Wow - what a steelhead season so far! We took off for the Erie tribs on the weekend of Oct 20th. By we, I mean myself, my older brother John, my youngest brother Andy, and a buddy of mine - Jeff. Andy drove in from Chicagoland and the rest of us live in Connecticut. One of the first items of business was to come up with a nickname for Jeff, which (unfortunately for him) is becoming a tradition. We settled on "Bucky". A note of explanation: Jeff has one of those heads where the hair stands up straight, no matter how long it gets. I think he could probably grow his hair out about 6 inches and it would still stand straight up. I'm confident he would vouch for this. In the past, he's been called "the Badger", again because of the hair. It's evolved into Bucky because that's the mascot of the U of Wisconsin. So... Bucky the Badger it became. Oh, we added on a few more adjectives to that, but I will be kind...
Back to the fishing... I made great time to get to Cattaraugus Creek - only 6.25 hrs. and met Andy there Friday, around lunchtime. The day started off slowly, but we both managed to hook a few fish and landed several. We primarily fished in the town of Gowanda, but the fishing really didn't start to pick up until later in the day. Luckily we were able to slide into a deep hole that had been getting some heavy pressure by the locals all day, so at first, we weren't entirely optimistic. Andy hooked up almost immediately at the head of the run and our attitudes took a definite positive upswing. I started hooking up as well about 15 yards below Andy, and I think all in all, we each ended up with 4 or so steelies for the day. Not too bad for a first day.
Day 2 - Saturday - we continued to hit the Gowanda stretch. Results were about the same - spotty fishing during the day. Andy and I decided to get reservation licenses and we went down to the town of Versailles to try our luck. We found a nice pockety run and picked up a few nice fish. We were then joined by John and Jeff and decided to try our luck downstream. The place was unfortunately packed and the fishing really suffered. Even the good looking holes seemed devoid of fish. I have no doubt they were in there, but the bite wasn't on at all. To make matters worse, the wind REALLY picked up and made casting and drifts difficult at best. After a frustrating afternoon, we decided to go back into Gowanda, where we had better luck before. Again, the bite improved as darkness approached. I did try out the new trout beads and was pretty impressed with the results. Anything orangy or pinkish seemed to work. Of course you always remember the one that got away... In this case, I had hooked a gorgeous brown that went probably 26-28 inches. He actually came out of the water twice to reveal his colors. A nice strong fish, but after a short battle, he was gone. I would've loved to have landed that fish, but that's the way it goes sometimes. It seems that I'm a little snakebit when it comes to browns. For some reason, I have a hard time keeping them on.
Day 3 - Sunday - one more day in Gowanda. Again, slow fishing during the day, so we took a nice lunch break at one of the local fine dining establishments. Three orders of the open meatloaf sandwich on white bread - sounded appetizing anyway. One more crack at Gowanda in the evening. The honey hole was packed tonight, but I did manage to land 2 more a little further downstream, after really working it. Sometimes you just have to put your time in with these fish and make your drifts.
By the way, I just want to add my 2 cents on what I saw on the upper end of the indian reservation. What's going on here is that apparently, the indians are using heavy equipment on the upper boundary of the reservation and TOTALLY scouring the river banks to harvest the gravel along the banks. It's a complete mess! Major damage has been done here. The river is badly channelized in sections and I have to think that once the water comes up again, it's going to be a very destructive situation. They're taking gravel right along the riverbanks and totally changing the character of the river in that area. I don't know if the state of New York is within it's jurisdiction to do anything about it, but I seriously doubt this blatant raping of the land would ever be tolerated, or even proposed if was on NY state land. It's not pretty folks and it doesn't bode well for the river or for the fishery. You remember that commercial with the indian crying because of all the litter on what used to be his land? Well, all I have to say is that I have a completely changed view on how they actually treat the land they're supposed to be advocates of cherishing. Total HYPOCRISY!
Andy with some pretty Cattaraugus steel
John with his first steelhead of 2007 - Versailles
Day 4 - We made a major trip decision and re-routed back east to the Salmon river. John and Andy decided to pay the full $30 to get into the DSR to fish a half day. Jeff and I opted to fish a little further upstream at the ballpark. One lousy hookup for me on a king, but Bucky managed a nice little chromer. Turns out the gamble by Andy and John paid off and they had a great day at Douglaston. They each had between 15 and 19 hookups on steel and each landed around 4. Good for them - that's a lot of hookups for the Salmon river and they were very happy campers.
Day 5 - more DSR action. It rained like a mother all day; surely this could be a fishy day. We split up again. It was slow in the early morning, but by noon, I had landed a couple beautiful chromers in the fast water in the middle of the DSR. Unfortunately, Andy and John had to leave, but Bucky and I stuck with it. Went back up to upper section and the action was pretty consistent all afternoon. We each had maybe a dozen hookups and landed several. Those fish really scream in the Salmon river - nothing compares (to me, anyway).
Day 6 - Bucky and I decided to meet my friends Aaron and Justin, who had had an INCREDIBLE day yesterday in the lower section of the river. 150 hookups between them. Unbelievable, I thought, but they had the photos to prove it. Aaron said it was his best day on the Salmon river ever - how could you top that? So we met them at the lower end again, hoping to strike gold.... er, chrome. Unfortunately, bad timing was my game again. Those fish were mostly gone - they had raised the water level the previous night, to 350 cfs, which probably made them run and scatter upstream. We were still optimistic we'd find them though. I got 3 on sucker spawn in Spring Hole, but overall, it was kinda slow. We moved back up to the mid-section of the DSR and Jeff and I got a few more. Finally, we moved back to the upper end of the DSR and it was pretty hot and heavy for awhile. Then, around 3pm or so, it just shut off. All in all, a good day with several slabs of steel brought to the net.
Which reminds me - that really great net I had purchased specifially in preparation for this trip, somehow managed to unclip itself from my belt and floated downstream into the depths. Note to self.... next net, tie on a lanyard!
The cycle of life continues
Your's truly - a very happy man - despite the look
One happy Bucky
A nasty war scar - this fish actually provided Jeff with an awesome battle, despite the wound.
This is what it's all about, folks!
Day 7 - we decided to try North Sandy creek. This is a beautiful little creek that is about 20 minutes north of the Salmon river. It's fast, with some nice holes and pocket water, and it flows through a marsh. Pretty and unique, but not as hot as the Salmon. I did manage 2 steelhead to the net and explored a bunch. I must have walked a mile up from the Rte.3 bridge. I landed 1 King, and had a big chromer take me for a good run way upstream from the bridge.
We ended the day back at the Salmon river, ballpark hole. Jeff had 1 more steelie take him for a ride, but I got the skunk.
Day 8 - we had enough! Arms were sore and tired not so much from battling steel, but from the constant repetitive motion of casting flies and shot all day. Home by 12:30 and fishing the Housatonic by 1:30!
Great trip - can't wait to go back, maybe to Oak Orchard to battle some browns, or maybe the Catt again, if and when it gets more water... and steel.
North Sandy Creek
