No fishing as of late been busy with work but look at this!

I have walked past this rock several times and I found out some interesting stuff. I have permisson from another web site to use thier photo.  www.niagarafrontier.com/greatgorge.html  This link will take you through the history that talks about the rail road that followed the Niagara river.  The photo I took looks like this.

 The photo I saw of the above forementioned website was from I would guess the early 1900's.  Here is the picture of the same rock but different angle!

It never ceases top amaze me what you can see if you just open your eyes! A true piece of history long forgotten!

Untill next time folks!

Be well,

Tom

A peaceful relaxing time picking up other peoples trash!

In fishing there are some things that just sets’ a fire under our asses.  People who litter is who I am referring too.  Let me go back to the actions leading up to the river clean up!   The overnight low was 28 and the high for the day was supposed to be 50!  So I hustled myself out of bed at 4am with and made a pot of coffee.   I kissed my wife by and slipped out the garage.   I took my custom 6wt today a 10’8” 4pc.  The lines I used where a Steelhead Master Series 9wt WF line, and a Rio compact 375 grain Skagit.  The tip I used today was 4’ of T-14.  I was faced with horrible blue bird skies!  Fishing would be tough, but me and this river have a true love hate relationship!  After walking a mile in I rested on the bank listening to coyotes and hoot owls.  I rigged up my rod for swinging one of my sculpinzillas (http://switch-rods-single-handed-rods.blogspot.com/2011/12/tying-up-smallmouth-patterns.html ).  I had through the course of the day two reel nice tugs on the sculpinzilla.  The water was really moving, but unfortunately it had 40 inches of visibility.  I walked out of the river and made it to my truck.   I look down the bank from my truck and their sits discarded trash!   I had a small white grocery bag in my truck and proceed to fill it with worm containers and plastic bottles.  The other thing that pissed me off was who ever used the bait left their catch to rot on the shoulder of the road.   Why would you go through all that trouble of getting bait paying for it, and then hauling you catch up to your car and leaving it on the side of the road?  

Enjoy the pictures,

Tom

Waking Flies for Smallmouth Bass

Pacific Fly Group Kiss of Death Variant



Pacific Fly Group Kiss of Death Variant



Pacific Fly Group Kiss of Death Variant



Pacific Fly Group Kiss of Death Variant

Tying Up Smallmouth Patterns - Sculpinzillas!

Old acquaintances, familiar waters, and old friends

This past Christmas was nice.  The new families members all got together and played like all children do that are under the age of two!  It was nice to be home, but I could not stop thinking about how wonderful it will be to go fish some of the Lake Erie tributaries on the Monday after the holiday.  I kissed my wife good bye and she headed home.  I got all my stuff together.  On this outing I took my TFO 11’ 8wt (rated for 400-600 grains) to the river.  I would string up the large arbor Battenkill number five with the Scientific Angler Supra Skagit 500 grains.  This line has a head of 27 feet.  I ran a 5’9” section of T14. This set up for the flows I was dealing with today would be the sweet spot in my humble opinion.  The total grain weight of this exact set up is 580.50 grains.  I would wade down to the lowest possible area at day break to swing for any steelhead that might be hanging out.  I swung my Sculpinzilla.  The pattern looks awesome wet better than I had planned for it.  It’s defiantly made for sinking! I did not have any takers.  The T14 tip was good for the flows all day.  The area has had no snow, and everything I saw did not have any frost on it.  The ground is saturated with water.  I waded out from my first section, and proceeded to watch an angler walk right across the river.  He never said “hey do you mind if I cross here” or anything.  I reeled up my line and proceeded to choke him with it “allegedly”.   No, I did not do anything I just walked on by him praying someday he would lose his stupidity.  I don’t like fishing around people I don’t know and that one be just another reason I hate fishing around people.  So I got a call from a friend and he said they would be at access X on the river.  I thought cool I will go swing some flies laugh and see him.  I walked up stream and saw him, and said “hey is this where the cool kids hang out”?  He laughed and said how you been?  I said the holidays have been great but it’s good to see you.  He had a young lad with him Mario from all indications for being only 14 I believe can swing a mean switch rod.   I proceeded to walk up stream with my friend to yet another gentleman he was fishing with.   I watched the accomplished fly fisherman cast with an effortless stroke.  That’s what I enjoy about two hander fishing.  The less effort you put into it the better your cast is.  He later offered some great advice to help me with my casting stroke.  I took it all in and he was right jus ta little tweek made my cast go from 35 feet to 45 feet!  I thanked him cause I have never had a reel idea what I'm doing, and have never been critiqued.  I shook my friends hand and he went on fishing.  I walked up about 400 yards and began to swing through some nice pockets, runs and riffles.  I would lose quite a few flies here!  I did not tie on my Sculpinzilla.  I fished intruders purple over black, blue over black, and black over purple.  Not one grabs or nibbles.  I did not care I was on vacation up here for three days of this so I was bound to at least hook up once or so I thought.   We fished along the same stretch of water for about an hour.  They left before me and proceeded up stream.  I went to knock on a door of an old friend and ask him if I could fish behind in house in the valley.  He granted me access and seemed to be really happy I still ask after all these years.  I walked down into the 300 foot gorge.   I saw no traces of anyone else being here.  That’s one thing about this place it’s a haul to get in and out.  I saw remnants of the Bald Eagle nests.  I was surprised not to see them this year.  I normally see one of them when I snap a branch of two on purpose.  They normally peek out of their nests and look at me!  Well no fish where hooked in this section but once again it was all about being alone with hopes of possibly hooking a fish. Well enjoy the pictures!

Steelhead Nerds!

Here is a website you folks may not know of. http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;ws=29769 its a great site for weather.

Ramblings, Mumblings of the Great Lakes Steelheader

Sometimes I wonder how people make it through the day.  I miss the rivers I used to fish.  I miss the fish and the rawness of the Great Lakes. 

This past fishing trip was the best prescription a doctor could write.  I know my wife said I could fish over Christmas holiday.  I may fish and I may not.  I like winter steelhead fishing to a point. 

Here in the Great Lakes we have brutal temperatures.  The water cools and holds the colder temperatures coupled with any wind makes slush.  This slush creates a problem for winter steelheaders.  Slush creates side ice along the rivers and creeks.  This will eventually cause sheets of ice to form all over the rivers.  The ice will lock up rivers and creeks.  The fishing leading up to these events can be great but the timing can be very difficult.  The air temps are so cold and coupled with the cold water temps makes casting fly very difficult. Radial ice forms around fly line and the leader material. This after awhile turns into cable? The longer you cast it the bigger the diameter of the radial ice gets.   Now in saying this we have had a bizarre warm beginning to winter over the last two weeks.  I’m going to pack up my pellet head fishing gear and head to the shores of Lake Erie next week.

My lovely wife has given me a three day fishing pass.  Compounded by the fact there is zero snow on the ground and no ice in the rivers I will be fishing.  I’m taking my custom Feathercast 10’6” 6wt switch and my TFO 8wt 11’ switch rods!  I will take my full spey just in case the Grand is fishable!  Well folks have a safe and happy holiday!

Cheers,

Tom

Sculpinzilla!

Grain Weight, Rod Weight who is confused!

Well to tell you the truth the entire two handed rod industry could not have made us more confused.  Why do they sell switch rods with a line rating on them?  Does anyone own a switch rod that is a 6wt that is strapped with a 6 weight line?  I really doubt it due to the fact a switch rod or a two hander needs to be rated in grain weight only.  For those even more confused by this let me explain. I own two TFO switch rods one 5wt rated from 250-450 grains, and an 8wt that’s rated for a grain weight window of 400-600 grains.  I don’t have a grain scale yet, but I do know it takes a SA Mater Series steelhead Taper in a 7 weight (for the 5wt) and a 10 weight (for the 8wt) to load the rod correctly.  So how in the hell can you load a rod correctly with a 5 weight or 8 weight lines?  You simply can’t load the rods correctly by line weight alone.  I just feel the industry has missed the bus again and has a lot of us confused, and some people are just afraid it’s too difficult to line a rod properly.  Sorry for the rant, but I just wanted to help someone!

Tom

Good times, great food, and some good ole fishing!

Warning some of the tactics use in the following blog entry used a spinning rod with flies on it “sorry to disappoint”!  I have been planning this fishing trip for about 8 months.  I traveled with Seth and Jim on this adventure.  Anyone who knows me knows how ADD, OCD, and anal retentive I am.  I looked at every possibility to get the maximum affect.  I wanted to fish the Cattaraugus Creek so bad I could taste it, but she never came down fishable levels.   The storm that ripped through the southern tier of New York dumped a few inches of rain.  The winds had been howling at 20-30 mph.  The next Saturday was the first day of gun season “double bonus”!   I would take a new friend (Seth) with me and introduce him to the largest Great Lakes tributary he will ever fish!  I know through the grape vine that all the king salmon where huge this year so I was hoping the rest of the migrating fish would follow suit.  There are several green King around.  We arrived on the banks of the Lake Ontario tributary at about 0530.  We rigged our rods. O my I almost forgot!  We stopped at Dunkirk Wal-Mart and had so much fun getting our fishy license!  I have never had an issue getting a license until today.  Number one I told the walrus working at the front desk we are here to purchase fishing licenses.  She with her tusks barked out at us “well we will get someone there” sorry to have bothered you at 0230 I thought to myself!   So we proceeded to go to the sportsman section to purchase them.  Why on Earth would they send someone back there that does not know how to do this?  It’s like if you had some fine black silk pillows and you wanted to take care of them would you just give them to any Laundromat, or would you give them the love and attention they deserve somewhere else?  Instead we had to call for reinforcements.  They called the manager to help her.  Needless to say we got through it “one hour later “.  So, back to the river bank!  We waited for first light with our rods rigged up!  I was fishing today with my full spey Reddington CPX 9wt and my Galvan T14. The fly line is a 675 gr RIO Skagit flight head attached with a 14’ long section of T17 for a total of 913 grains!  This rod could easily handle more grain weight.  I would also bring the egg beater!  The egg beater gets flies put on it too don’t worry no bait!  I would begin to swing the grey over white 1” copper tube fly at first light.  I would connect with a very irritated 5-7 pound class Brown Trout.  He had been in the river a little while. See picture below, photo taken by Jim Stuart “sorry for the low light horrible picture”.

This would be the only fish I would connect with on the spey rod.  This was not due to the lack of trying.  I changed patterns all the time.  I also changed tips over and over again changing fly patterns!  I even changed the length of the tippet material.  So I brought the egg beater to plunge the depths of the river! I just put simple egg blood dot patterns on her chartreuse, pink, and orange on a 2488H hook size 14.  The first day I hooked 9 huge Lake Trout and did not land a one!  Those bull dogging fellers where strong and huge this year!  I should have changed to heavier leader material on my Avid St Croix a Western style spinning rod.  I was running 12 pound mainline.  I was only using an eight pound test leader to start with (a good friend said go heavier)!  So we left the river banks defeated, but with high hopes for tomorrow!  I brought an eggbeater because I was going to get into fish by every legal technique possible!  This was one of the few trips I have ever been on where I needed to hook a fish bad!  I needed to feel the strike and the strength of the fish to help me reconnect.  After being up for about 30 some hours we decided to go check into the hotel, and get something to eat.  Our first food choice would be http://www.thewilsonhouserestaurant.com they have some great food and spirits, and with a great price point too!  See a picture below of the meal I ate.   They had a horrific band playing there, but the more drunk the audience got the better they

sounded I guess!

The hotel we stayed at was a great new little place called Lakeview Motel and Cottages.  Wally & Chris Nowacki owns’ the place.  Wally and Chris are great people. They treated us fairly and where very tentative to our needs during our stay!  This was so close to everything for us in the immediate area.  The can be found here http://www.lakeviewmotelandcottage.com , and the prices were great also! See pictures below.  Wally thanks for those nice tokens of your generosity! 

View from room Lake Ontario in the back ground

The smoking and burbon drinking area

Seth, and I getting ready to disembark the hotel!

The second day of being on the River I was feeling a little outmatched by these fish.  We walked down to our spots and once again waited for day break.  The Lakers were busting bait all over the place.  The noises they were making was amazing some little splashes and some huge splashes.  I forgot to mention the bait I saw along the river banks.  I have seen small ribbons of bait before, but this time it was different.  The bait was so thick I would not call it thousands but hundreds of emerald shiners where up against the shoreline.  This day would prove to be the best day for me as far as quality fish.  The first fish I would land would be a Laker in the high teen pound weight class.

He would take a size 14 pink blood dot tied on a 2488H hook.  He was hook directly in the front of the mouth.  The fight seemed to last forever with these fish this year.  I almost did not want to hook a large fish.  We stayed at the River for most of the day.  The rest of the crew did not hook a fish.  I will say something the River Guides on the bank did a great job staying away from us.  The boat traffic was very bearable.  The color of the River was clear out to 18” but after that it was a deep emerald green. 

Here are some more fishy tanks!

Photo by Jim Stuard "my new fave picture"!

What you cant get from this picture was the immense size of the speciman. I was solo holding on to dear life by his tail. He was at least a 20# laker and the girth well it was immense! He fought for so long I had to return him to the water fast! His body was so long I could not fit in into the picture frame. He will forever be in my brain!

I will say one thing every place we ate at was awesome!  The Steelhead Pub in Lewiston, New York is closed “the end of an era for me”.  We found a new place across the street.  This place you can wear your waders and walk right in off the river!  We had some amazing food, spirits, and the prices are awesome.  The Brickyard Pub and BBQ will be our go to spot in Lewiston, NY from now on "awesome brew options". It can be found at http://www.brickyardpub.com. Take a look at the pictures below!  Sometimes no matter how great the game the chase is more fun than the catching isn’t that right my friend?

I could not get this picture to rotate! Shaved prime rib sandwhich one pound and sweet potato fries pricess!

We did go to another Great Lakes tributary to fish.  I felt bad that they guys did not hook fish and I called a good friend of mine to help us out.   The river is hard one to bust your cherry on!  He took us to another tributary that was much smaller.  The creek has a lot of chrome in it.  This is where Seth would hook his fish.  He hooked steelhead and was very impressed by their power.  Seth is a diehard warm water fishery fly fishermen.  He had no idea what to expect.  He loves Whipers and fishes about 180 days out of the year for them.  The following pics are from there. 

Jim Stuard getting some!

Beat and battered we began on Sunday to head home.  The weather going home was good until Columbus, Ohio. The rain started and made the drive a little pain in the butt.  Well I want to thank all my friends who helped me with some great information and suggestions.  I’m sure this will not be the last trip up north for Seth.