This week's fishing report is from Ron Bierstine, Oak Orchard Tackle & Lodge:
The area has been in a bit of a warmup since the end of the past weekend. Forecast is continued warm thru today and tonight with rain likely today/tonight. Rainfall could amount to 0.5 inch or more. After that for end of week and weekend, the forecast is back to cold temps and another round of measurable snow. There is still plenty of snow to melt like in the woods and protected spots and some ice and flooded fields. Thanks to this forecast, flows in the Oak and other area smaller tribs will be (again) on the way to high, blown and dirty. Flows in the Oak are already on the rise today thanks to increasing overflow water. Any rainfall is really going to get things cranking and water color this time is likely to get dirty. Thanks to the flash freeze after end of last week's high water, even with the overflow cranking, flows did retreat quickly and never really got too dirty to fish in the Oak. Guys kept fishing, especially in the turbine channel (flows can only get so high). The rest of the Oak, like after the confluence, were high water fishable by at least this past Sunday thru about yesterday as the overflow levels diminished. There would have been a similar few day high/stained fishable water window in the smaller area tribs too. So if you’re following this the moral of the story is that the weather is up and down and therefore so are the water levels and fishable conditions. For now in the near term low and clear flows are not in the cards. So when even a reasonable high and stained water window presents itself, that may be the best time to fish. All the water, at least in the fishable mile or so stretch below the dam on the Oak, is open and ice free.
Other area smaller tribs should be open and ice free in the upstream reaches with some lower river ice cover or jams. That may well all blow out after this latest round of precipitation. Its not likely to freeze back up significantly even with cold temps. On the Oak thru the so far not too dirty turbine flows of today, guys have been scoring some fresher steelhead mostly nearer the dam. There could be some fresh fish migrations in the rest of the downstream river course and the other area smaller tribs anytime now thru the spring on these high water events. Try to anticipate dropping and clearing flows and be on the water when reasonable conditions come together!
This week's fishing report is from Ron Bierstine, Oak Orchard Tackle & Lodge:
Thanks to a return to cold temps and snowy weather, trib flows retreated for the beginning part of this week. This up and down would be mostly unnoticed under ice cover anyway, except for on the Oak. There was a few more inches of snow and more Lake Effect Snow showers are expected today here on the immediate Lake Plain. Forecast is for a warmup with temps around 50°F (and wind) for the mid week and chance of rain on Thursday. If the forecast is realized, with especially significant rain, there is the chance for high or blown trib flows. It is unknown for now if it will be enough to completely open up all the waterways.
The forecast after the warmup for the end of week/beginning part of the weekend is back to cold temps with snow on the backside of the rain – so the up and down, 2 – 3 day cycle will continue. Flows in the Oak are about medium and barely stained with about 2 feet of visibility for now. All the water is open to fish with some bank ice here and there in slack water areas. Bankside movement may be hard in spots if no trail is broken already.
Fishing pressure is real light with one or two guys reporting a few fresher looking steelhead hooked up. New migrations of fresh fish could come anytime during this part of the season with good flows or especially with any bump up in trib flows. More then likely flows will be on the rise in the near future and hydro managers could bump flows up beforehand in anticipation of higher run of the river flows to come. We had higher then average Fall water flows previously and there's good likelihood we'll have higher then average late Winter water flows in the near future or even thru the Spring. High water drifting as long as its not blown might be the name of the game!
This week's fishing report is from Ron Bierstine, Oak Orchard Tackle & Lodge:
I'm just returning from the Fly Fishing Show in Edison, NJ so will need to come back up to speed on fishing info as some angler reports come in. Fishing pressure, no doubt, is light though.
The northeast coastal weather put a damper on show attendance and the vendors participating were down some thanks to Covid worry but the anglers who did visit the show had good interest in all of the Lake Ontario trout and salmon fishing opportunities. At least it's good to see organizers and attendees' efforts at getting back to a normal pre-Covid scene.
Here on the Oak look for low and clear flows with bank ice and the downstream slow water areas frozen. Most hook up chances will come from long and light float presentations at the dam. Other area smaller waterways will be snowed and frozen in. Agreeable temps are expected today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday) with a forecasted snow storm expected Thursday. There's a chance for more significant accumulations which could bring area totals to 2 – 3 ft of snow. We are surely going to have water for high and off color flows when the weather breaks toward spring. We'll just have to wait and see if it'll be a hard and fast melt or something a little more moderate and gradual.
