When the water warms and the trout retreat to the thermocline and below, I turn the attention of my guide service to smallmouth bass. Many of the Finger Lakes, Oneida Lake, the St. LawrenceRead More →
May was the month for Lake Trout for Upstate Guide Service. This blog showcases a few pics of some of the finer specimens brought to net and released on board The Grey Ghost 2 this past month. All fish were caught on medium fast action spinning rods and 10# test with jigs. The handsome male above is a native, or wild Lake Trout. This fish was seen before it was caught. I was out with guests in early May and noticed it chasing and eating stock trout next to a shallow shoal in 14 FOW. The next day I went back and caught it. It’s bellyRead More →
The first brook trout I caught was over thirty years ago. My Dad left me on the bank of a swollen Spring trout river on the Tug Hill with a can of worms, some hooks and split-shot, and instructions to not fall in or wander off. Perched high above a turbulent eddy hole on the precarious sod bank I drowned a worm and set the hook into a beautiful hook-jawed male brookie’ of about 16 inches in length and shaped like a nerf football. Knowing this trout was a rare find, and big for its kind, it was not going back into the creek. ItRead More →
There are few fish that are as beautiful as the native book trout. I was first introduced to them as a boy while fishing the central Adirondacks with my father and his buddies. That was 30 years ago. Each Spring and Autumn season since, I make the trek into a select and remote pond to cast for them. A lot has changed in thirty years. To a tight-lipped, loosely knit, community of serious anglers in Upstate New York, a trophy brook trout pond is a Shangri-La, the location of which would never be revealed. There is, however, over 2,000 ponds within the six million acreRead More →
Fly fishing is something that you evolve into. I have yet to come across a fly casting toddler. Most of us started our trout fascination (fishing altogether) with something other than a fly rod. You evolved… Evolved into someone who relishes how a fish is caught and less on just catching fish. My “Old Man” as I like to call him in a blue-collar way was a blue-collar trout fisherman. For catching trout, he liked nothing more than letting a fresh, juicy, hand-picked night crawler, roll along the bottom of a deep eddy with a split-shot. And he caught plenty. The finer points of wormRead More →
A popular early spring technique for fly casters is throwing streamers. It is suitable for fisheries that harbor good populations of baitfish…Forage-based lakes and rivers. A large eastern Finger Lake that I fish often is unique in that it has escaped (so far) becoming a forage-based lake. No introduced baitfish are present. While sculpin and immature yellow perch are a staple of the lake-dwelling rainbows’ diet in this natural lake, the trout are keyed in on insects, crayfish, and scuds. But matching the hatch, on big trout lakes, is often unnecessary in early spring when water temperatures hover in the low 40’s or below. In fact, theRead More →
So I began this blog, weeks ago, to describe and introduce a technique I have refined that I call dead drift float fishing. But I have lost my way. And the whole topic of fly fishing lakes for trout is a voluminous one. One that I could write a book on. And these blogs may be the seed of what will grow into just such an endeavor. I will soon come back to the components of dead drift float fishing, both for the fly rod and the spinning rod, but here today I digress into “The Other” kind of fly fishing on lakes. ThereRead More →
In 1999, when I transitioned into fly casting on the lakes, I quickly found the medium-fast action eight-and-a-half foot rods I was using on the creeks and rivers to be inadequate. Not enough rod. So I made my way into The Troutfitter in Syracuse, and bought a pair of used nine foot two-piece Sage rods. An RPL five weight and a RPL+ six weight. Both of these were two piece rods. I believe Sage created these rods for the bone fisherman. They are very fast action with strong butts, yet light and accurate for small-to-medium sized flies. But I also think they were not enough rod for the avid flatsRead More →
There is more than one effective technique when it comes to fly fishing trout in lakes. Which is more effective is debatable. Which is more enjoyable, well, that is a matter of preference. Trolling is like wearing my camouflage hunting clothes to the mall. It is just something I don’t do for a variety of reasons. The main reason I do not troll, however, is because it does not fit into what my idea of guiding is about. My only exception to this personal rule is when it comes to walleyes… Another topic altogether best reserved for a blog in June. When I first becameRead More →
The traditional opening day of trout season statewide is April 1st. But on the Finger Lakes trout season is a year round’ pursuit. While the tributaries are closed to trout fishing, there are thousands of acres of open water for boat or shore fishing available for the hardy angler dressed for the unpredictable and often ugly weather. Early season trout fishing on the Finger Lakes lakes means cold water. The trout, however, is a cold water fish, most active in water temperatures that remain between 45 to 65 degrees. The middle of that range being the optimum, representing a trouts peak period of activity. ARead More →