Syracuse.com - Rain, rain: It's good for the trout fishing -- sometimes

[HuntingNY-News]

With all rain yesterday and more predicted for today, I couldn't help but wonder how it's going to affect the trout fishing. I gave a call this morning to Jason DeCapio, owner of the Wayfarer Co. on Nine Mile Creek and he said "Like anything else, in moderation it can be a good thing. "But if you get too...

Pedro Moreno Jr. of Granby was one of many fishermen at Nine Mile Creek on April 1. the opening day of trout fishing season. Stephen D. Cannerelli [email protected]  

With all rain yesterday and more predicted for today, I couldn't help but wonder how it's going to affect the trout fishing.

I gave a call this morning to Jason DeCapio, owner of the Wayfarer Co. on Nine Mile Creek and he said "Like anything else, in moderation it can be a good thing.

"But if you get too much -- like yesterday we had an inch of rain fall within 20 minutes it tends to muddy things up, making the fishing difficult," he said.

Since opening day, many Central New York streams have been low and crystal clear -- attributes that make fishing, particularly for trout -- particularly the wild ones --, extremely difficult, DeCapio said.

"With the crystal clear water, it's difficult ;to stalk them. They can see you," he said. "But with a little bit of rain and some color in the water, you can get right on top of them."

Generally, he said, when the temperature of the rain is higher than the water temperature, it will turn on the fish's metabolism and they'll often go into a feeding frenzy.

However, it the rain temperature is colder than the water's, "it tends to shut them down, or at least slows them down. You find that happening this time of year, but not in the summer."

Another positive effect of rain, DeCapio said, is that it washes all kind of food, particularly night crawlers, into the stream, along with insects from over-hanging trees and bushes. You'll also see a lot of minnows come out from hiding from underneath rocks and other cover. It's a condition that often results in the fish gorging out on all the available food.

Advice to anglers fishing in the next couple of days?

DeCapio suggests checking out the upper tributaries of streams, or the upper branches of such places as Limestone and Butternut creeks.

"They won't be as high and they'll clear up (and drop in water level) faster," he said.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog