Date: June 25, 2022. Conditions: Sunny. Temperature: 80 °F. I was visiting home for a Friday-Monday long weekend and had Saturday largely free. Given I had yet to catch a fish in 2022 (actually I did catch like three six-inch perch at 5 am on an ass-cold January morning that I’m not counting) and the beautiful weather, I figured I had to get out. Couple issues though: first, I hadn’t brought any of my gear home because I didn’t think I’d have time to get out and second, summer fishing in WNY isn’t great outside of the typical bass pond stuff.
I decided to try my luck at sight fishing some gar or catfish and knew it was a gamble as to whether they’d still be in the creek this late in the year. My dad was happy to join me, if not for only a walk on the creek in the nice weather. He didn’t think we were going to catch anything lol. I rounded up the gear I had at home: two fly rods, 10 lb test braid, 4 lb test mono, and some reject flies I had laying around in the basement, and we headed out.
When we rolled up, I found exactly what I was hoping for, a low, clear creek and open spots in the parking lot. I made the gametime decision to try and find some cats upstream as opposed to walking down to the mouth to find gar. Sure enough, we stumbled upon some cats at the first deeper run. Issue was the fish were hanging out in the dead center of the run and were pretty spooky. We took some casts at the cats and a few smallmouth to no avail. Same luck at a small log jam a little farther up.
We got around the bend to the area I thought we had our best shot, as in years past it was deeper with good rock structure, but this year was different. The rocks had been mostly washed out and the area was much shallower than in years past. We got lucky and found a solitary cat hanging out in the middle of what I guess I would call a shallow run.
Anyway, I had him hooked a few casts later on an ugly purple and black wooly bugger I tied probably six years ago. I handed the rod over to my dad and let him bring in the fish while I netted. I wanted to get a picture of my dad with the fish, but he asked me to get a picture with it first because he was afraid it would escape when he tried to grab it for the picture. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened lmao.
Next, we moved back downstream to try and coax some of the fish (catfish and smallmouth) we had spooked in the log jam earlier. While my dad was targeting some cats under the log, I dangled my fly in front of a nice sized smallmouth about three feet from where I was standing and much to my surprise it ate. It continually tried to run under the log which I knew would be a deal breaker, so I got the fish to safe water before handing the rod over to my dad.
Next, we moved back down to the first run where we had spooked some cats and smallmouth on the way up. This time around was a bit different. I worked the cats while my dad targeted some smallmouth near the rocky tail out. We managed to hook two cats and land one along with a smallmouth and rock bass. A multi-species day at its finest.
On the way back downstream, I decided to take a closer look at a deep hole around the bridge that I had briefly checked on the way up but hadn’t seen anything in. I held gaze with the abyss and sure enough, I saw slight movement in the depths of the pool, nothing more than a shifting shade of darkness at the very deepest part. I tracked the mystery shape for about a minute before determining it was a big black shatfish and I was able to identify its orientation. After some work with the shitty woolly bugger, my dad had him on the line.
Landing the fish was tricky in the deep water. However, my dad persevered and was ultimately able to get the fish into shallow enough water for me to pursue it with the net and I sealed the deal. This time, my dad grabbed the fish with resolve and posed for the pic of the day.
We continued on downstream and spotted a few more cats and a smallmouth. My dad and I both agreed that a trip to the mouth in search of gar was probably an overstay of our welcome, so we decided to call it a day, very appreciative of the creek’s generosity. Overall, I give this trip a 10/10.
