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Simms came out as a dominant force in fly fishing at the International Fly Tackle Dealer trade show last week in Denver. The brand took home 10 top awards from the show, from waders to outerwear to accessories.
The leaders in the world of fly fishing can brush their shoulders off after last week. A few brands dominated top spots in their categories.
Simms took home 10 awards with a clean sweep of the apparel category. Abel Reels and Ross Reels took home the saltwater and freshwater reel categories, respectively. Sage took two out of three of the rod category.
Scientific Angler locked down for line and tippet. And Fishpond took home three awards for thoughtful and fresh gear in three different categories. But it was Scott that took home Best of Show with its Sector Series for fishing the salt.
Here, we lead with the Sector, break down 10 top items from the show, and list the rest of the awards.
The rod is a fast-action, state-of-the-art, tech nerd’s dream rod. And at $985, it’s certainly expensive. But it ain’t the most expensive thing out there! It’s hand-crafted for high performance, with its innovative Carbon Web technology and Ceracoil guides with PVD coating.
Youth Product — Gear/Apparel: Fishpond, Tenderfoot Youth Vest
For the kiddo who loves to fly fish as much as the adults in the room, this is a sweet little vest. With all the accouterments of a grown-up’s vest and a sized-down fit for the littler anglers, Fishpond leaves no one out with this addition to its lineup.
Fishpond’s recent acquisition of Tacky Fly Fishing also gains the brand a third award in the Best of Show category. This nifty little feller can stick in a billion places, and it’ll hold a grip of flies from streamers to nymphs. The Velcro bottom allows for easy transfer from fly box to your fishing vest, or anywhere you deem Velcro might belong. At $8, it also won’t break the bank.
Yay for eco-friendly! Patagonia, of course, reins it in with its 100-percent-recycled Black Hole Gear Tote. It’s an all-around bag that will hold everything from fishing gear to beach gear to everything you need for a quick overnight. And you can feel seriously good about owning one.
The Fishpond Flathead Sling is a slick, innovative, and, frankly, cool way to carry your gear. Big enough to carry a coat, a water bottle, and your supplies, it’s still agile and small enough to not be annoying on the river.
Details like side pockets, an easy-access topper for flies, and an ambidextrous design add thoughtfulness to this pack and grabbed it the top spot in its category.
The Trout LL rod series is designed to give anglers an optimized experience for wade fishing, light tippets, close casts, and small flies. Blank taper optimization and specialized length offerings aim to make this an ideal dry fly rod.
The Trout LL is available from 3- to 6-weights in lengths ranging from 7’9” to 9’.
Sage Adds 3 New Fly Rod Families in 2020
With anglers looking to 2020 releases on the latest and greatest from gear companies, Sage Fly Fish is throwing three new rod families into the ring. Read more…
The design of this rod creates a lighter class of spey rod for the trout enthusiast. Sage is introducing five models from 10’3″ to 11’3″ and weights from 1 to 4. And soon, enthusiasts of the brand will have new options for covering as much water as possible in the method they prefer.
A throwback to the San Miguel of old, Ross Reels will be re-introducing the slick and redesigned San Miguel in December of 2019. The fast retrieval on this rod is pretty spectacular, and the canvas Micarta grip allows for a no-slip hold in all sorts of conditions. Plus, this reel is just pretty.
The sister company to Ross, Abel took the Saltwater category with its totally gorgeous VAYA reel. It’s considered a reel for “light salt,” and its incredibly low weight profile speaks to that. It’s highly adjustable with a partially ported frame.
One of my favorite touches on this reel is the milled fly pattern silhouette that is relevant to the size of each model. And the hand-painted motifs knock it outta the park. This one is both functional and beautiful — nothing wrong with that.
The Simms G4Z Stockingfoot Wader is a beast of bodily burden. Made of GORE-TEX Pro Shell, the three-layer upper combines with four-layer lowers. Compression-molded stocking feet cut bulk while focusing on comfort and durability. These are cool waders for cold weather without compromising on a thoughtful athletic action for the angler in motion.
The fabric is the coolest part. It feels soft, almost suede-like without the thickness. Simms uses the same fabric for the women’s G3Z wader, but on the women’s model, Simms went with a side zip.
I personally love Simms Bugstopper Hoody, so the genius of a pant isn’t lost on me. Permethrin-treated garments are the serious business when you’re in Bug Town. And it works — even through something nuts like washes.
Plus, the leggings are fun with a bit of a pattern, but nothing too overwhelming for those of us who don’t like to be too flashy.
As the month of November nears, anglers in the Niagara River are still wondering what happened to all the salmon that were supposed to be returning for the final run of their lives. During a normal year the local charter fishing fleet, as well as the legion of shore fishermen, will start to pursue the mighty king by the second or third week of September. The salmon action concludes by the end of October. This year the fishing started on time, but the catching didn’t. It was one of the toughest salmon years anglers have ever seen. In fact, some charter captains cancelled their seasons while others opted to fish for bass and walleye.
Imagine a charter boat loaded with good sticks going four days without a bite? That can be frustrating. Imagine a dozen boats fishing Devil’s Hole and only six fish being caught for the entire day? If a boat caught two fish, they were the heroes on the river by the first week of October. After a banner year on the lake (again), what could have happened to the might king?
Since most fish that would be returning to the river would be three-year-old chinook salmon, let’s look at what happened in 2016. For starters, the Niagara River received its full stocking target number of salmon – 75,000 kings in the pens operated at the time by the Niagara River Anglers Association (NRAA), and 128,000 direct-stock kings, all from the Salmon River Fish Hatchery. The Niagara River is normally one of the final locations to receive fish in the pens and for stocking due to colder water coming down from Lake Erie, thanks to the ice boom.
While some anglers speculate that receiving the fish so late could cause the salmon to be imprinted to the Salmon River, studies performed by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) a few years ago have shown that fewer than 10 percent of stockers could return back to Altmar, where the hatchery is located on the Salmon River in Oswego County.
Unfortunately, there is no longer a fin clipping study in place to determine salmon migration patterns and to determine whether the salmon is stocked or wild. They will not be clipped in 2020 either. The Canadians would not agree to a fin clipping study so it would have been a waste of time if every salmon stocked in the lake on any give year was not clipped – all or none.
The last time a study took place (mass markings in 2010, 2011 and 2013), every salmon stocked in the lake was fin clipped, in both New York and in Ontario. It substantiated that wild fish are an important contribution to the salmon fishery in the lake. Approximately 50 percent of all salmon in the lake were naturally reproduced, according to the study. It also verified the importance of salmon pen-rearing projects along the lake versus direct plants from the hatchery. Survival rates were better than 2 to 1 when comparing the pens to a hatchery truck stocking directly into the water.
Of course, there are some unknowns out there when it comes to stockings. Predation from birds like cormorants is becoming an increasing problem and many wonder if the predation from larger predator fish (like walleyes, bass, pike and muskies) might also pose a bigger threat than what anyone realizes.
There are water issues, too. In 2017, Lake Ontario experienced its first-ever record high water disaster on the lake. Water was so high in the Niagara River the NRAA could not operate a pen-rearing project for salmon. It was also the first year of a 21.9 percent stocking cut for the river and along the lake, allowing for Wilson to get back into the salmon stocking game with its first plant of 10,000 Chinook (in a pen) in 25 years. Because they were in a pen, the county had to give up 20,000 direct-stocked kings. Some salmon will return to their perceived “home” as two-year olds.
Other pen-rearing sites also had issues with the high water in 2017 and had to deal with a late delivery of the salmon from the hatchery. The delay in receiving fish causes stream temperatures to elevate, making it difficult to hold the fish for any length of time.
Getting back to the fall salmon run, warm water could be a factor in some of the other streams to the east and runs could still happen there, too. However, warm water never stopped the salmon from entering the Niagara River in the past. It just ended their life cycle a little quicker. A chinook or king salmon is a Pacific salmon. They spawn and then die. That’s the circle of life for them, if they don’t get caught first.
That’s a good segue into another school of thought, that the anglers in the lake are catching a bulk of the fish being stocked in the Niagara River area. During the spring and summer, salmon congregate around the Niagara Bar, as well as off Wilson and Olcott – not just fish that are stocked here. However, when it’s time to return home, those fish will hightail it back to their stocking site or where it they were naturally reproduced. Most likely, that’s the Salmon River, where the main fish hatchery is and the biggest producer for natural reproduction in New York.
The area around the Niagara River is popular, especially in the spring. It owns the salmon division of the Lake Ontario Counties Trout and Salmon Spring Derby. Charter captains from around the lake will set up shop in Wilson and Olcott. Recreational boats take advantage of the spring salmon action, too. It all makes for a big fish-catching party. There are definitely more fish caught than what DEC realizes through its lake creel census conducted every year.
Winds have also been blamed, with strong east winds pushing salmon out of their staging areas in September. If so, where did they go?
Some point the finger at not using the Caledonia Fish Hatchery for stocking any more. At the very least, the water is different from the Salmon River.
Maybe it’s time to look at reallocating stocking numbers along the south shore of the lake. In Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources took a long look at usage on the north shore and decided that they would move some stockings into high-traffic fishing areas from low-traffic sites. It’s something that’s been talked about here in New York at stakeholder meetings.
Will anyone solve the case of the missing salmon? We will have to wait and see.
Opening day in New York’s Northern Zone is just as big as it is in the Southern Tier. In fact, we have two of them! A week prior to the regular big game season opener, there is a week-long early muzzleloading season in the Northern Zone that always opens the Saturday following Columbus Day.
Since the state began allowing additional tags for both archery and especially muzzleloading hunters, the popularity of hunting with a smokepole has increased immensely. It’s no secret that the timing of that change coincided with technological advancements such as in-line and breach-loading muzzleloaders, as well as new and improved projectiles and propellants. It was very similar then to what is transpiring with the crossbow now, minus the expanded hunting opportunities.
Deer camps in the Adirondacks swelled during the muzzleloading opener, and will do so again when the regular big game season opens on October 26. Many relish the opportunity to take any deer, as most (but not all) Wildlife Management Units allow the harvesting of antlerless deer during muzzleloading season. Still others, especially in the western Adirondacks and Tug Hill region, are buck-only units. Some hunters would prefer the entire region be antlered deer only. The last time that was the case was in 2003.
Due simply to the way the calendar dates fall, the regular rifle/big game season opens late this year, and close late, too. Northern Zone hunters enjoy seven weekends in the woods (nine including muzzleloading), which seems like a lot, but it really isn’t.
Some hunters will wait until the rut or good tracking snow to hit the woods, but for others the early season is all about finding sign, feeding areas and even doe groups to keep tabs on when the rut eventually kicks in. Call it in-season scouting if you will, but hunting the seasons within the season has its merits.
All hunting tactics work in the Northern Zone, especially in the Adirondacks where you can really stretch your legs. Deer drives remain the “money” tactic for big and small groups alike, but many big-woods hunters choose to still-hunt, stalk or, in the right conditions, track their buck. Others will strategically sit part or all of the day in a spot where they expect to encounter a buck. Such spots are either found through scouting and even trail camera work, or known travel routes that produce season after season.
The Northern Zone is not all about the Adirondacks, as the lands that wrap around the mountains are just as much agricultural as anywhere in the Southern Zone. Here, the hunting trends of today are often employed and it’s not uncommon to find QDMA co-ops and properties managed for deer.
How this hunting season will go will be partially up to Mother Nature, which dealt a heavy blow about halfway through the 2018 season. There’s a good mast crop this year and, thanks to recent rain storms, water is not an issue. Now, it’s time to go deer hunting.
