[Danny Barrett]

Hello,
For the guys who have fished the Lake Ontario tribs. I have plans to go up to Orchard with my father this Sunday thru tues. But do not know the area well enough to understand how the rain affects that stream. Monday says it is in the 50s and 40% chance rain and Tues is 80% chance rain and in the 40s. I believe they are getting some rain and snow this week. If anyone can offer any advice, if we should go or postpone.   It would be very appreciated. 

Thanks in advance,

Dan Barrett
540-222-8064

[Yambag Nelson]

The Oak Orchard is dam controlled and its headwaters flow through a series of swamps.  This helps lessen runoff a bit and it is not as flashy as say the Erie tribs.  However, I think they got ALOT of snow in Buffalo yesterday.  With the warming temps next week, that snow is going to have to runoff somewhere.  The Oak is located north of the snow belt and often gets nothing when buffalo gets clobbered.  If it is just the rain monday and tues, you will be ok but the snow melt could be the killer.  That said, there are plenty of other places to fish up there.  Pretty much every trib that flows into lake ontario gets fish assuming there are sufficient flows.  Some of them only have enough water to get fish when everything else is completely blown.   

 

If you are going to postpone, I would postpone until next year.  The Oak is fed by the Erie Canal and once the canal is drained at the end of november, flows can get low.  The fishing for browns starts to slow in December with many of the fish getting pretty nasty.  It can still be ok but I wouldn't drive 8 hours to fish it. 

 

FWIW I was planning on fishing WNY next weekned and I am expecting the places I fish to be completely shot. 

[Matthew Longley]

Was up in Pulaski last week and we were begging for some rain.  If that snow starts to melt, watch the gauges on the Salmon River.  Might be worth changing the trip, there should be a bunch of fish waiting for that water to get higher.

[Tom Guffain]

Fished Oak Orchard yesterday.  I left a day early because of the weather forecast.  The water was relatively clear albeit a tad low.  Saw quite a few fish moving around to which I could fish to however they were not very cooperative.  I was told by a local that the river had been pounded for the last several days so the fish were very skittish.  He said after a few days of relative low fishing pressure they would calm down.  I did manage to hook/snag 6 fish but was only able to land one.  There were still some salmon swimming around plus a lot of dead carcasses in the water.

Fished the Orchard after spending 5 days fishing for Steelhead in PA.  I saw the fewest number of stlhd in the river this year in  15+ years of fishing up there.  Heard lot's of talk about Lamprey being the cause of the low numbers.  Two of the Steelies I caught had what looked like circular Lamprey wounds on their sides.

On Monday, November 17, 2014 9:52:08 PM UTC-5, Danny Barrett wrote:

[TurbineBlade]

There's a saying...something about using a long enough lever to move the world?  Huh?

With a heavy enough skagit set-up can you launch that brown trout out to 80'?  He's basically an organic, pile of T-14 right?

Gene

[TomG]

He was good fun on my 11' switch rod and switch line.