or rivers some time next weekend.

Cold High Creeks/ Derby Invitation

Well, the rain and snow the last few days have made the creeks high and off color. Hopefully, they should back in fishable shape by the end of the week. In the mean time I have begun to think about the LOC derbies for the upcoming year. I know it is a long ways off, but it is never to early to put a crew together. As far as the spring derby goes, I plan on fishing from Oak Orchard west to the Niagara River. I will most likely get a motel room near Wilson or the Niagara River for part of the derby as the fishing there is usually very good. I would love to have anyone who wants to fish hard and have some fun aboard. Let me know if you are interested. Here is some basic information.

2007 DERBY DATES

SPRING DERBY - MAY 4TH - MAY 13TH

SUMMER DERBY - MAY 26TH - JULY 15 TH

FALL DERBY - AUGUST 17TH - SEPTEMBER 3RD

Prize structure for 2007 Derbies

Spring 2007 LOC

Five divisions, Salmon, Rainbow/Steelhead, Brown, Lake, and Walleye

Grand Prize - $10,000

First $1000 Second $400 Third $300 Fourth $200 Fifth place $100 Sixth – 10th $75 11th – 15th $50 16th – 20th $25

$100 Daily award for the largest fish in each Division

Summer 2007 LOC

Five divisions, Salmon, Rainbow/Steelhead, Brown, Lake, and Walleye

Grand Prize - $5,000

First $1000 Second $400 Third $300 Fourth $200 Fifth place $100 Sixth – 10th $75 11th – 15th $50 16th – 20th $25

Fall 2007 LOC

Four divisions, Salmon, Rainbow/Steelhead, Brown, and Lake Trout

Grand Prize - $20,000

First $2500 Second $1000 Third $550 Fourth $450 Fifth place $300 Sixth – 10th $200 11th – 15th $100 16th – 20th $50

$100 Daily award for the largest fish in each Division

Looking Back (Early Fall Salmon)

Here it is December 1st, and it feels like just yesterday it was summer. As always, the fall went by too fast and the weather is starting to get bad. Today, the temperature is in the 30's, the wind is blowing up to 60 miles an hour, and it has been raining hard all day. I got thinking about trolling in the fall and the great time we had. We were lucky enough to get onto a pod of fish and get a program working that allowed us to put a lot of nice kings in the boat in a short period of time. The key, as always, was to find the green water and troll there early in the morning or in the evening (the evening bite was especially good for us). We averaged 4-6 fish a night in the couple hours we usually fished. The numbers were there but that is not the important thing to remember. The memories of fishing in the dense fog, hand lining a king when a tangled line caused a birds nest with 100 feet of line out and an angry salmon on the end, fish catching us off guard when we are "relieving ourselves", and Carolynne hooking a king that spent more time in the air than in the water are the memories that will stay with me. The lures that were very hot were silver j plugs and purple thunder spoons. These are just a few of the many fish we were lucky enough to catch.

Weekend Update

The fishing continues to be good and the weather is amazing (60-65 the last couple of days). The only problem has been the huge number of people out fishing. I have only fished for brief periods of time each day but we have still caught a lot of nice fish. The browns are mostly done spawning so it may be time to switch tactics and target different water. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Since the morning temperatures were so cold again and the afternoon is filled up with spending time with families and eating, I decided to take a break from the fishing today. However, I do want to keep to my goal of posting as much as possible. So, today's report will be an update of the last few weeks of fishing. When I think back on the last month two words come to mind..."high water". The creeks have been higher than I can ever remember in the fall. This has caused two things, many unfishable days and many days of amazing fishing. The great thing about the high water is it spreads out the fish and keeps them safe from less than ethical fisherman. The browns this fall have been numerous and I was lucky enough to get my biggest ever. It was a female that was 32 inches long with a sloppy 21 inch girth that I estimated at around 19 pounds (unfortunately no picture as the camera batteries were dead). Besides that monster we have also landed other male and female browns up to 13 pounds. The steelhead and rainbows have also begun to show up in good numbers and we have caught some very nice fish. Enjoy the small sample of pictures.

Great Morning on the Water

Carolynne and I planned on hitting the stream early this morning but when we woke up it was 25 degrees and frosty. So, we slept in and hit the creek around 9:00. We arrived at our first spot and were into fish right away. I was lucky enough to get some nice browns quickly and Carolynne's competitive side began to kick in. After a few minutes of accusing me of taking the best spots and messing with her rod, she focused and went on a five fish run. She would get a hit, I would help her land the fish and get her set-up again. Just as I would get ready to make a cast she would be hooked up again and the cycle would start over. I eventually broke this cycle and managed to get a few more nice fish myself. After about and hour and a half of consistent action we made the difficult decision to leave fish to find other fish. At the next spot I hooked what appeared to be a large fish fairly quickly. The fish took several long runs and then took off down stream. I chased him and eventually landed our best steelhead of the day, a long fish that weighed around ten pounds. We went on to hook a few more fish here and then headed home for some lunch. The totals for the four hour trip were a very respectful 18 browns and 2 steelhead, split equally between the two of us.

Browns After Work

As I drove to work in the snow this morning I glanced at the creek and was surprised by how good the water looked. I decided to do some scouting after work and boy am I glad I did. The water looked perfect and the fish were cooperating. In less than an hour I caught eight quality browns without moving from the hole I was fishing. The water is cold and the fish were biting lightly but they fought hard and were healthy and clean. Man I wish I did not have to work tomorrow. Anyways, I will be on the water as soon as I can be tomorrow and can't wait until the holiday weekend.

Welcome

For the past couple years I have been recording my adventures in the outdoors on a small calendar. One of the great joys I have is looking back at these notes and remembering the time spent outdoors. I created this blog as a place to share my experiences with other people who have the same passions as I do. Since I was young I have been drawn to the great outdoors. Looking back on my childhood, I remember camping and fishing with my family.

My obsession comes in the form of fishing. Those of you who know me well, know that fishing is not something I do, it is who I am. What makes me enjoy this activity so much? That is not a simple question for me to answer. It may be the beautiful places it takes me to. It might be the excuse it gives me to spend time with family and friends. Maybe it is the ever changing challenge of trying to understand something that can never be fully understood. Most likely, it is the quality time spent in nature with great people.

Whatever the reason, my obsession runs deep. As my lovely wife, Carolynne, can attest fishing is never far from my thoughts. If I am not on the water then I am thinking about when I will be. Fishing has become the reason to watch the weather. Directions to places revolve around scouting water for future trips. Trips to the store must include a brief stop at tackle shops. Vacations revolve around angling opportunities. Our house consists of: rooms full of rods, reels, and tackle; shelves full of books, magazines, and catalogs; collections of vintage tackle on nearly every wall: a "fish room" filled with mounts and pictures, and boats that if they could fit in the house would have their own room. Carolynne, despite her best efforts, has even begun to transform into quite a fisherwoman herself. She says she goes fishing to spend time with me and enjoy the nice weather on the boat, but her competitive nature has forced her to want to become better and learn more. I have to admit that she's getting very good (at doing what I say) and has caught many quality fish of her own.

Once again, welcome. I hope to record our experiences on a regular basis, and I hope others do the same. Good fishing!