On the Rocks

Colder weather has set in and the small streams have begun to ice up.  Watch out for ice pack towards the mouths of all streams as you get the daily melt offs that wash ice and snow downstream.  If you do brave the icy conditions be sure to protect your waders.  Trudging through ice can cut or damage your waders, and winter is the worst time to spring a leak.  Those who fish Sandy Creek will be interested in the notice below.

As you probably are aware there is construction ongoing at the bridge going over Sandy on the East Fork of Rt 19 and you might even know that they left their scaffolding on the center abutment.  If you are familiar with the behavior of this stream in the springtime you'll know that it will rise and fall rapidly leaving large chunks of ice along it's banks.  This recent melt off was no different.  The ice moving in the stream is how new holes are dug and keeps the stream interesting.  Anyways it also picks up trees or whatever other flotsam is alongside the stream.  When I was at Sandy today looking at stream conditions I saw about two thirds of an entire tree about 2.5ft in diameter had washed downstream and got caught on concrete abutment completely wiping out the builders scaffolding.  So for those of you that fish right there at the East Fork bridge you're out of luck until that is cleared which probably won't be for a while.

Larger streams such as the Oak Orchard and 18 Mile Creeks, have good flows (although still a little on the high side for my liking's) with muddy water but nothing like the chocolate milk it was recently.  By the time this weekend rolls around we will be in the prime window of fishing.   If you can get out fishing do it!  I've always found if I'm unsure whether I should fish or not I almost always regret not going.  Remember you can't catch fish if you don't get out.
If you do get out, remember to have tight lines.


Current Stream Information:

Sandy Creek (Hamlin):  March 3rd, 2016
Free of ice
Light to no fishing pressure.
High/Muddy flows. (cfs unknown)


Oak Orchard (Albion):  March 3rd, 2016
Free of ice (dam), ice pack past Park Ave.
Light fishing pressure.
Med-High/Muddy flows.

18-Mile Creek (Burt):  March 3rd, 2016
Free of ice (dam), icing past the RR Trestle
Light fishing pressure.
Med-High/Muddy flows.
152 CFS

Salmon River (Pineville):  March 3rd, 2016
2120 CFS

Graphs were obtained from waterdata.usgs.gov/ny
For more information about other streams and their current conditions visit the USGS website to see if you streams of interest are monitored.