New York Steelhead Fishing - by James Lea

James Lea with SteelheadThis October I had the opportunity to go to New York for the second year in a row for a Safety Meeting at our corporate headquarters in Buffalo. This is a meeting I have grown to look forward to since it coincides with the turning of the leaves and the spawning runs of Steelhead, Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon, and Lake Brown Trout coming out of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. These fish work their way up rivers and small creeks to spawning beds that they return to year after year. These trips require lucky timing or the ability to drive to areas where the rain and snow is cooperating.

This year I was limited to fishing the Cattaraugus creek due to time constraints. This is not a bad thing. I stayed at a cabin that was built for fly fishing on the creek owned by Vince Tobia, a guide that I fished with on one of the days last year. This cabin is located in the Zoar Valley near the town of Springville which is about 40 miles south of Buffalo. I was able to fish this incredible valley that has an abundant wildlife population and only compete against 3 eagles that lived on the creek looking over one of the best stretches of creek. The creek is very similar in size to the Guadalupe but the bottom has gravel beds, free stone & slate, and silt deposits.

With this year’s trip timing I arrived on Thursday afternoon giving me a couple of hours to fish the areas right in front and down stream of the cabin. The Cattaraugus was clearing and running at about 480 fps with is good for fishing this area. The water temperature was 44° and the air temp in the evenings at 45° and temps in the day up to 70° with a light fog in the valley till about 7:30 a.m.

I began fishing Thursday at the base of some riffles that empty into slower water swinging an olive woolly bugger and on the second pass I hookup a very acrobatic steelhead and the adrenalin rush was on!!! After a five minute battle I worked him into shallow water and realized my net was on the cabin deck so I let him tire a bit more and was able to land him at the bank. As I retrieved my net from the deck of the cabin I realized it would have been no good to me anyway, too small! I returned to the creek and crossed it to position my self to dead drift egg patterns and stone flies in to the deeper pool at the base of the riffles on a bend in the creek. After several passes slowly working the slower water near the bank and progressing closer to the faster water in the center of the creek I hooked a large very fat female that was solid chrome and the fight was on, she raced up stream and ran me into my backing then she suddenly turned and raced back, for about 15 seconds I thought she had broke off, but when I finally got my slack line caught up she turned again and went ballistic. After about 10 minutes was able to work her into the shallows and land her. What a rush!

The next morning Vince showed up just before dawn and we hiked up the creek about a mile and began working our way back towards the cabin. We surveyed the creek looking for typical fish holding area such as behind and to the sides of large boulders in fast water, ledges separating slower water that transitions into deep faster water and deeper pools in front obstructions such as rocks and fallen trees. I worked these areas first with dead drifting egg patterns and large stone flies then reposition myself to swing different streamer pattern and woolly buggers. By switching up patterns and slowly working down stream a couple feet every passes I was able to hook a fish in just about every hole that I thought a fish would be, it was very exciting. At times you would see large steelhead following but not taking the buggers so I changed colors to white bead head buggers and this seemed to draw more strikes.

In the day and a half that I had to fish I had 28 hookups, broke off two very large fish (sometimes 16 lb tippet will not be enough), and landed 20 nice fish. The smallest steelhead landed was about 7 to 8 lbs and the largest was about 16 lbs. The farthest upstream from the cabin I fished was a mile and downstream about a mile.

If you every get a chance to go to New York in October or November make it a point to get out and enjoy the beautiful scenery and fantastic fishing. It is best to do some research before you go and avoid the “combat” fishing areas during this time to have the most enjoyable time possible. As always the help of the local guides on at least one day of your trip is well worth the money spent as you will reduce your learning curve greatly.