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KOKOEK9

fly type advice

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Hi, I am fishing a very small brook that I think has brook trout in it. The brook is very narrow, just a few feet with brush on one side and weeds on another up stream there is some thicker brush. The stream bed is mud in many places and gravel in others with aquatic vegetation. aside from terrestrials and small streamers what would work here especially April and after. The stream is in New Yorks southern tier In Horseheads about 30 minute south of Seneca lake thanks

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You can't go wrong with a dry/dropper set up. Try a mayfly dry and nymph dropper. I'd also try an elk hair caddis and a pupae of some sort.

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You can't go wrong with a dry/dropper set up. Try a mayfly dry and nymph dropper. I'd also try an elk hair caddis and a pupae of some sort.

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aside from terrestrials and small streamers

That time of year, hungry little fish everywhere. I don't think you'll need any other patterns.

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I've been doing well with this fly on natives in PA.

 

TC

 

Hi, I am fishing a very small brook that I think has brook trout in it. The brook is very narrow, just a few feet with brush on one side and weeds on another up stream there is some thicker brush. The stream bed is mud in many places and gravel in others with aquatic vegetation. aside from terrestrials and small streamers what would work here especially April and after. The stream is in New Yorks southern tier In Horseheads about 30 minute south of Seneca lake thanks

 

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As I recall, April in that part of NY can still be pretty cold. I seem to remember tramping through snow and fishing pools still half covered in ice....

 

I probably would know the creek you're talking about, but there's no need to name names. My point is, unless the stream has been restocked with brookies since the '60's, you're not going to find any. Wild browns, though, are a possibility. With a mud bottom, midges should be the dominant food source. Hare's Ear, Prince, Pheasant Tail should all produce. I'd add a zebra midge as a dropper, or maybe a blood worm. I don't think terrestrials will work in April, but a generic caddis (EHC) or some light colored mayfly might.

 

There should still be some flyshop in the area, but if not (I know that area has really gone down hill since Hurricane Agnes) check with Mike Hogue at Bader Creek. That's up near Ithaca, and will have similar hatches.

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All good advice. Try them all. I assume it is wild water because you would know if it were stocked. You would need mostly a gravel bottom (not mud) for wild or native trout. Native spring creek Brookies are my favorite eastern US trout even though they are smaller because I love the hard to get to natural areas, knowing it was never stocked, and the angling challenge. I've had more success with bright colored, dry and wet flies. I'd watch for a while and think like a brookie. My wife and friends say, "Not too hard with a brain your size". Then I'd likely drift a #16 red stimulator (or other dry) with a 12 inch dropper with a red or yellow grub or mini ultra chenille #14/16 worm, like a San Juan worm where, if I were the trout, I'd lay in wait. Or should I call the brookie char? Anything small and bright will do. Then I'd likely pass again with a traditional dry (maybe a #14 wooly worm) and nymph dropper (maybe #14 pheasant tail). Both are good producers of bows and browns when no hatches are present. If your brook is not difficult to get to, and ever had unstocked trout, It likely has been fished out. If stocked it would still have to be a remote section away from the road where lazy anglers don't want to go to find the wild trout. That is where I fish for bows and browns. Gotta be willing to hike a bit to get to the best wild angling. A hell of a lot of hiking for the native ones. Worth it for me though, before I got too old.

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