About oak orchard.

You've got mail!

~ Bass

Polish, you want to start at the power dam...get there early!  lots of flow....good luck!

Seems both fun and dumb at the same time, but I'd go back just for the comeradery and to get away once or twice a year.....as always, I'd rather be out in a boat though.  Erie is beginning to compare, just wait til the browns come in full force.

if i had your boat i rather be in that to lol

I will never fish N.Y streams again. Yes the kings are bigger than Erie's steelhead, but I have yet to see all the "huge browns". I caught a 28 inch female back in 2000. That was the biggest brown I ever saw in 5 trips to N.Y.(18 mile,Oak,Genessee)  I have caught 5 browns bigger than that in the Erie tribs including a 14 lber. I won't even mention the manners. I watched a guy snag a brown,drag it on shore. Rip the hook out,then kick it back in. The poor fish is laying on its side. The guy's buddy walks over to it drops his bare hook in its mouth and yells fish on! He drags it on the bank and puts it on his stringer. My brother and I looked at each and said that's it we are leaving. That was at 18 mile, Burt dam.

I was talking to a guide up at Fat Nancy's and told him I was from Erie. he said, "Don't say that too loud. I took people to Erie for steel and now I cant get them to come back here."

it was fun when you have 1 of those giant kings hooked. they are like submerrines, but it wont be hooked in the mouth. if you think seeing a steel head in the creeks in erie with a sucker spawn or 2 hooked to it is bad wait till you see a giant king that looks like a jewlery store. and on have seen 1 brown in 2 trips. and both trips was at different times of the season. we will never waste the time or money again.

Me too, before it becomes a bucket list.

have fished both places in the past and im going this year. i have really had mixed felling about both places. 18mile(burt dam) is pretty much like the nut crowded as heck and u see things u couldnt even belive, but i had a few killer days there and there was no snagging done by me and other days sucked.. the oak was a lil better with less ppl and like the water alot better. didnt do as well but it was worth the trip. if there wasnt for the browns i would prob not go. i guess alll we can hope for is that the browns in erie do well and we see bigger numbers..

Most of the browns I've ran into in NY have been this size...



Here's a few other pics from NY













-Tim

I fish the SR every year for Salmon,use only fly gear,very little weight and of course flies.I have much success and 95% of the fish are hooked in the mouth.As a few others have said they will hit a fly/lure/bait if you FISH for them and treat them as a wild fish.No need to wade in to your****heavy weight defeats the idea of getting the proper drift,and standing on top of them and flinging your line at them sure does n't help.There's a lot of idiots after them but with effort they can be avoided and a good time can be had,I would n't go back if this were not possible.

I too enjoyed fishing around burts dam. Maybe it was because it was after the heat of salmon season but I didnt notice anything too much worse than the popular erie spots.





My pictures are from the same area as fishrmn's. I caught more browns that weekend than I have caught in erie in 10 years. I also hooked a fair share of kings legally, at times they seemed more aggressive to the flys than the steelhead and browns I was targetting. Pictures like that could take some pressure off erie this fall

Anytime you have big fish, yo have some idiots as well. It doesnt matter where you are unless you pay big bucks for a fly in or something like that.
But the salmon & browns can be caught w/o snagging, you have to work a little, but it can be done. I've taken all of mine of steelie flys on spinning and fly gear. !st trip a fe wyears back manged 5 kings and four nice browns. Last trip only hooked 1 king and lost it. But its worth the trip to check it out, if the crowds and manners bother you, you don't have to go back. Plus you can always hit Erie on the way home to "salvage" a trip.
Just my $.02 as always

nice pics guys that 1 brownie nice

You will have snagging anywhere that there are big fish that can be seen or an area where they school up and are easy to snag ! It's a fact and that"s not going to change unless there are more law enforcement officers avaliable to actually protrol the waters. Believe me, if they started to ticket everyone they saw snagging, they would quit or modify how they do it to avoid being caught.   
Make it so if you are caught snagging in any of the great lakes tributarys. 
1st offense: $500 fine, plus license suspended for remainder of the year
2nd offense: $1,000 fine, plus 2 year suspension of fishing license
3rd offense: $2,000 fine, plus 5 year license suspension, plus 200 hours community service.
4th offense: $5,000 fine, Lifetime ban of license, 30 days house arrest
 
I mean if you're down on your luck and you are trying to feed your family, thats one thing.
But these guys do it , just to do it. I don't understand why ?
 
I seen blatent snagging in Erie, NY, Canada & even on my local trout stream. It's just something people do and unless it is strongly enforced, with severe penalties it will continue.