Well, it sure has been a minute since my last post. It’s been twelve months of minutes to be exact. I’ve been lollygagging. And for those of you who continue to read and follow along, this lollygagger thanks you. Surely, there are probably more exciting things you could be doing than reading my ramblings.
Don’t forget to spring those clocks forward this weekend! It is an exciting time of year. It’s never exciting to lose an hour of sleep, but the idea of more daylight in the afternoon and evening helps drag us out of the winter doldrums. I don’t think it’s farfetched to believe the majority of us are over the winter weather. We're also heading into a new fishing season in Upstate NY.
While this winter has been a more traditional Central New York winter and hasn’t truly been THAT difficult (folks in areas that got pummeled with lake effect will rightfully disagree with me), it feels like it’s been longer and more challenging. The relative lack of winter over the last several years made me a bit softer than I’d like to admit (or maybe it’s just me getting older?). It took a bit to embrace the cold, ice, and snow again. Winter grew on me as soon as I got back on solid ice to fish. I do enjoy my time ice fishing and filling my freezer with perch, but I’m ready to turn the page to spring fly fishing. Based on the extended forecast for the next week and beyond, I reckon the ice won’t be around too much longer anyhow.
You might ask, “Brian, what’s been happening since your last post?” Well… with this post I intend to briefly catch everyone up with a rough summary on the last 12 months and share what’s ahead. If you don’t care and just happened to stumble upon this, keep reading anyway. You’re already here. The hope is to breathe new life into this blog. More stories. More tips. More gear review. More skunkings. More tree fish stealing my flies. I’ll be doing my best to rejuvenate my writings here. However, realistically, it won’t be once a week or anything like that. I’m going to shoot for once every 2-3 weeks (hopefully). Maybe it will happen. Maybe it won’t. It’s the thought that counts, right?
Currently, I’m wrapping up my ice fishing season on Oneida Lake. It was a good year. Early on, the bite was good. It’s been a bit tougher in the last 3-4 weeks, but that’s pretty typical. When I was not ice fishing, I hit the local streams on days where my hands wouldn’t freeze off. I despise wearing gloves when fishing. I don’t like wearing gloves for anything, really, but especially when fishing. After the browns spawned late in the fall and early in the winter, the post-spawn bite was pretty good. Mid-January – today has been a cold struggle. With high water from heavy rain this week, fly fishing on the trout creeks a little non-existent this week. Within the next 7-10 days, however, it’s go time.
Also, and unrelated to fly fishing, it’s currently application season for western hunting ventures and I’m throwing my name into the draws and lotteries once again this year. I don’t know where or if I’ll end up hunting, but you can’t hunt elk and mule deer unless you apply. Those of you who know me know that I’ve hunted in the western states a couple of years now. Success is relative. They’ve been great hunts and I’ve learned a lot, but I haven’t harvested anything. There’s a steep learning curve. I joke that I’ve been on catch & release hunts. I’ve seen critters, had some opportunities with animals in the crosshair and let them walk, and missed a shot. Almost gotchya! I hunted elk during archery season in Colorado this past fall with my Wife and Brother. I loved it. It was a true backcountry and backpack hunt, deep in the national forest, and living out of our packs for the week. It was a test to see if I could do it and if I’ll be wanting to do more of it. It’s not for everyone, but it is for me. I loved every second, all 48 miles and 18,000’ of elevation over the 5 days. Okay, maybe I didn’t love the altitude headache, sucking wind after climbing 30 steps, or climbing through nasty deadfall uphill for an hour just to realize I’ve only made it 600 yards. But, I did really enjoy my time. We saw everything other than what I had a tag for. A few other hunters bumped a herd of elk we were after and trying to make a move on. It’s how public land hunts go. After coming out of the mountains for 6 days, I annihilated the biggest burger I could find with a side of nachos for the table, except they were mostly for me.
Perhaps I’ll write a more in-depth post about this hunt experience down the road.
Back to fly fishing. The spring season of 2024 was good. I can’t thank everyone enough for joining me on the water. It was busy. I felt like I was on the water every day, just how I like it! There were some familiar faces who joined me and a lot of new friends met. The fly fishing was good (for the most part) through the end of June. As with any type of fishing, our finned friends are never guaranteed to participate. Except for a few days, it was a pretty good spring. Some big trout came to hand and a few more got away. As usual, nymphing was best. There was some opportunity on dry flies, but the area is known better for our nymphing. I did make my annual trip to Cape Cod in May to fish for striped bass. It’s always a good time, but due to the striper population (or lack thereof) I really need to start curbing my expectations a bit. 30-50 fish days are a thing of the past. Double digits in a day seems like an exceptional outing these days.
As usual, July, August, and September were a bit slower. Trout fishing is quite a bit more difficult in the three hot summer months. Typically, the first few hours of daylight are OK when it’s cool. By the time the sun starts hitting the water mid-morning, however, it’s game over. We (my guests) did pretty well for summer conditions early in the mornings throughout the summer months. My expectations for numbers and catch rates go way down in the summer months, but guests took advantage of their opportunities! Summer was a bit of time to catch up on fly tying, relaxing by the lake with a good campfire, and shoot my bow nearly every day as well.
That brings us to fall. September was hot and dry. I know Labor Day is what a lot of folks think of as the end of summer, and I get it. Kids go back to school. Days are getting noticeably shorter and football is back on TV. However, September is still summer. It’s just second August, until the end of the month. By the last week of September, it is starting to look and feel like fall. The aforementioned Colorado archery hunt took the most of my brainpower in September. Upon return from the west, it was back to the water quickly. I took a trip out to Cape Cod for fall run stripers, as usual. It was a great trip and I’m looking forward to that one again this year. Locally, the streams were low throughout the first part of October. Fish didn’t start moving much until water levels came up a bit at the end of the month, and then it was pretty solid late October – end of the year. It wasn’t great, but solid. While the brown trout were spawning, the bite was poor, which is expected when they’ve got other things on their mind. The post spawn bite was good and then it was winter.
The evening walleye bite on Oneida Lake late in the fall/early winter was terrific. My Dad and I did well several nights on the lake. We had some quick limits and good dinners. Keep your eyes/ears open for potential kayak trip offerings this summer and fall. It’s something I’m considering for later this year.
Oneida Lake was a little slow to grace us this year, again. However, for the first time since winter of 2022, I did offer ice fishing trips on Oneida Lake. Due to the lack of ice over the last few years, I did not offer trips. Safety always comes first. We just never got to safe ice conditions. In mid-January this year, we did get ice, good ice at that. Thankfully, the snow stayed away while the ice was forming, allowing the lake to build a great base layer of dense ice. From mid-January until now, the ice on the lake was good. And like clockwork, as we get into the second full week of March, the ice season is going to quickly come to a screeching halt. Mid-January through the second week of March is pretty standard for our ice fishing season on Oneida. Fishing early in the winter was very good. Then it turned into A LOT of finesse jigging to get those little boogers to eat.
That’s it. That’s all. You’re all caught up. I’ve got one more weekend of ice trips ahead. The streams are high and muddy. Tanning weather with mid 60s temps next week will be a welcomed reprieve from winter. The fly tying is coming along and the fly gear is getting organized. Within the next couple of weeks, it’s go time. My spring revolves around fly fishing in the Central NY and Syracuse area. Jump on my calendar quickly for prime spring dates! I’m looking forward to the season! Cheers, and thanks for reading.
Lastly, my proofreading and editing on this post is minimal. Hopefully, I didn’t lose anyone too bad. If you’re an English teacher and reading this, put the red pen away.
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