Steelies, Bows & Browns

After an unsuccesful week of deer hunting in Ohio, I headed up to New York for a mix of whitetail and steelhead. A friend of mine from North Carolina was up in NY chasing some steel and asked me to join him, so I headed to the creek on Saturday morning. The wind was gusting up to 30 mph, but down in the low area of the creek it was fairly pleasant. The water has been low on the Great Lake tributaries and this creek was one of the few that got some rain and had a decent number of fish. We had a lot of hookups and between the three of us we landed 10-12 chunky steelies. I brought 3 to hand with many LDRs on the day. All in all it was a good day.

 

On Sunday, the winds were up howling again, so I decided to hit one of my old haunts that I grew up fishing on for inland trout. I decided that I needed to knock the rust off of my comp fishing, so I rigged up the 10.5ft 3wt to give it a go. That day's recipe called for a size 8 Walt's Worm for an anchor and a size 14 hot spot Frenchie for the top offering. On the third cast, a had fiesty wild rainbow smash my anchor fly. The next cast called up another rainbow. The rust was knocked clear off the rod and my confidence was high, only to be smashed back down to reality as I spent the next 45 minutes fishing with only 2 more bows to show, but I did have a couple of LDRs.

Feeling a little low, I hopped in the truck and headed downstream a few miles to some honey holes that has been known to hold some spawning browns. I only had an hour to fish as I had an engagement to attend, so the pressure was on (kind of like fishing a comp). I worked a bunch of holes with feverish speed and missed a couple of nice fish. I got to the top hole and yanked out two nice size wild bows for the effort. I decided to call it a day and headed back for the truck. I stopped at the deep hole down by the truck and started making a few "last casts", knowing full well that I have never caught a fish out of this hole. This hole is about 10 feet deep and I was all the way at the bottom just churning my flies when the line got tighter than it should be. Knowing this is either the mother of all snags or a beast, I laid into the rod throwing caution and my 6x tippet to the wind. What happened on the other end of my line was something that reminded me of a Northern Pike head thrash. From the depths of the abyss, I could see a massive head just shaking wildly. The fought upstream and down, all the while staying at the bottom of the hole. I tried twice to take me into the log jam, but I leaned back on the rod and with the help of 10.5 feet, I was able to steer him back. After a ten minute battle and many choice words with myself for leaving the net in the truck, I beached the beast from the depths. The was truly a trophy wild brown that will rank up there as my best brown trout I have ever caught. It was not the biggest nor was it a Great Lake run fish, but it was a wild fish that I caught on my home water. You have to love those "last casts".

 

Story and photos by Foothills TU Newsletter Editor Bob Lux

Just Another Day on the Stream

One of our Foothills TU Chapter members, Bob Lux, recently went back home to New York for a little deer hunting and took a break to squeeze in a day of steelhead fishing...here's how it went:


After 7 days of deer hunting between Ohio and New York, I was in need of a break. Thankfully, it turned out to be a big rain day here in Western New York, so my friend Andy and I decided that we should hit Cattaraugus Creek before the rain washed it out. When we showed up in the morning, there was not a soul at the parking lot which was very odd for this time of year. With deer season opening this past weekend, most guys were hunting and let's be honest, it was Monday and the normal people of the world were at work. We are not normal and we need to catch some fish! 


We headed downstream to our spot that we discovered about 17 years ago during our initial journey into steelhead lore and legend. After the long walk, Andy jumped in ready to fish. Being a traveler of the world, my setup was not ready to go yet, so I had to rig up. I stepped into the river and made about 5 casts before getting the depth I wanted. The spot we fish is a seam in an area of rapids that drops into a long pool. Both sides of the seam are moving pretty good, but if you stay in the seam then you will catch fish. Andy has remained in the Buffalo area yet he has slackened in his steelhead ways, so I was telling him where to keep his indicator (when you fish a spot for close to 20 years, you know where the fish are). On about my 5th cast, the indicator dove down and I set the hook. The clay colored water of the Catt exploded as a chrome steelhead reached for the stars. I was a little nervous because this fish was large and I was kicking it with 6lb tippet (why I don't know since I immediately changed to 10lb after the battle). I fought the fish for 15 minutes as it made 9 long runs, each time seeming to only get stronger or maybe I was just getting more tired than the fish. My buddy Andy was finally able to get the net around the chrome steel and we got it to shore. The fished measured out at 30 inches and was released unharmed (except for the sore mouth). 


I instructed where Andy needed to get his fly as I was re-arming with heavier line. Before I knew it, Andy is yelling the call of the Catt "Fish On"! After a short battle I had the 25" steelhead in the net and ready to pose for its cover page photo shoot. With this challenge being matched by Andy, I was ready to step up. 


The next two hours yielded 10 more hookups and 3 more fish landed by me with the last one I hooke being a fish that had been in the river for some time and stared getting that mean looking hook jaw. I missed that fish 3 times before finally getting into it. Once hooked, this fish was ready to put on a show as it had me into my backing in 10 seconds. I chased him downstream and fought him for another 10 minutes before bringing him to the net. That fished ranked as one of my better steelhead on the Catt and we estimated him at 12 lbs. 


The rain began to fall harder and felt the call to go do a little duck hunting before dark, so I was reluctantly convinced into leaving, but not after one more cast. I made one more cast into my seam and the indicator dropped. I set the hook only to have the fish spit the hook and give me a little porpoise show by coming up out of the water after he got loose just to give my a goodbye wave. All in all, not a bad way to spend two hours in the pouring rain. Final score Bob = 4, Andy = 1. By the way, my four fish were on a #14 Y2K. Gotta love that fly!