Four Mile Creek State Park NY & the Niagara River

A person can either complain that there is nowhere to fish, or they can come up with a plan to do something.  

I chose to change it up and spend three days fishing around the Niagara River around the Buffalo Region.  

I would concentrate on the breakwall on the Niagara River.  

A person can catch a multitude of species there depending on the time of year. An example of this is that in the spring a person can go from catching steelhead, smallmouth, walleyes, and freshwater drum all summer.  

Figuring out how the flows affect your bait or lures is one of the toughest parts of fishing in this area.  

I needed to pop n jig my Ned rig because the freshwater drum would only take the Ned Rig on the drop.   

All the freshwater drum hit out in deeper water as I jigged it back to me.  

I had no idea the depths I was casting into. 

I could only read the water so much. There was an identifiable ledge and drop offs. I could also make out small cobble areas that had a mixture of sand, pea gravel, and glacial silty loam.  

When I found the above described areas, it was fish on.  

Needless, our fishing is always at the mercy of the weather.  

Yesterday’s freshwater drum palooza was successful in part because of the southerly winds.

The water level was 2 feet lower unlike today it was 2 feet higher with the northerly winds.  

This is the only explanation I can think of where all the water came from. This change in water levels made the fish push off into deeper water, I think.   

I fished the same nedrig but the north wind I believe with the current stopped my 1/5 of an ounce to get to the bottom.  

I changed direction of my cast. I even counted down to different depths in the water column and had zero results.  

It always amazes me with the variables that one needs to think of when fishing. This is what makes fishing or any outdoor sport such an adventure.  

I also want to take a minute to talk about kindness. I want to say kindness needs no words and you don’t need to speak the same language. Here is my example. I was watching a young man from Turkey trying to find a hammer to pound a few tents stakes in. I could have continued to watch him and not offer the hammer that I brought, but instead I called him over to take my hammer and go use it.

He went and drove his tents stakes in, and he thanked me in his native language, and we continued with our evening.  Later I called attention to the kids playing in the campground roadway and pointed at the cars that had been driving too fast.

This time his wife and the grandparents gave me a nod in appreciation for making them away of the other drivers on the road.

By now it’s dinner time and I was warming up my chili. Then the grandfather got my attention asking to come over and speak with me. His English was very broken and in appreciation he invited me to have dinner with them.

I told him how honored I am that he is asking. I pointed to my chili and other food I was preparing. He smiled and said no problem and went back to his family. We exchanged lots of smiles and nods for the remainder of the weekend.

All you need to do is be human and be nice and make others matter.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the write up sorry it took so long. There is also plenty of artwork also that I will be posting from the trip.

Be well,

Sonder

Messing with the residents on this hot July day (7.12.2025)!

Dog Days of Summer

Its that time of year when our rivers and creeks are showing signs of summer. These rivers and creeks are showing us their secrets. They tell us a story about where fishing holes are. Where the fish would hold in higher water levels.

Its during these times before the falls rains come when a fisherman can learn about the river.  Is it tough work well yes because the sun is high in the sky and you can get dehydrated fast.

Today I went to wade fish as low as you could on Conneaut Creek.  I had heard the lower has lost a lot of her ability to hold fish and after today’s walk, I see why. She has accumulated so much small cobbles and sand from the storms over the years. For me it would not be worth the wade to get down there. Mind you this is summer pool level, and the water was in places up to my high thigh. This would be impossible to wade safely with another couple of feet of water in her water course.

I took my trusty TiCr TFO 6wt out for a walk. The rod was lined with a GPX 6wt and an Airflo sinking leader it as a sink rate of 1.5”/sec.

I used my generic white streamer with a brown hackle collar.

I did connect with a few resident fish today. I saw several Ospreys and one Bald Eagle. Its nice to see them flourishing.

I managed to see one fawn today while on the Grand River.

I hope you enjoy the artwork, and I am off to hike up into Brandywine Creek Gorge.

Creek Hike in New York Pt 2

 

Creek Hike in New York Pt 1

I decided to go to New York today. I had chosen a Lake Erie tributary to hike.  I wanted to hike 8 miles, but mother nature’s wrath or evidence of would not allow it. You will see what I mean by the videos and photos I will post. I ended up only hiking 5.5 miles.

As I hiked into the gorge I could tell this was going to be an interesting day. While hiking to find the old roadbed I saw a mature Redtail Hawk get harassed by some other birds.

When I got to the creek bed I saw a Bald Eagle.  Then I was greeted by the sounds of flowing water. She was in her summer low flow already. I was afraid of the rain we last had that I would not be able to hike her today.

I have fished this creek before but from the downstream section. I never got close to this area before. I am going to call this “The Barrel”. It looks like to me a gun barrel for because it will shoot you out if you fall and you will not be able to get back up from where you fell. I saw that if I slipped into the water there would be zero chance I could get back to where I fell from. As you can see there was zero chance for me to grab onto something to stop my potential fall.

The creeks, many chutes and waterfalls made this hike a reel treat.

I was in the shade most of the day and did not get started until 0900.  I needed the sun high in the sky because I would be down in a gorge.

There was abundant life in the pools and riffels. I saw Red Side Dace and other minnows. I saw plenty of midge activity and saw some black stoneflies also.

Hoofing it in Hocking on 4.12.2025

I went to bed at 1700 because I needed to be up at 0400! Yea, we love what we love lol. I made breakfast and ground some fresh coffee and headed to the Hocking Hills State Park near Logan, Ohio.

I chose the same route as I have taken before. Last time it was a hair over 11.25 miles and this time well should be the same.

I choose this route because normally there are very few people on it.  I got on the trail 0800 and it was frosty and 27 degrees.

I purchased over Christmas a few R1 Air Zip-Neck from Patagonia, and I am truly impressed. It has kept me warm during the day off and one rain two weeks ago when I went hiking at Paine Creek.

The rain came and gone the other day and some of the exposed clay was wet and you needed to be careful.

As I would pass a few small creeks I heard the water flowing through them. This hike would turn into a waterfall extravaganza. All the waterfalls I saw were discharging into the few gorges I walked on top of.

I would end up doing 12.9 miles on purpose and it was worth every step.  I saw a few ppl, but they were mostly at the bottom of the gorges. I did see two rappelling classes going on around the ridges I was hiking.

I found a beautiful waterfall this day. I have never seen a video of it and I will be doing some recon to get into the gorge to take some other videos of it. I will not share its location because she’s a gem.

I did something on porpoise today. I set my GoPro up today to take videos at 30 frames per second instead of 60 frames per second. I knew the quality would not be the best, but they still look ok, I think. I will return and retake them in the heat of summer.

I hope you enjoyed the write-up.

Sonder