 We are now in the middle of summer, which brings selective fish and the longest mayfly hatch of the year – the TRICOS! Tricos have a lot to offer. Early morning outings, clouds of bugs, small flies and technical fishing… I love it!
At the start of their hatch cycle, duns will come off very early in the morning and fall 2-3 hours later. The spinner fall is usually complete by 9:30-10:30am, but can be as late as noon as we get further into summer. This is a picture of a female trico. Females hatch after the males in the early morning and fall a couple hours later. Photo by Lucas Carroll. Tricos are very small. Usually size 20-24, but as small as size 26. If you have trouble with small flies, try throwing a terrestrial like an ant or beetle. You may also want to consider preparing your gear the night before. Tie a couple flies on light tippet (make sure you have male and female duns/spinners) coil them, put them in a plastic baggie and make a go of it in the morning. This is a great time to fine-tune your cast so work in some reach, mend and stack casts (plenty of videos on YouTube for this). Use long leaders (9′-12′) and 6x-7x tippet. The craziness is over in a few hours and you have the rest of the day to yourself. Enjoy! Tight lines, Jessie Hollenbeck Wide Sky is booking trico trips today. If you are interested, please give us a visit at wideskyflyfishing.com or call 585-314-5089.
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 Very cool opportunity at Orvis Rochester next week. At 1pm on March 22, Rochester native, 2011 Fly Rod and Reel Angler of the Year and Orvis Rod and Reel Marketing Manager, Tom Rosenbauer will be presenting information on small stream fly fishing and reading the water. A question and answer period will follow.
Tom has fished many of our local fisheries and is always eager to share his experiences. Tom has a great way of simplifying fly fishing in his podcast - Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast - and his many books. Hope you can make it out! Visit the Orvis Rochester page for details.  We are excited to offer two fly fishing camps in 2014. These camps are great for beginners, folks looking to get back in to the sport or maybe just need a refresher. Very affordable and full of great information.
Please find additional details at Fly Fishing Chronicles.  Wide Sky is excited to announce we are partnering with Craig Dennison on another Fly Fishing Camp. The Camp will be held at Black Creek Park in Chili next Sunday, September 22 from 10am-4pm in the Pathfinder Pavilion. Participants may register by visiting Chili Recreation Department. The fee is $50 and is for ages 12 and up. Please see camp description below:
Have you always thought it would be fun to try fly fishing? Fly Fishing Camp is a unique, hands-on program designed for the beginner or less experienced fly fisher. Enhance your fly fishing knowledge, improve your casting, identify aquatic insects/prey, understand tactics for various fisheries, learn new fly patterns, tie your own fly, determine what gear you need for fly fishing and compare notes with fellow anglers (program itinerary may change due to weather conditions). Time will be spent casting and fishing the pond at Black Creek Park (Pathfinder Pavilion). Some gear (rods, reels etc.) will be available, but we encourage you to bring your own. Also, please bring your own snacks and lunch. Hope to see you there!  Shared some time on the water with Tom McDermott. We were able to catch some fish, but the low water is making fish weary and difficult to put a fly in front of.
Tom was able to land this nice brown on a midge pupa under an indicator. We saw some tricos, but nothing in great numbers. This picture was from a couple weeks ago. Seems as though the trico fishing has picked up since then. I enjoy a lot of things about being a guide: the outdoors, the strategy, the beauty of the fishery, but most of all the people. My passion in becoming a guide developed from my desire to teach people about fly fishnig. I was (and still am) fortunate to have a great support cast of some awesome dudes that were willing to teach me many of the things I know about fly fishing. I have a sense of responsibility to continue being an advocate for the sport I love. So when I heard Craig Dennison was going to offer another Fly Fishing Camp this year, I gave him a call to see if I could help out. Thankfully, Craig was happy to take me up on my offer.
The owner of Creative Themes, Bob Remis, was kind enough to let us use his space (and a cool space it is - check out other opportunities at Creative Themes here). Craig and I are offering two one-day Fly Fishing Camps. The camps are Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, June 23. Both camps will be held 9am-5pm and cost $45 (we even provide lunch...). Programs are limited to 20 participants ages 12 to senior. Participants are sure to get an awesome introduction to fly fishing. Please see description below: This is a unique, hands-on camp designed for the beginner or less experienced fly fisher. Enhance your fly fishing knowledge, improve your casting, identify aquatic insects/prey, understand tactics for various fisheries, learn new fly patterns, tie your own fly, determine what gear you need for fly fishing and compare notes with fellow anglers. Time will be spent casting and fishing for trout in either Irondequoit Creek, or for largemouth bass, sunfish and carp in the Pond. Topics covered include: 1.) Equipment needs versus equipment wants. Ways to get started in fly fishing without spending a fortune. Recommendations on popular gear for WNY fisheries. 2.) Overview of fly rod design, materials, reels, lines and leaders and other useful fly fishing accessories. 3.) Practical fishing knots and hands-on practice tying knots. 4.) Basic casting instruction and tips to improve casting efficiency. 5.) What various fish eat and how to imitate fish prey. 6.) Fly types, fly selection and tying flies. You will be able to tie your own fly and fish it. 7.) Ways to read water and how to approach a fishery. 8.) Presentation tactics for various species of fish. 9.) Recommendations for making the most of superb fishing opportunities in New York State. 10.) Resources in Rochester that benefit the fly fisher. 11.) Fly fishing ethics, conservation, releasing fish and stewardship of our water. Please share with friends and family that might be interested. Click here for the registration form. Jessie Hollenbeck A little over a year ago I started a part-time job at LL Bean. It’s a great moonlighting gig and diapers are expensive! I help customers make decisions on gear, fly selection, tools etc. Last fall the active department manager and I talked about the possibility of having regular fly tying events at the store. I bounced the idea by a few guys and I’m excited to inform everyone that it’s finally underway.
For the next few months we will have several of the area’s most knowledgeable fly tyers demonstrating some of their favorite flies. Demonstrations are the second Wednesday of every month and start at 6:30pm. Our lineup is as follows: March 13 – Brian Bradfield (Brian on the Fly) April 10 – Jim Strong (Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited) May 8 – Micheal Simmons (Guys, Flies and Pies) We started our series a couple weeks ago with special guest, Cal Curtice. We had great crowd and Cal shared some awesome information. Cal tied a prince nymph variation he uses for lake run fish and a midge emerger he ties for inland trout. trout. Brian Bradfield will be our next tyer. I’ve fished with Brian for many years now. His knowledge of fly tying and fly fishing for all Western NY species is amazing. You can find a lot a great information on his blog – Brian on the Fly. This is a Hendrickson variation that does very well at one of our local inland trout streams. What stream you ask…? Well. You will have to come in to find out. In addition to the special guest demos, we will be hosting fly tying clinics – designed for beginner/intermediate tyers. These clinics will be conducted by yours truly every Wednesday (every Wednesday we DON’T have a special guest) through the month of May. Clinics are also 6:30-7:30pm, and will be held in the Outdoor Discovery Area. LL Bean will provide the vise, tools, material etc., but feel free to bring your own equipment. We encourage you to ask questions, tell stories and tie a few flies! Hope to see you at the BEAN! Jessie Hollenbeck Wide Sky Fly Fishing [email protected] |
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