Fishing Report, December 6th! Salmon River & Feeders and much more!

Greetings Compleat Anglers!  Here is your fishing report for December 6th, 2017.

While some areas of our sport slow down with the coming winter season, other areas stay hot!  Trout fishing on Connecticut and Catskill rivers has slowed with the diminishing hatching and shorter, colder winter days. However, if your timing is good you can still find some small, occasional Olives or winter Caddis on the Farmington and Housatonic rivers, as well as smaller Fairfield County streams such as the Mill or Saugatuck. And on occasion, there are even fish on the Olives!  If insect activity is nil, then fish small nymphs or egg patterns in the deeper runs and slower glides - many of us fish right through the winter on the Farmington, Housy, Mill and other creeks and water.  Remember, during this period it is all catch-and release! Things slow down a bit more in the Catskills on the Delaware system, with much of the water closed until April 1st, 2018. But the Delaware Main Stem stays open to catch and release. As in other areas, concentrate on the deeper runs and pools fished deep with nymphs, wets and soft hackles. In the cold water, the trout are much more static and you really need to bump them on the nose. Many of us find this a great time to give those lovely wild Delaware trout a good winter's rest (and give us a chance to tie flies, go over beat-up equipment, and re-organize for the coming season!

In upstate Western New York, the Steelhead and Lake-run trout fishing stays hot!  The Salmon River through Pulaski has been fishing well, and up to now, the weather has, for the most part, cooperated. Right now the Salmon is flowing at 450-610cfs through Pineville with a water temperature of 39 degrees. Yesterday, the afternoon was warmer, calm and dry with a decent amount of hookups and numerous multi-fish anglers. For fly fishermen, egg patterns and nymph patterns are accounting for much of the tally, with some fish also being taken by swinging small streamers and steelhead patterns. For spinning rigs, small beads, blue or pink egg sacs and pink worms have also been very effective. The upper and lower ends of the river have been the most productive with fresh fish mostly on the lower end. As water temperatures drop, the deeper pools are holding most of the fish. Remember, the upper fly zone is now closed for the season and will re-open on April 1, 2018.

Our own Sal Renzuella recently came back from an epic trip fishing some of the feeder creeks in Western New York for Lake-run Brown Trout. Sal and his dad hooked some monster Browns along with a few steelhead as well. Check out the cover picture of Sal's 18 pound Brown (one of several fish he took in that weight range!)  As well, our own Patrick had a great trip to the Salmon as well, and took the lovely Steelie above as well as several others.

In the Salt, things have slowed down a good deal in LI Sound. Many of the rampant schoolle bass that wreaked havoc on the beaches all through November have headed south, or retreated back to the river mouths to winter-over. I decided to give the beaches one more shot yesterday - a pretty futile attempt to cast into a 30+ mph SE gale. At Sherwood Island, most of my casts ended up back at my feet. There were birds working up and down the beach, but my guess is that they were picking up bits and pieces of bait left by the churning waters. Even so, it was a strangely beautiful day to be out and even if I got no fish, I did catch a couple of great photos - one of which is here! There was a monster tide (due, I guess, to the combination of the super moon and the heavy SE winds that pushed a lot of water.) Check out the tide surge (below) at Mill Pond- and this was still 2 hours before high tide!

This is a great time to re-organize equipment and ascertain needs for the coming season. Stop by the shop and check out all the great new inventories of clothing, rods, reels, accessories, fly tying equipment and tools, and flies!  We have Mike Motyl's amazing new killer Delaware patterns in - check them out!  New clothing from Simms and Patagonia, reels and rods from Abel, Ross, Nautilus, Sage, Hatch, Tibor, Hardy, Lamson, Scott, Loomis, Winston, Reddington, as well as lines by Airflow, Sci-Anglers, Rio and more! We have lots of really neat gift items perfect for your fishing-fanatic spouse! We have Yetis Galore!  And keep your eye out for our list of amazing fly-tying workshops and demos coming after January 1st!  Until then, 

Tight Lines!