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

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 →

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

  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 →

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

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 →