Trip 2 W.NY, Oak Orchard River
| November 5-7, 2008 | |
Our second trip out to W NY will be remembered most for the awesome weather, three days in the 60’s, and oh, the fishing was pretty good too! My good fishing buddy Tom and I headed out to western NY in the very early hours of November 5 and made the long drive in just less than 8 hours. We made our first stop at Orleans Outdoor tackle shop in Carlton; Tom needed his fishing license and the latest fishing info from the shop owner. The shop owner told us that the water level was med-low and running clear with some fresh salmon still coming in, albeit in smaller numbers than a few weeks ago and the brown trout run was beginning to take shape with some large males and females entering the river. From there, we made our way to farmer Roy’s parking area at the river access trail and found a rather unexpectedly large number of vehicles in his lot. The predicted good weather must have triggered a number of last minute vacation days! After a quick bite, we set up our rods and headed down the path to the river. The river was running medium low with good clarity. Tom and I decided to split up and fish different water; I headed upstream to the Archer pool while Tom stayed downriver at the Access pool. The Archer pool was pretty much elbow to elbow when I arrived and I politely asked the resident anglers if I could squeeze in and they obligingly made some room for me. That is one of the great things about the Oak….usually a good bunch of guys fishing. The afternoon fished slow with a few spent kings eating a fly here and there but no browns or steelhead. As the sunlight began to fade, the Archer pool suddenly became alive with trout action. Several anglers hooked up a few steelhead and browns; I had a couple of quick hook-ups with browns but they spit the fly before I could say “fish on”. As the light finally faded, I made my way back downstream to where Tom was and we called it a day with great expectations for Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning broke foggy with cool temps. We arrived at parking area before dawn to find several other anglers already there. We decided to head upstream to the Archer pool and see if we could get setup in some decent water to fish. The pool was fully occupied when we got there and we had to settle for the tail-out portion just before the start of the flats gravel beds. We noticed quite a few more anglers arriving when I made the decision to cross the river and set up across from where we were standing. This stretch of the Archer pool can sometimes fish better than the other more traditional side, especially if the water comes up. The decision turned out to be a good one because at least we had plenty of elbow room to make accurate casts, a necessity for this side of the pool. The current seam on this side comes in at a sharp crosswise angle to the bank so making a good upstream cast into the riffle would bring the fly downstream right along the fast water edge where most trout in transit would be. Both Tom and I had tied on a chartreuse spawn cluster fly designed to afford good visibility in the low light sunrise (that was also dimmed further by a thick low fog). It wasn’t long before several anglers were hooked up on a mix of browns and steelhead. I followed with my first brown of the morning, a nice 5 pound female that I quickly released. Tom got hooked up as well, but to a rather spent king that he quickly broke off. After a short while, I hooked up again, another brown by the feel of it. I landed the fish and quickly noticed that the brown looked curiously familiar, just like the one I had released 20 minutes ago. Sure enough, the 5 pound female possessed the very same scar/marking beneath her lower jaw. She must have returned to the very same area of the pool where she was probably setting up a spawning bed. It is not particularly unusual to catch the same fish that is protecting a spawning bed; I had accomplished that more than once with king salmon. Tom and I changed spots along the pool, with me moving downriver and Tom, moving upstream to where I had been. By mid morning, the fog lifted and the warm, bright sun was on the river. With the bright sun, I made an effort to continually change out my fly choice after a dozen drifts. This finally paid off when I hooked up another quality brown. As I got the fish close to net, I realized it was that same darn 5 pound female; she ate the very same fly for a third time! Now that is one for my personal record book.
 "Skip with the 3 timer" The morning wore on with an occasional hookup from one or more of the dozen or so anglers that were fishing the pool. The sun was well up and the temperature climbed into the mid 60’s, not bad for WNY in early November so Tom and I broke for a quick lunch break and to shed the mornings extra clothing. A couple of quick PB&J’s and we headed back upstream to the Archer pool.
We quickly noticed more fallen leaves on the surface and a stronger water flow as we got set up at the pool. This time of year the DAM folks will open the gates to clear out leaf debris from the turbines. We hoped the increased water flow would get some fresh fish moving up the river. And that turned out to be the case. Over the next hour or so, Tom and I had several good takes and I landed a super male and female brown, both exceeding 10 pounds and Tom landed a nice hard fighting 4 pound steelhead. The early afternoon gave way to late afternoon and before we knew it the sun was down and time to quit.
Thursday morning broke much like Wednesday except the Lake Ontario fog was as thick as anything I have observed at the coast. Our plan for the day was to fish the Archer pool as we had done the previous day. We arrived at the parking area to find more anglers than the day before, so we didn’t bother to wait for some light to make our way upstream to the Archer pool. We finally got up to the pool to find a few other anglers already set up in the better part of the drift so Tom and I set up at the head of the pool, in the faster water. I was first to break the morning silence with “fish on”! The take was quick and hard and the trout headed right across the pool and in short order crossed up lines with an angler opposite me. Not much either of us could do and the fish broke off. I surmised the fish was a large steelhead by the way it took the fly and ran. A few other anglers hooked up several browns, most all were smallish, weighing about 3 or 4 pounds each. An angler just below Tom hooked up a large brown and fought the fish for several minutes all the while yelling to his fishing buddy to get off his cell phone and get the net under the fish. It was clear that his buddy was not putting the cell down, so I got down to him and netted the big brown for him. The cow trout weighed out at 13 pounds, nice plump brown. I can’t repeat the dialogue that ensued over the next half hour between the guy and his “buddy”, but it was special! The cell phone guy continued on his calls and I moved in to his spot and promptly hooked up on a very large fresh king that quickly ran me well into my backing while jumping clear of the water several times as it sped downriver some 200 feet before pulling free of the hook. Nice fight while it lasted. Tom finally hooked up onto a large fish, which at first I thought was another fresh king, but as he fought it close to the shallows we both recognized it as a large brown, maybe 14 pounds +. Tom did a super job of getting the trout into the shallows as I prepared the net. But every time I got the net close to the trout, it would head back out to deeper water. Finally it appeared the trout had tired and I positioned myself (with the net) a few feet downstream of Tom and instructed him to raise the rod tip and get the trout to the surface so I could get the net under it. As soon as Tom raised the rod tip, the trout made a dash downstream and managed to swim right between my legs….now what? I did make an attempt to get the net under the brute but only managed to spook it more and it once again headed for deeper water and in doing so, pulled free of the hook! I was bummed; Tom’s first real large brown and we didn’t get a photo. The good news is he hooked, played well, and at least got to see a super sized Oak brown on his line. The time was getting on to noontime and our trip to the Oak was done. We packed up and left the Oak with more great memories, stories and even more passion for this phenomenal fishery. I hope to get out at least once more this fall.
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