Monroe County Fly Fishing

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Yes, we are blessed with a great Salmon, Brown Trout and Steelhead fishery.

Let's take a look at the fishing opportunities in Monroe County. Beginning with the late summer  salmon runs that start in the Genesee River located in the north side of the city of Rochester,  at the lower falls. Fishing access is available at Seth Green Drive. Russells Station, located on Edgemere Drive, provides another fishing opportunity. The outflow of warm water from the power station in conjunction with a good current flowing into lake Ontario, provides some excellent fishing. Sandy Creek, in the north western corner of Monroe county is a wadable stream that can a decent run of fish, weather and flow rates determine the quality of this fishery. All have Salmon, Steelhead and some Brown trout runs. The steelhead run begins late September and early October with the Brown trout following right behind. The salmon fishing is usually over by November. The steelhead and brown trouty will linger through the Winter months.  The month of March will start to bring in the spring run steelheads that will lasts until mid April.

 

( Irondiquoit creek has some wild and stocked fish. It has fall salmon, steelhead and brown trout runs from the lake)

These streams can be fished all year. Apple blossom time signal the caddis hatches and a start of the blue wing olives, followed by the sulphurs with the march brown and Grey foxes in close pursuit.  With all these hatches, there is some exciting fishing to be had.  The timing of hatches is very important to the angler.  Mid -May the olive hatches are on morning and early afternoon.  Some sulphurs are present at this time and fishing emergers patterns is best during the early part of the hatch.   Grey Foxes and March browns are usually early afternoon hatches and they are sporadic, so have patience to watch for fish feeding near the stream banks.  It’s best to position yourself in midstream, casting up and across to feeding fish. This will give best results. Keep an eye out for the ever-present caddis in the tail-outs of the pools.

Late afternoon, the hatches can turn off, so try nymphs in the riffles and throat of the pools. This should give you some interesting results. As evening comes on, the sulphurs and caddis will stimulate the fish. Try fishing emergers of both caddis and sulphurs.  A caddis rise is a slashing rise with a renowned splash, the sulfur is a gentle rise forming a ring.  If the fish take the duns on the surface, go to a dry fly.  As you land a few fish, time has passed and the sun is dropping in the west. So watch for the spinner fall. It is best detected by looking overhead in the treetops.  Look for the dancing bugs headed up stream to the riffs to mate. As soon as the spinners mate, the males will be back on the water first and the females will lay her eggs, die and float downstream for the waiting trout.  The spinner falls only last for about an hour and goes in to the dark. This is a very exciting time as it brings lots of fish boiling on the surface.   As hatches go in to June, the spinner fall will be few minutes later each evening.   In June the late evening Sulphur hatches can be a very exciting time and bring up large fish, however these fish will fool many anglers in that they will switch back and forth and feed spinners and duns. This can be a great challenge to the more experienced fly fisherman.

As the later spring hatches diminish, the summer hatches of caddis and tricos go through mid August. The trout streams can get stressed by higher water temperatures. So, it’s off to the ponds along the lake Ontario shore line for warm water species, Bass Sunfish, Northern Pike can be fished for with artificial flys and poppers and bass bugs. Streams are a good imitation of baitfish. Then, it’s back to the fall run Salmon, Steelheads and Brown Trout.  Please catch and release for future fishing!

 
About Carl Coleman, Carl is a New York State fly fishing guide, who primarily guides and fishes on the Lake Ontario tributaries of Western New York (Oak Orchard, the Lower Genesee River, Sandy creek, in Monroe County), for steelheads from mid-March through mid-April and mid-April through mid-may on the Salmon River and eastern lake tributaries. He can also be found fishing all year on Oatka and Spring Brook for wild brown trout.

If you have any questions for Carl, please feel free to contact him at Carl Coleman’s Fly Shop (585) 352-4775 or through the online contact form.  

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Larger View Nick nice Rainbow November Rochester NY area