2022 Spey Day Turkey has concluded

Today when I woke up, I was still on the emotional high from yesterday.  

I looked at the USGS site and saw she was getting fed little by little from snow melt. Where I would fish her she goes through alot of gradient change. 

I would guess 20 feet vertical in 200 feet horizontal.  I walked the 1.5 miles to the one run I wanted to swing.

The part I enjoy fishing out of this section is not a traditional run. It's a boulder strewn riffle. The water is 2 to 4 feet deep with a wicked current all the way through the water column.  

I put on a piece of T-14 that is 9'-10" long making it 137 grains. I perfection looped a 3-foot piece of Seaguar Red label 12-pound test on it. I then put a conehead Halloween nightmare on it. These are sparsely tied and have a lot of action in the fibers in the water.  

I worked the water fan casting and using the PNW step down I proceeded to cover the water column. The first series was 30 feet from shore and the second was 50 feet from shore.  

I would downstream mend a belly on purpose into my line so the fly would sprint cross current. I caught that Ho using the hang down method yesterday.  

I would not pause and just would repeat the casting stroke when my Skagit become parallel with the shoreline.  

I was about 40% through the one of the last few swings. I don’t carry a loop anymore. I set the drag to a fighting the fish tension.  

The it happened before I knew it i could see it happening. My drag was making noise and my line was going up stream. I'm like am I dreaming? I did not cast upriver like that.    

Then common-sense kicks in its a fish a fish o my goodness Charlie Brown. 

The current was heavy and moving fast. The head I was using is 440 grain and the tip is 137 grains. The total weight was 577 grains, and it was being pulled up stream. I applied enough side pressure to pull the fish out of the current.  

I would learn this fresh Manistee hen was mad at the world. Now shes got a #4 hook stuck in her craw.  

I could see from her profile she was dime bright and highly motivated.  

I circled her into a large back eddy and tailed her.  

She was approximately 27" long and loaded with eggs. She also had been eating well.   

Unfortunately, my camera and my backpack and that was about 300 feet away from me up river.   

I did not want to put this warrior princess through any more stress. 

I placed a kiss on mykiss and sent her on her way once she kicked out of my hand up stream.  

I get such a rush from releasing a fish hot and breathing on her own.  

I began to walk back to my car. We are blessed here in the Great Lakes Region to have great park systems.   

I drove to check out another Lake Erie tributary. The parking lot was full and I'm like don't these folks have families lol. 

So, at this point I was ready to call an end to the trip.  I went to subway to grab my Thanksgiving dinner and a six pack Guinness.   

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone - I am getting ready to hit the river

Turkey Day Spey 2022 - Ho Version!

In life no matter what path you take one must make choices. Sometimes those choices are good and at times not so good. The same parallel can be said of fly fishing. 

For example, we will set up on a perch (a position that you have chosen to fish from). You watch the currents whirl by as you try and read the water. 

Reading water is an art and the better one is at it the more likely you are to hook up with a fish. 

Today luck was on my side and with little pay it forward "karma"! 

I posted up on the perch I had selected. When I got to the Oak, they were preparing to flush the leaves out of the vertical turbines.  

So, I am into about my sixth cast, and someone pulls the plug on the Oak. The water dropped two feet. I thought O my goodness what's going on here. One of the other fishermen across the way " said be patient it will come back".  

So, literally in about an hour the flow came right back with a vengeance. The flow was right back to where it was before. I watched the rock bars disappear once again. Then like a light switch being flipped the fish put their feed bag on. 

The female brown trout took a swung olive woolly bugger. She did not put up much fight. All the other fish I saw landed were lethargic and not great fighters. 

I need to confess something also. I choose to sleep in did not show up on the river until 0830. The overnight low was 32 and this section of the Oak is in a valley. There was no reason IMHO to get there at the crack of dawn.

The Oak is a tailwater and the water is always cooler because of that. Also, with it being in a river valley coupled with being a tailwater, and it being eight days away from December I choose to sleep in. 

The fish I saw hooked and landed gave up the fight early. 

So, the stage is set I changed my fly to the "Punkrock Cheerleader". After a brief hook up with a steelhead I was " like well that's it".

The next cast my line slapped the under spine of my rod and I thought it was a snag. Well, the snag started to move. I exclaimed " fish on " the other anglers respected my space and paused their fishing. 

My next thing I said, " if I land this fish I am done".  

I did not know what kinds of fish it was until it rolled on the surface. 

I yelled out it's a Coho. I was shocked because like their other cousins the King Salmon they should be dead or near death. 

He was bull dogging me like a laker. I was applying so much side pressure to pull his head out of the current I thought he would break off. 

He bolted upriver and I knew with my side pressure I could circle him around to me and net him.  

Well, that sounds easier than done. He then decides to go down stream and then I was forced to decide. Do I try to keep him off balance with the same side pressure? Do I change sides and risk the fish becoming unbuttoned?

I took a short deep breath and changed sides. This was to get him off balance and circle him back to me and into the net. 

This would also be the fastest way to net him. I did not really reelize how big he was until he got to the net. 

I have a 27" reach and he was longer than that. I estimated him to weight between 12 and 14 pounds. 

I took a few photos of the warrior and he tail kicked out of my hand to fight another day. 

Tonight, I decided to eat some place new. When one is from out of town it is sometimes tough to find a good place to eat. I decided to hit up downtown Ashtabula, Ohio. Let me digress for a moment. I do not have a refined pallet, nor can I tell the different between free range and non-gluten. I am also pretty sure I would not know the difference between tap or spring water!

Lol I found unknown to me a steak restaurant. What I did not know this is wine bar that sells great food and beer “at a trendy price tag”. The service was great and the food awesome. I got roasted cauliflower with an amazing dipping sauce. Two beers and a 5-ounce filet mignon.  The total bill with tip was $63.86

I know what you’re partly paying for is the presentation, service, and the certain level of paying attention to detail. The service was prompt and polite. All the food was hot and on time. If you’re looking to treat yourself this is a great place to eat and its called Bascule Bridge Grill, but if you’re looking for a Bob Evans experience this is not it! You can find them at this link Bascule Bridge Grille . The only thing I did not like is that they had Wi-Fi, but did not know the password, or could not tell me if patrons were allowed on it!

Well on Thanksgiving I will be standing on the shores of Conneaut. If she’s to high to swing I will have to find skinnier water! 

Be well and safe folks,

Sonder

Turkey Day Spey - Ho Update

 I will have a write up done later... here is a tease!

Tuesday I head North for Turkey Day Spey 2022 - Stay Tuned

Turkey Day Spey Update 2022

 It tis the weekend before Thanksgiving. This weekend I would be normally excited and ready to go on my Turkey Day Spey adventure. Now, I am excited but looks like New York has the potential to be a no go. 

For example, if you use this link and scroll down to webcams you will see the Conneaut harbor area. First you need to use “guest” as your username and password is “guest “also.  This will give you a clear visual of what’s going on up at the lake.

Another great weather information site is this for the entire state of Ohio is this gem.  

Ohio DOT Cams

As, far as Pennsylvania goes this is the webcam, I look at to get a feel of things.

Elk Creek, PA Cam

Here comes the heartbreaker lol this is the webcams I use for the entire state of New York for the current road conditions. They don’t cover every road, but its enough for anyone to make an informed decision about the road conditions.

NY DOT Cams

Looks like the storm is moving north and hitting between Buffalo and the Niagara Falls Region. I feel my soul shriek in agony because even if they reach 40 degrees for a few days lol the creeks and rivers will most likely be unfishable depending on the rate the snow melts. 

I am still going to my basecamp in Conneaut next Tuesday.  So, here is the weather forecast per weather. Gov

Today

A slight chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 31. Breezy, with a southwest wind 20 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tonight

Snow showers, mainly after 9pm. Some thunder is also possible. Widespread blowing snow, mainly between 9pm and 1am. Low around 24. Windy, with a southwest wind 23 to 31 mph becoming west after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 44 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Sunday

Snow showers likely, mainly after noon. Areas of blowing snow. Cloudy, with a high near 31. Windy, with a west wind 23 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 44 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

Sunday Night

A chance of snow showers before 1am. Patchy blowing snow before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. Southwest wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Monday

Patchy blowing snow before 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 43. Windy, with a south wind 21 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mp

Monday Night

A slight chance of rain and snow showers before 10pm, then a slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 29. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tuesday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 44.

Tuesday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 31.

Wednesday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 47.

Wednesday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 32.

Thanksgiving Day

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47.

Thursday Night

A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Friday

Showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 45. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

The things that still concern me is not the additional snow so much as the winds. The winds coupled with the over night lows will create side ice and the strong potential for slush! Lol Now I don’t have to tell a season veteran steelheader that slush is a major pain in the a$$. 

The chance also of this having a rain event will trash everything from Buffalo to Toledo!

Back in my younger days I would fish in these slush flows, but I have since changed my ways. The radial ice that grows on your fly line is brutal. 

A person who is swinging flies like myself will not be able to do so. To get a fish to move to a swung fly is not impossible, but the odds are stacked against you. I will be brining my eggbeater on this journey to double my chances of being able to fish. 

For the fellow weather nerds here are some other weather forecasting websites “I know I have posted these before, but wanted to help others whom might not have seen them before: 

Zoom Earth Weather

Wunderground Weather

Wind Forecast

Jet Stream - CONUS  USA

Great Lakes Water Information

NOAA Weather

Remember folks “cotton kills” and be safe this season.

Be well,

Sonder

A Crafty Mother Nature

 Well, it's a far cry from 70 degrees n partly sunny as snow falls outside at a quickened pace.   It's the life of being north from the south.  We take the good with the bad.   

It is my final day down home working with my cousin.  We will be going to town to get several bags of feed for the pasture puppies.  

I'm sitting down to break bread with my cousin and start our day.  

Thank you Brothers & Sisters in Arms

 But I have a question does this make my nose look big?

Turkey Day Spey 2022

 

Until now my annual trek across the southern shores of the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario never had a name!  Well, I don’t have a crystal ball and since mother nature is going to dictate where I fish anyways. I made my motel reservation at a mom-and-pop motel.  

I will be leaving after work on Tuesday the 22^nd swinging flies until Friday the 25^th. We will see where the cards land as far as weather goes. If I must drive through the southern tier of New York, but shy of the Salmon River I am up for it.  If I need to drive far west but shy of Michigan, I am up for that also.  

I will be taking a lot of photos while on my trip. If nothing else, I will get some amazing photos of sunsets and sun rises. lol

The overnight lows should be in the 30’s and the daytime highs should be under 50 degrees.

This weekend is family weekend again. I will be making my way down to W VA to assist my cousin with some farm chores.

I will get to chase some pond pets a bit.

Stay tuned Thanksgiving is not that far off!

 

Be well,

 

Sonder