Bourbon, Flies, and Lies: A New York state of mind!

I headed east to fish two large Lake Erie tributaries. the over night lows were supposed to be 40 degrees and higher. with our over night lows around here's hair above freezing this would be a huge bonus.

I sat out to begin my trek at 1400, but soon realized that I had to go home because my Garmin was missing a map set. it was missing the map set because we will just say I deleted it darn it lol.

Finally after two hours of mucking around I sent out east to NY. The traffic was in full rush hour swing. I went 76 to 11 to stay the heck out of the way with rush hour around 271 / 90 "no thank you".

I gassed up in Ohio before heading into PA. For all of who have driven across that 50 min wide piece of state know those fuel prices are well lol awful.

after driving through the stupid 55 mph zone and when the rest of the highway is 65 I headed to Jamestown NY. I picked up my my license at Chautauqua bait shop and headed to camp.

Top of the rise camp ground is mostly and RV camp ground. The folks are so polite and quiet at night it's awesome. It's located in Falconer New York and they have tent sights but they are spread out in the compound. The bath house is top notch with a free washer n dryer! I set up camp and kicked around the grounds abit talking to my neighbors. I prepped for the day the fly gear for the first Lake Erie trib.

I brought my custom 6wt switch loaded with a weight forward taper of 160 grains. I brought my skagit set up of 350 grains and a 250 grain full sinking line.

When I warm water fish I normally only carry a box of leeches and clousers. I tied them on a 2/0 clouser style hook. Yes they are much larger than the norm. The color that I have most confidence in is white over black. I tye the black to have a ratio of 1/4 of the amount white I have tied in.

I slept like a rock and was greeted by the sound of a large barred owl who seem to know when my alarm was going to go off.

I jumped into the car and headed east - northeast to the tributary. I arrived into town and saw her emerald colored water with decent flow. One other gentleman was fishing river left and I was headed to river right.

I fish a 6' leader set up of 3' of 20 pound test 1' of 12 pound test and then 3feet of 4-6 pound test mono. These fish are feeding with reckless abandon and do not care if your stealthy. Your bait pattern imitation is more important than your balanced leader set up!

The over night low this first night was 37 degrees. Lake Erie Western basin at 10 FOW (feet of water) is 50 degrees, Central Basin 50 degrees, and the Eastern Basin is 52 degrees. Lake Ontario in the same FOW in the Western Basin is 41 Degrees, Central Basin is 50 degrees, and the Eastern Basin is 52 degrees also. I have found through my experience that smallies are far more active in 55 degree water.

This Eastern tributary has seen its fair amount of river bed changes. The 10-12 feet deep ledge pools have been filled in with cobbles, gravel, and large pieces of shale. She was void of weed growth on the river bottom and this was a huge plus for me. The river had 30”-36” of solid viability.

I fished every hole that I could find dragging my clouser through. Sometimes someone was home and sometimes not “more not this trip, but I was perfect at peace with that”. I know that these lil machines will hold where the slack water meets the current seam to ambush their prey. This paid off several times on this river today.

I watched several quill back carp suckers traverse up through riffles moving up from there estuary homes. The bloke across the way hooked a few fish as well, but I hooked half dozen of fish out of this hole it was time to move on.

I drove about 7 river miles down stream to my nest river section. This area has been abused by ppl who don't respect the landowners and over the locals have come to know me they tell me their stories and it would make you cringe.

I was tempting fate with my switch rod between my legs while I fumbled for a cliff bar after making a half attempted cast. My fly jerked violently and the large bronze football appeared across the river with my fly in its mouth. I kept my bug rod lowered but when I raised it after he/she re-entered the water the fish became unbuttoned! I yelled “yes you got me, but thank you”!

I fished that stretch for only and hour. If I don't turn a fish in any given stretch within 30-60 min it is time to make a big move.

I would be drinking water all day since I carry 80oz in my pack. I went back up stream and go meet my new friend who I was fishing across from this morning. I found him sitting on the bank and he face was flush red “ heat exhaustion”. I said partner you ok and he said I feel like I gotta throw up. I dropped my gear ran to my car to get a few bottles of water.

When I came back I said here drink this and you gonna think I am nuts when I say this. Take this towel after I put it in the river and place it around your next because you need to cool your core temperature down. He was wearing rubber hip waders “he never moved and the sun was beating him down on the white/blue shale shelf. He was cooking like in an oven. (I stayed with him for like an hour and then I left when I thought he was doing better)”.

So after that I would go seek out some place to purchase some burbon. That was an adventure and I will not be going back to that particular liquor store.

The lake you see in the photos is Lake Flavia. This lake is teaming with 18-20” and bigger large mouth bass. It was too cold and windy as you can see by the cirrus clouds, but with all the wind their was still cumulus clouds that did not make sense. I could have been watching a front come in on me who knows.