Weekly Recap; 3/31-4/6

This past weekend was a steelhead fishing adventure. Friday fished the Lower River, Saturday fished one creek and Sunday another. Many lessons were learned and I want to share them with you here.

If you want to listen to the podcast that links up with the weekly recap, check out the 'Two Angles on Angling' podcast anywhere you listen and look for episode 103!

Let me start off by saying this, I did not catch any fish. So the photos below will not have fish, I am just as disappointed. Regardless, don't we fish so that we can learn? So truly no day on the water is a bad day, it is just a piece of the puzzle and the reason why we keep going out.

With any outdoor activity, especially fishing, there are many variables. Those being; water temperature, water color, precipitation, wind, current, time of year, bait fish patterns, spawning patterns, angling tactics, gear, experience, intuition and many others too. You see my point though that it is not always so simple.

The three days I approached each body of water differently. As the days progressed the water I fished got smaller and skinnier. Friday fishing in the Mighty Niagara, I was using a 3/8oz JDO Swimbait head with a Pink TMC Baits Paddletail. Casting and swinging it through the ever changing current. The next day indicator fishing with the fly rod. Drifting a chartreuse egg fly down to a white zonker. Then Sunday fly fishing with streamers, one that I made is shown below (with a fish scale, but no fish)

Saturday was a big learning experience for me. The first time having indicator fished for Steelhead. I was fortunate enough to get out with another angler, John who showed me the ropes. This was the first time we had fished together and he had a setup ready for me to rock which was solid! That being the setup I explained earlier. The setup intrigued me because you basically were nymphing and streamer fishing, giving two options.

When we started I told him that I wanted to watch him approach a spot and how he would fish it. He had a decent day, landed a sucker, steelhead and another sucker. We fished the same spots, why did he have more success? Experience was definitely on his side.

What variables could I change next time?

-Better line management, having less drag on the water for a more natural drift.

-Encroached a little closer on spots, especially with the stained water.

-Raised my indicator so I had a bit more contact with bottom.

Speaking of the conditions though, when we arrived it was a good color with half a foot of visibility roughly. It did rain for quite a while throughout the morning which had the creek on the rise. Eventually making the creek unfishable the next day due to high flows and muddy color.

So Sunday I went to an even smaller creek with the intentions of just fishing a streamer. Upon arriving the water was flowing and it had some dark color with only a few inches of vis. Not a great combo. Regardless, it was a good time to get in reps and practice.

Being my first time at this creek I really went over the checklist in my head of the basics of fly fishing, especially everything I learned in guide school. Streamer fish down, easy. Scout the water, find holes, find navigation to cross. The setup was solid, 9' 8wt, floating line, 0x tippet to a streamer of choice (one I tied)

With the water color there was no way a fish would be line shy, and I doubted if a fish would even eat in this, but I kept thinking "it just needs to pass in front of ones face" so with that in mind, I stripped out line and figured out my max distance cast on the small creek. That was easy to do and then from there I started hammering holes. Casting and swinging through or stripping through some areas.

Kept walking down and scouting. I came across this nice bend and was not sure on the water accessibility, so I hugged the bank and switched up my angles. Instead of casting across and swinging down, I was more so casting at a slight angle with the current and just it drift through the flow into the slack water.

That is when I got my most solid action of the weekend! The photo of the scale on the streamer is from the most solid bump I had. Oh well, not a fish but part of the puzzle.

This weekend really got me excited to fish and fly fish for steelhead and smallmouth this year. Thanks for reading my rambles. Enjoy the photos down below!

Tight lines, catch ya soon! Jordan H. DiVirgilio

Friday; Lower River

JD Outdoors Sticker

Fish scale on a JDO tied streamer