Hit the ditches close to home to drift some float rigs for some chrome or brownies. My long time trout buddy, Kase, is leaving for SC next week for 6 months, and we wanted to get some time on the water together before he leaves.

I got a few drifts in with spawn sacks, but didn't feel like I was getting the bait down, so I reversed the shot pattern, and first drift, and its float down! Stuck a nice colored up hen. Surprisingly, she was spawned out.

Later, I noticed a nick in my leader, so I retied. I checked the knot (snell) but next time the float goes down, I set the hook, and I see BIG brown hen roll, and my rig comes fying back at me, sans hook. Grrrrrrrr......it was easy to see the knot came free.

Kase got a few smolts, I went 1 for 2. Despite the low numbers, it was good to get out with my bud.

A few pics:

Kase with 13.5 centrepin rig, drifting the deep seam

If this guy stops biting bright pink meatballs, he'll grow up big and strong.

This big girl has done her job, creating the next gen., and eating my bait.

Nice! Neat that there are fall spawning 'bows.

Pray for rain!

Nice fish!

8-)

Very nice John

Thanks Kent.

Paul, we actually had a bit of rain last Thursday evening, maybe a half inch.  I was actually fishing the mouth of Mills Cr. when water blew out mouth.  As it got dark, we watched at least 20 browns and a many more chromers run in.  This continued Friday morning. 

I fished the fast cut at the mouth, but even though there were a ton of chromers hiding in there, no bites.  Let a friend in on my little secret, and he gets six fish in about a half hour, LOL.  I've been in a real streak, huh?

I suspect the DEC has been tinkering with reverse photo period for a bunch of the smolts, and dropping them in late summer/early fall, tricking them (imprinting) into spawning in fall with false urges, or backwards urges.  I think this is the main reason for fall run of steel.

Still waiting for the big push of browns I've seen the past few years.  Haven't seen it this year.  Last year, it was over in a day.  Year before, we had a drought, and when the rains came, they really came.  It took like five days for all the browns waiting to come in, actually get in from the lake.  That year was awesome - creeks were wall to wall browns.  That's the year my son got his 1st.

Big Al, then 8, with a 9 lb. brownie.

Good looking fish your son has John. I can't say much for that hat though. NY, hmmm must mean next year, yeah, go Red Sox. 

I can't say much for that hat though.

Craw back in your hole!  Don't return until Pitchers and Catchers report to spring training, LOL.

Here's an old pic, complete with hat, from that incredible brown run a couple years ago:

Nice fish but...er...what's a "chrome?"  Is it a rainbow trout?

"Chromers" are lake run rainbows, or what we also call steelhead. They've left the creeks to pursue a pelagic lifestyle, feeding on high protein fish, instead of bugs and worms. When they first enter the streams to spawn, they are bright silver. then they color up to spawning coloration.

Fresh chromer:

Thanks Kent.

Paul, we actually had a bit of rain last Thursday evening, maybe a half inch. I was actually fishing the mouth of Mills Cr. when water blew out mouth. As it got dark, we watched at least 20 browns and a many more chromers run in. This continued Friday morning.

I fished the fast cut at the mouth, but even though there were a ton of chromers hiding in there, no bites. Let a friend in on my little secret, and he gets six fish in about a half hour, LOL. I've been in a real streak, huh?

I suspect the DEC has been tinkering with reverse photo period for a bunch of the smolts, and dropping them in late summer/early fall, tricking them (imprinting) into spawning in fall with false urges, or backwards urges. I think this is the main reason for fall run of steel.

Still waiting for the big push of browns I've seen the past few years. Haven't seen it this year. Last year, it was over in a day. Year before, we had a drought, and when the rains came, they really came. It took like five days for all the browns waiting to come in, actually get in from the lake. That year was awesome - creeks were wall to wall browns. That's the year my son got his 1st.

Well...that's exactly how it works. Nothing new under the sun. Those browns are there, out on the lakefront -many will drop eggs there, including Chinooks. Go at night with a flashlight -they are there. The run in those little cricks is all about water level. The lakefront creeks are so short they go to freshet and then drain out in one to three days. Be there or be square lol.

As it was we didn't tend to get wet weather until November. Those freshets brought a wall of browns.

More bows came as water temps dropped to low 40s. If you get December rains, get out there. On unseasonably warm Decembers, with rain, I've had SPECTACULAR bow fishing. Domestics and the first steelhead -often males -but lots of them. If you don't get rain, the rivers are the only game in town (except for the lake front and estuaries).

As to fall spawning 'bows -they've been doing that for a long time. They were what I called the 'domestic rainbows' -the domestic hatchery strains, not those with recent saltwater ancestry -what I called 'steelhead'. Domestics are short and fat, often with heavily warped dorsals.

I spoke with a DEC hatchery guy in Altmar once a while back, who said they were working on photoperiod manipulations but were just starting it. I don't remember details -he was actually questioning me bc I was beginning photoperiod research at that time. I couldn't help him I remember since I was just getting started and wasn't up on things.

But...those fall spawning domestics are doing it all on their own.

That makes sense, Paul.  The photoperiod thing was just a guess.

Funny, I think I use the same terms for them as well.

Domestic is pictured above, whereas this SR fish would be a steelhead.

I also always assumed that the domestics spent much more time in the tribs, than in the lake, and they fed more on bugs and worms.  This would account for the lack of smoltification, if even a psuedosmotification, when going way out and eating alwewife.

Don't know of any studies on domestic's behavior. They do smolt and go lakeside. It's a bow thing in general to look for certain habitat which is rarely met in small streams. By 12" (pretty much max), resident bows drop out. In bigger rivers (like the Big D) they end up in the lower reaches in large pools with laminar flow. Browns can eek out a living and may grow large in smaller waters.

What domestic's habits are in the big lake would be interesting. They do grow rapidly and quite large (although not usually quite as large as steelhead) which tells me they are on alewives for much of the year. Teh largest domestics I caught were around 11 lbs, although a friend took a 16 one night off Mill.

When I think of catching them in the lake we did so closer to shore (and often on bottom at Gannet), where steelies were what we found suspended on the thermal bars offshore.

Did you know one of the earliest successful introductions of 'bows in the east was in the Genesee River? They naturalized and some anglers believe(d) that that run still exits to some degree. I did occasionally catch some interesting looking smallish bows there, and wondered.

I didn't know that.  I swear, I could sit and pick at your brain for hours, LOL.  Right now though, I'm doing battle with a 2 year old that has figured out every child proof lock in the house, and is very determined to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed.  Parenting is fun  :