da Catt - day 2

We hit 'em good today on the Catt. Morning was really pretty good - I landed 2 and my brother Andy got 2 as well. During the middle of the day, the wind was howling like crazy and the fishing suffered. It got hot and heavy as evening approached.

The trout beads totally kicked ass! I'm a convert!

Had a huge brown on at the end of the day that came out of the water twice, but unfortunately, he broke off. He had to go at least 27". Ah well.

I'd some pics, but Blogger is having some issues right now, so it'll have to wait.

Steelhead trip - Day 1

Made it up to the Catt by 10:45AM and met my brother Andy in the town of Gowanda. fishing started off a little slow, but we managed to hook up eventually. By the end of the day, the action really picked up.

Here are some photos from the day:


































My brother Andy
















All fish were caught using sucker spawn. Tomorrow, I try the trout beads.

Off to Steel Country - or is it the Desert?

Well, the time has finally arrived. I'm about to embark upon my first steelhead excursion of the season. Nature is kind of a bitch sometimes though. Let me explain...

I (along with my trip companions) have been looking forward to the annual Erie steelhead trip now since about mid July sometime. Flies were tied with reckless abandon. Gear was purchased - a really nice landing net, a very sweet Lamson Litespeed 3, and a new cavernous Fishpond chest pack. Everything is ready to go. But here comes the cruel part: all this preparation and now relatively no water to fish in. The bigguns (Elk and Walnut) are a trickle. It hasn't rained substantially in Steelhead Alley in many weeks.

So what do we do? We go anyway. We make the best of it. We alter fishing plans and lodging plans.

Looks like we'll hit the Catt. Didn't get to fish it last year because of too much water and now it's damn near the only game in town. Maybe next year Chautauqua. Same to you 20 Mile! It could have been real!

Enough with the lamentations. I'll post back with photos (hopefully of us holding dime bright steel) when I get back. In the meantime, pray for rain.

Strange Times We Live In

Nothing fishing related, but amusing. A naked man in his 50's was spotted running with his 2 dogs through the woods in an area ajacent to my abode.

Here's the story:

http://www.registercitizen.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18812302&BRD=1652&PAG=461&dept_id=572363&rfi=6

Road Trip! Northern Vermont

After only using my Vermont fishing license once last year, I vowed to myself that I would make it up there at least more than that this year, so north Dave did venture. I knew conditions would be tough, given the drought the northeast has been experiencing for the past 6 weeks or so; the rivers would be low. I decided that my best chance for luck would be to head for a big watershed. The mountain and feeder tribs would be a trickle this time of year. So, Saturday morning I decided the Winooski river would be my destination. I also wanted to check out the Dog and Mad rivers, feeders to the Winooski, since they are pretty highly regarded as trout fisheries and supposedly ran through some beautiful country.

The Winooski is a large watershed, by Vermont standards. Fed by many feeder streams, it flows east and eventually spills into Lake Champlain in northern Vermont. It runs through Montpelier(the state capitol), Waterbury and finally Burlington/Winooski. I checked my guide books and my topo maps and finally settled upon fishing the river in the area adjacent to the small town of Duxbury.


It took me awhile to find a likely looking spot. Lots of dead looking water to my eye. I pulled over to an area that had a good amount of current, spilling into a deep ledgy hole. Suited up, ready to fish. I get down to my hole and cross at the tail. I take the water temp.... 72 degrees. Not looking good, but what the heck, I drove all this way, might as well wet a line.

I tie on a double rig: Red Fox Squirrel nymph and a small Pheasant Tail. First cast in a fast run.. drift drift drift.... boom! What a hit! After a short battle, I land a beauty of a rainbow. Not really big, but I'll take it. It beats the skunk in a hurry. Usually, catching a fish in the first few casts is a major jinx for me, so I was not overly enthused just yet. Second cast... drift drift drift.... nothing.... yet.... swing... boom! Another rainbow! Hey, maybe this Winooski is not bad afterall!


Well, the action DID slowdown after a short while. Newbie's luck, perhaps. But I did end up with 1 other out of that hole and lost a bigger one (of course). Not bad for 3pm on a hot summer day.

When the day was done, I ended up with 5 rainbows, a brown, 1 salmon parr, 2 micro-bass, and about 30 chubs.

I will take that anyday.

Stayed overnight in Montpelier at a skanky Economy Hotel. Wandered downtown and pulled up a bar stool at McGillicuddy's. Watched the Sox get blown out. Thank God for Bass ale and cheeseburgers.

Day 2 started off promising. Heavy skies, overcast, rain imminent. Took off for the Dog river which was just a few miles up the road from the EconoHell. Not a lot of access, or water. Next destination, the New Haven river, a tributary to Otter Creek, which again eventually flows into Lake Champlain.


After going over 2 mountain passes, I found myself at the upper end of the New Haven river. This is a small stream stretch that flows down from the mountains. I pull over just upstream of Bristol, VT and find some nice looking pocket water. In my 2 recent trips to Vt, I didn't land a single brookie, which this state is famous for. That personal drought would end here. The fishing wasn't great, but I did manage 2 beautiful mountain brookies, and also a wild brown that ended up being the fish of the day at 10 inches. Not quantity, but quality. Not just the fish, but being in solitude on a beautiful mountain stream, all to myself, in the pouring rain. It was a perfect brook trout kinda day.

Sometimes I get disappointed if I don't land a big fish. Not today. Today, I took what the river chose to give me and it gave me jewels speckled in blue and red, painted on a canvas of olive, black and fiery orange.

A New Toy

...or is it another weapon in the old steelhead arsenal? Today, my new steelhead landing net finally arrived via John Nagy. It's the McLean M130 Weigh Net.


Some of the features include: an integrated 14 lb. scale, mesh bag that's fish friendly, it's telescoping, it folds, and the one cool feature I like about it is that it has a clip on it so you can attach it to your wading belt. This is a really lightweight, but very sturdy net. We'll see how it holds up to the pressure this fall.

The hoop measures roughly 17" X 19" with a bag that has a depth of about 17". Should be plenty big enough.

Can't wait to try it out!

Mysis Shrimp

I was doing a little research today, both online and in books, and was reading about how effective mysis shrimp are supposed to be for steelhead. While not in the rivers we fish, they are prevalent in the Great Lakes and steelhead supposedly imprint upon them as a food source. One web site said that they prefer them to eggs 7 to 1! I'm not sure how accurate that is, but decided it was time I had a few in my flybox.

So... off to the vise I went and after a few attempts, came upon my own version. It's pretty easy to tie and offers a little more detail then some of the other patterns I've come across. I experimented a bunch with different ways to fashion the black eyes that are a pretty dominant feature found in all mysis shrimp imitations. After fooling around with glass bead eyes and mono eyes, I finally came across the idea of melting the ends of a cut piece of black larva lace. It's fast, and delivered the effect I was looking for.

Here are the tying steps; I just hope they live up to the hype!

Materials:
Hook: Tiemco 2457 #12
Thread: White 6/0
Eyes: Black larva lace
Thorax and abdomen: pearl white ice dub
Shellback: Mylar
Rib: Stretch lace .5mm
Tail: creamy white antron



Attach the tying thread to the hook


Attach the eyes to the rear or the hook, above the bend


Tie in some antron for pearl krystal flash for the antennae




Tie in some mylar (or similar) for a shellback, and some stretch lace. I found this stuff called Stretch Magic, that I bought at the local Michael's Arts and Crafts store. This happens to be .5 mm, clear


Add an antron tail, then dub the thorax and abdomen


Tie down the shellback, then rib





The finished fly