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In: Central New York Fishing, Fly Fishing, Trout fishing, Trout Fishing Guide In New York, Trout Fishing In New York

Each year, peaking in the early summer, I enjoy nothing so much as fly fishing on small streams for wild trout. It is, in fact, the most enjoyable form of angling. Within five minutes drive of my cabin is ten miles of catch-and-release trout stream that is loaded with wild trout.  This creek is small. Very small. The county puts a few thousand run-of-the-mill stock rainbow trout in it each spring. But it is the brown trout that thrive. Wild browns that average 12 inches are common and when approached with a three or four weight fly rod they make for great angling. My guideRead More →

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In: Central New York Fishing, Fly Fishing, Trout fishing, Trout Fishing Guide In New York, Trout Fishing In New York

Twice a year trout migrate from the lakes into the streams and rivers that flow into them. Some species travel upstream to spawn in the fall, like brown trout, brook trout and salmon. Another species of trout, the rainbow trout, migrate upstream in the spring to spawn. Anglers take advantage of this bi-annual run of fish and stalk wary lake-run trout in the pools, runs, riffles and eddies in streams and creeks swollen with run-off. In the Finger Lakes on the first day of April each year hundreds of anglers descend upon the creeks flowing into the lakes to catch spawning rainbow trout. In some biological logicRead More →

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In: Ice Fishing

The winter of 2017/2018 was NOT a typical winter in upstate New York. A typical winter around here has become difficult to define. A traditional winter in the northeast is one in which lake ice forms in late December, grows thick in January and  stays solid through February before beginning a slow decay as winter transitions into Spring. Here in central New York we experienced several days above 45 degrees in late January and a couple days above 50 degrees in February. Such warm temperatures were coupled with rain and had a big impact on ice conditions. On some lakes and bays ice went from safeRead More →

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In: Central New York Fishing, Finger Lakes Ice Fishing, Ice Fishing

Fact: As the winter progresses the thickness of ice on lakes will increase. In Central New York…Not-so-much. Global warming, climate change, NAFTA…I don’t know the cause but ice thickness on average has decreased. It was not uncommon for someone to drive up to us in a pick-up truck or a jeep while we sat on buckets jigging walleyes on Oneida Lake back in the 80’s. The ice often grew to two feet in thickness. Those days are gone. The fact is that recent trends in local weather seem to feature more extremes in un-seasonable temperatures.  As an outdoor guide weather is the biggest factor I cannotRead More →

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In: Ice Fishing

Each winter the arrival of safe ice on local lakes is something keenly anticipated by many. As deer season comes to an end and the Holidays arrive, hardcore hard water anglers can be found preparing gear, watching the thermometer and soliciting reports of safe ice from fellow anglers. For those that do not ice fish the following series of blogs will likely not entertain. For those who do ice fish but are new to the pastime, I will share with you some things I have learned in over 30 years of exploring frozen lakes in search of fish. Throughout the following posts I will defineRead More →

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In: Fly Fishing, Trout fishing, Trout Fishing Guide In New York, Trout Fishing In New York

In Leon Chandlers’ boyhood he fished the same waters that I do today. I imagine him a teen with a fly rod in his hand roll casting a hand-tied callibaetis at dimpling browns. He was most likely fishing a nightcrawler at that age. The reason I fly fish the boyhood home of Leon Chandler is due to geography and proximity. Just coincidental. But, if not for Leon Chandler I may not fish with a fly rod at all. Leon Chandler was the catalyst of fly fishing and fly fishing products in America. He was a Catskill fly fisherman, Cortland native, and a gentleman who introduced American flyRead More →

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In: Trout fishing, Trout Fishing Guide In New York, Trout Fishing In New York

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 →

Professional Guide Service In The Adirondacks

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In: Fly Fishing, Trout fishing, Trout Fishing Guide In New York, Trout Fishing In New York

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 →

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In: Uncategorized

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 →