Fisshing conditions

 With past days being warmer on the average, water temps are still holding between 30 f and 40 f on both the Saranac, and Ausable rivers.Warm rains today rise rivers, and also my hopes of  lake run steelhead. Many angling opportunities will continue to open up in the days ahead, one of them being landlocked salmon following smelt upstream, landlock's will stuff there belly's full with these bait fish. More recently I  have found the most active trout to be in the Saranac river system's, this river system run's a little warmer than the Ausable. Streamers or very big nymph's fished on the bottom are the most productive fly's. Be sure to let your fly swing all the way straight at the end of your drift, this will definatley increase hookups all year on the Saranac.


Note:
 
    You are not on the bottom until you start to lose fly's.

First day of NY Trout season

For all those heading out on the water tomorrow stay safe, as water temps range in the mid to high 30s .  For those wading the Ausable, and other rivers keep a eye peeled upstream, for big floating ice chunk's, these can knock you into the river.

 For those fishing the Ausable, the river is a good level as we speak, and temps are 37 f to 40 f.
Slow deep pools and big flies fished on the bottom, with very little action, being my favorite presentation. A sink tip with a fast sinking head is very handy this time of the year. Zonkers, Wooly buggers, Zoo Cougars in size's # 2 and # 4 are my choices for fly's.

Many of the biggest Brown Trout I see come out of the Ausable, come out of the river this time of the year

Snow Geese and the bad rap

With most days spent in the field pursuing waterfowl this time of the year ,there is one bird that will always give me a huge rush of adrenaline, the majestic snow goose. Unfortunately many hunters choose to bash these birds before they even get familiar with them.Yes these birds can be tricky compared to any other waterfowl, however the rewards of laying in decoys with a tornado of thousands of these birds wanting to land on top of you will leave you speechless. I have heard many negative comments from these birds wont decoy, to they taste awful. I can tell you after spending many years pursuing them these comments are completely false. Most often the sources of these comments have very little or no merit to base this on. A couple of reasons these birds can be hard to fool is the fact they stay in huge colonies most of the time, also their age some living 20 years one old wise bird in a flock is all that's needed to make the rest of the flock steer away from your decoys.

Many non hunters are quick to ridicule the very liberal bag limits. Ducks Unlimited biologist have been studying these birds on their arctic breeding grounds for years, and the damage they have done to their own habitat being a root eater is incredible. They are destroying there own breeding grounds. So get out and hunt these beautiful birds to avoid having the extremely low populations of the past,due to a population crash,and why not its fun.

For you do not  need hundreds of decoys to fool these birds I have used hundreds and often  use 50 or less.Below I will list some important details for decoying these birds successfully.

1.Scouting
2.Wind, and cloud cover
3.Concealment
4.Decoy variety, silhouettes, landers, movement within decoys (example) windsocks
5.Flagging (essential)
6.Focus on small flocks singles, doubles
7.Read your birds (example) Single vocal bird circling your spread when he talks you talk back with  your call.
8.Have patience

I hope these tips help lead you to successful days afield.Checks snow geese pics post to add some fuel to your fire.

Snow geese pics

More puppy pics,enjoy.

What about the puppy?

We will be trying to post pictures of our now 15 week old Labrador retriever puppy Mel on here.Mel  is coming along well,and should be a wonderful hunting retriever.

Mel is crazy about retrieving frozen birds, bumpers,likes water, sits well,and has built a very strong bond with me.

Enjoy these pictures for I am sure this puppy was enjoying making them possible for you.

 All great puppys deserve a mouthful of Chukar partridge.

 Mel in hot pursuit of a flying Chukar,that did not get far with her on the chase.

The second season report.

Take a kid hunting,and someday they will turn into something kinda like sasquatch walking through the woods.Pass it on.

With the second parts of our duck and goose seasons having begun,also chasing upland birds most days of october,I cant help but count my blessings.

The hunting has been wonderful,I have felt very fortunate to be able to hunt with many special people,great dogs,and also have some productive hunts.

Now that I am getting much better with all this technology,I will try and share some pictures of what were up to these days.Here are couple from past summer,guiding,retriever training demos,and also my Labrador  retriever Chase with a mouthful of Mallard to keep him happy.