SKUNKED

I had the pleasure of fishing the Wiscoy today and for the first time that I can remember I was flat skunked while trout fishing.
I fished for the entire day and I do mean the entire day. There was limited and sporadic caddis activity throughout the day but I never saw a fish rise. During the evening there was some light midge activity as well but once again no rising and no noticeable feeding. I threw everything in my box and even tossed streamers for a while which as some know is against my religion. I did manage to raise a monstrous brown out of a back eddy but as soon as he came out from under some bankside roots all he saw was me standing there on the bank with the sun shining down on me like a heavenly spotlight, a rookie mistake on my part and one I assure you that this angler will not make again. After a few more hours of fishing into dusk I missed a decent fish on a small baetis nymph in the C&R section, again my fault, I was not paying attention. All in all though I had a great day exploring this river that I should have visited many times before and I assure you I will visit many times in the near future.
The Wiscoy is a beautiful river, and one that I have not fished. I have lived in western New York and fished the surrounding waters almost all of my life but the Wiscoy had never really appealed to me due to what I know know was a false story I heard about the river. Fishing the river was a true treat. This river offers every imaginable kind of water you would find trout in. It has beautiful long pools, swift lengthy riffles, undercut banks, and gorgeous back eddies that fish dream about living in. The Wiscoy is a small river 20 to 30 feet in width that meanders through farmland and woodlots with a gorge section mixed in (this was some of the best trout water I have seen in a while). There is a one mile long C&R section that fishes more like a spring creek, ten feet in width on average with some nice deep holes.
The Wiscoy has been known to yield some decent fish and boasts an impressive 1600 wild browns per mile, for you mathematicians that is about one trout for every three feet of river! In a recent sampling from a section of the river the DEC estimated that section held 2600 fish per mile, and the C&R section produced an average of around 1700 fish per mile. It is a tributary of the Genesee and is about 15 miles in length with around 13 miles of PFR access including parking areas and footpaths. Another great point is that there are many cold springs feeding the river that keep it a low enough temperature to avoid large scale kills.