Syracuse.com - Cold, wet weather and slow bite marks opening day of trout season

[HuntingNY-News]

"The guys who knew what they were doing caught fish, but there were no 20 inchers here," said Jake DeCapio, owner of the Wayfarer Co., a fly and spinning tackle shop on Nine Mile Creek. Watch video

The opening day of trout fishing season today featured cold, wet weather and plenty of fish stories.

It wasn‘t among the most productive, though, in regard to numbers of fish caught, said anglers on three Central New York streams.

“The guys who knew what they were doing caught fish, but there were no 20 inchers caught here,” said Jake DeCapio, owner of the Wayfarer Co., a fly and spinning tackle shop located on Nine Mile Creek in Camillus.

“People caught a lot of stocked trout around the bridges, but the wild fish were harder to catch. The water started off murky and cleared up as the day went on. It wasn’t the best opening day I’ve seen. There’s still a lot of fish left.”

Some anglers started earlier than others. Take Mike Burt.

“I started at 12:01 a.m. and was finished by 12:25 a.m.,” said the Liverpool resident, who caught a 15 -inch rainbow on his first cast, followed by four brown trout. Three of the browns measured 11 inches and the other two were eight inchers.

 

“All were taken from the same pool on night crawlers. They wanted nothing to do with corn,” he emailed the newspaper at 2:40 a.m. “Now it’s time to get some sleep before work.”

The temperatures hovered throughout the morning in the low or mid 30s. Rain fell heavy at points, changing to snow flurries later. Periods of sunshine and more flurries followed.

Mike Burt's five fish -- all caught between 12:01 and 12:25 a.m.  

It didn’t seem to bother Richard Schwind, of Central Square, who reeled in a nice 14-inch brown on Nine Mile Creek, using a yellow and red-colored Panther Martin lure with a silver blade.

“Better than working, huh?” he said as he took the fish off his line.

Rippy Alvarado Sr., Rippy Alvarado Jr., Pedro Moreno Jr. and Mike Alvarado, all from Oswego County, didn’t have any complaints. They all had 14-inch brown trout on their stringers that they had caught with salted minnows.

“We’re here every April,” Moreno said. “Later in the month, we’ll be up on Oswego River fishing for the big dogs.”

ninevideo.MOV

Brad Smith, of Montezuma, was fly fishing with a hare’s ear nymph. He said he had been fishing for a half hour and caught one brown trout, and missed two others.

“Last year on opening day here I caught and released 30 fish during a four-hour period,” he said.

One memorable catch was registered by Zach Anderson, of Marcellus, who landed a 22-inch rainbow trout on Grout Brook on an egg sac.

“I fought him for about four to five minutes, screaming line up and down. When I got him on shore I dropped my pool,” he said. “At that point, he went back into the water. I went in after him. I got him and threw him back on the bank. I had to. It sure was worth it. But now I’m all soaking wet.”

Jordan Michalowski, 13, of Marathon, was fishing Grout Brook with his grandfather, Dave Rawson. The young boy told of the big one that got away.

“I had one on this morning and it came right up to the net,” he said. “And then it opened its mouth and took off. It was about 15 inches. It was huge.”

Jared Popoli, of Homer, was among the most successful anglers interviewed on Grout B rook. He said caught and released five fish on egg sacs – the largest measuring more than 26 inches.

“I scouted out the holes beforehand,” he said.

Others interviewed on Grout Brook said they had gotten skunked.

“I scouted out the holes and started fishing at 6 a.m.,” said Evan Shirley, of Scott, who was also using egg sacs and had scouted out the stream on Sunday. He said he didn’t get a bite.

“They’re here. I saw eight fish in one hole yesterday. You just can’t see them. The water is dirty,” he said.

The action was also slow on the Owasco Lake Inlet between Moravia and Locke. Of the five anglers interviewed, only David Norte, of McLean, had caught a trout. He was interviewed on Hemlock Creek, a tributary that flows into the Inlet in the village of Locke.

“It was a 12- inch brown. Got him on a single egg,” he said. “It doesn’t appear that the browns and rainbows are coming out of the lake yet.”

Rich Price said the only thing he caught today was two suckers. David Figura | [email protected]  

Rich Price, of Moravia, was fishing in the Inlet near the village of Moravia. He started at 10 a.m. By 1:30 p.m., the only thing he landed was two suckers.

“I also had a couple of trout bites, but I missed them,” he said.

Price wasn’t sure what the story was concerning the lack of rainbows and browns in the waterway. He speculated that maybe the result warm weather resulted in an early spawn, and that the big fish had already returned to the lake.

Fish or no, everyone agreed it felt good to get out and wet a line. Spirits were high everywhere.

One smiling angler drove up to this reporter on Grout Brook, shouting out an appealing question.

“Hey, want to see some real monsters?” he said.

“Sure,” was the response.

“April Fools,” he said, driving off.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog