26: Finally, some wet fly action worth writing about!

May29

I guided Jeff, Andrew, and Angelo on Tuesday, and we couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. While Angelo was off exploring parts north solo, Jeff and Andrew headed downriver with me to learn the ways of the wet fly. We began in a snotty boulder field, and right away, Jeff was into a fat, stocked brown. There were caddis and some Cream Cahills in the air, but all of the four trout we put in the hoop took the size 12 SHBHPT. The second mark we hit featured similar water, but we only had one bump in 20 minutes, so we headed north, still in the mid-river, to see if we could find open water. Score! This is a superb run for fishing wet flies, and while the action wasn’t gangbusters, Jeff scored an 18.5″ (taped) wild brown. At this point, Angelo joined us to do some indicator nymphing, sticking one fish. It’s always gratifying to give a wet fly lesson and see your clients rewarded with multiple hits, and having everyone land a trout made it even sweeter. Fantastic job, gentlemen, and it was a pleasure guiding you.

I was downstream with Andrew when Jeff stuck this quality wild brown. Once I saw it was a decent fish, I hustled up with the net so we could enjoy this photo op. Even when you’re in the STMA, you can still find places where wild browns like to hang out.

Last night I fished with surfcaster extraordinaire Toby Lapinski from about 4:45pm into dark, 9pm. We hit the same initial run I took Jeff and Andrew to, and the fish were cooperative. We stuck 8 between us, but I wanted to investigate some favorite water a little bit upstream. We had the entire run to ourselves, and were in position at 5:45pm. The water was significantly lower than Tuesday, 325cfs and dropping, and with the sparse release from the dam, the water reached 64 degrees on the thermometer. The trout seemed to love those conditions. I stuck fish after fish on wet flies, with the runaway favorite being the SHBHPT. I have no idea how many trout I landed — the fishing was that good. The rainbows, in particular, seemed to all believe that they were steelhead. I’ve never had so many fish leap so many times, some of them even after they’d spit the hook. Tremendous sport!

Meanwhile, Toby wasn’t having the same results. But it turns out that he was saving his chips for the dry fly action. At 7pm, while I was still poking around with wets in some faster water, Toby was fishing dries in some more languid pools, and seemingly hooking trout at will. His secret weapon was an Iso dry, and Isonychia were among the bugs we saw (caddis, midges, a few sulphurs, a couple BWOs). I made the switch to dry around 8pm, and once I found some risers, I too got in on the dry fly action. Usuals and Light Cahill dries were my producers.

Thus begins (almost here!) my favorite month on the Farmington.

**Stocked brown, but he ate well at the hatchery, and gave me quite the battle. All of last night’s trout were full of piss and vinegar.**

Farmington River Report 4/27/22: I can’t wait for April to get here

Apr28

Another unseasonably cold, windy afternoon on the river. I decided to check out the lower section below Collinsville, mostly out of Hendrickson curiosity. The water was higher than I’d like for wet fly (755cfs is still chugging; sub-500 would be best) but you don’t know if you don’t go. I began in a faster, snottier boulder-studded section; not surprisingly, it was a wet fly blank. I didn’t nymph it, which might have produced a different result.

Bug activity was, at first, minimal. Ubiquitous midges, then a mystery mayfly (see below), and then a few precious H-words. The mystery mayfly far outnumbered the Hendricksons, probably 10:1 or so. When the sun peeked out, the hatch ramped up. And when the clouds took over, the hatch stopped in its tracks. I managed a good half dozen trout on wets — this was in slower moving water — catching them blind and also by targeting active feeders. While few and far between, the active feeders all pounced on a well-placed wet fly. I fished the same team as Monday, a Squirrel and Ginger on top, followed by two tungsten beadhead Hendrickson soft hackles. I had an accident trying to land a trout by hand, and lost the middle dropper; when I re-tied, I exchanged the point fly for a tungsten SHBHPT.

I wasn’t satisfied with the surface activity, so I did a bit of nymphing. Normally I would use a traditional drop shot nymph rig, but this time I kept the three fly team and added a drop shot section to the point fly and one of my home-brew year indicators to the tapered butt. It worked just fine, and some of the takes were highly aggressive, almost bordering on frantic. After 2 1/2 hours, I’d had enough. I tried for one more trout on a swung wet, and, once successful, headed for the warmth of the car.

The mystery bug, about a size 14-16. Some kind of olive? Quill-something? Whatever it is, it far outnumbered Hendricksons. I don’t stress when I can’t ID a bug; if you try to match the general size, color, and profile with a wet fly or nymph, you’ll tend to do well. This is why it’s a smart idea to carry soft hackled Pheasant Tails in various sizes, beaded and unbeaded. That pattern looks like a lot of things in general, and almost always like something that’s alive and good to eat.

Top 5 Steelhead Nymphs for Salmon River, Pulaski

Nov19

The best steelhead nymphs are the ones in which you have the most confidence. After all, “best” isn’t measurable. But if you buy into the old saw that the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it, I’d like to offer up five steelhead nymphs that have proven their worthiness on New York’s Salmon River.

So, what qualifies a steelhead fly as a nymph? For the purposes of this list, I’ve kept it to flies that are size 8 or smaller; flies that feature predominantly muted colors (hot spots, contrast points, and bead heads are allowed); and flies whose basic construct is at least 50% actual invertebrate driven. So, no bigger stoneflies here. No Steelhead Hammer types. And no black-light poster colors. Here we go, in no particular order. As a bonus, some of the patterns have links to my tying video.

Soft-Hackled Bead Head Pheasant Tail. I was pleased no end to discover that Salmon River steelhead would eat this rather muted pattern. I’ve done really well with this fly in winter.

60-Second Redhead. The beauty of this fly isn’t that if you lose one to the bottom gods, you’re not depressed because they’re so fast and easy to tie. It’s that this fly, which would never catch your eye in a retail bin, is like candy to steelhead when they’re eating bugs.

60-Second Copperhead. After pounding up so many steelhead on the redhead, I wondered if they’d like a version with a copper Ice Dub head. A wise old Salmon River veteran once told me, “It’s hard to go wrong on this river with black and copper.” He was mighty right.

Copperhead Stone. I landed my first steelhead on this fly, and years later, it still works. I remember one morning in the Lower Fly Zone when I was handing them out to everyone who wanted to know, “What fly are you using?”

Spider. Another ridiculously simple tie (notice a pattern here?): size 12 hook, black Krystal Flash tail, black Estaz body, copper (the original calls for olive or pearl) braid flashback. Designed by Clyde Murray for Erie fish, the Salmon River steelhead like it just fine.

My top five steelhead nymphs for the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY, are all very simple ties. Note that they all have some kind of contrast, flash, or hot spot. These are all high-confidence patterns for me, all proven producers, and it’s hard to go wrong with any of them when you suspect the steelhead are eating nymphs.