The ski resorts have been able to make some snow, but November continues with above average temperatures. So, I agreed to meet my buddy Jack and chase salmon and steelhead on Lewis Creek this past Saturday. We knew we were in between the seasons, but it was worth exploring.
The salmon are mostly done spawning and most have probably returned to Lake Champlain. And, the local fishing reports showed that no one has reported any steelhead yet. They are probably waiting for some more rain to push into the river. But, we gave it a shot anyway.
The drive to Lewis was a bit interesting. There had been snow at the higher elevations the night before, and the roads were a bit slick. I have studded snow tires, but I still took it easy over the first mountain pass. It was 24F at the summit, so the ice wasn't melting yet. I met Jack, moved my gear to his car, grabbed some coffee and we took off on the next section of the drive. The next mountain pass had some snow, but nothing dangerous. We had a few options for fishing Lewis Creek, but we started with the easy and obvious choice - downstream from the Rt. 7 Bridge. There is easy parking and access to the water there.
I started in some water by the old bridge while Jack headed downstream. Somehow, on this very cold morning, I managed to slip on a ledge in the water, landing hands first in the creek. I was able to squeeze most of the water from my gloves, but my hands were cold for the next few hours.
I had no luck throwing a black stone fly and an egg pattern. As I worked the water down toward Jack, I did see one small fish - either a rainbow or a salmon parr, but it disappeared into deeper water quickly. Neither of us had any luck at all, fishing down to the flat water as the creek approaches Lake Champlain. So, we decided to head upstream to the upper end of the open water. Regretfully, there were two fisherman at the falls that mark the upper end of open water. As soon as they realized we were also fishermen, they headed downstream quickly. Regretfully, that is what we had wanted to do, but they were there first and we respected that. We fished at the falls for half an hour with no signs of fish. Then, we headed back downstream. We were parked, planning to fish upstream from where we'd started earlier in the day. But, we were pretty sure we were fishing a nearly empty river.
I suggested we could fish Otter Creek instead, where I'd had some luck the weekend before. Jack had never fished the Otter, so we opted for that. I knew that the killer fly the weekend before had been Prince Nymphs, so I stayed with my black stone fly and added a Prince Nymph below it. Later, I added a Batman Prince as well.
Within 5 minutes of starting to fish, my fly got slammed by a fish. I quickly landed a decent wild brown. This was surprising, because everyone had been catching rainbows the week before. Regretfully, that fish was our only solid strike all day. There was a guy fishing below us, and we are pretty sure he worked the same water we were fishing. He told us that he had caught 8-10 rainbows on Prince Nymphs. So, we had the right fly and the right water, but we got there a bit too late.
I was cold, but I kept fishing. I had been upstream from Jack for most of the time, but we swapped positions at one point. I looked upstream a bit later to see him sitting on a log, with his rod broken down. I was guessing he's had enough, and the sun was now starting to recede from the little canyon where we were fishing. I walked upstream to talk to him and he was indeed done, so we called it a day about an hour earlier than we'd planned.
So, nothing on Lewis, although I may get out there in the next few weeks if ski season doesn't start. And, one decent brown on the Otter. Given the time of year, any day I don't get skunked is a good day.
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