Bright December Rainbow Caught Swinging in the Finger Lakes
The winter has evolved into one of my favorite times to fish in central New York. All of my favorite places to fish including the tributaries of the Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario and Erie Tributaries and the many beautiful inland trout streams each offer unique and rewarding scenery and fly fishing opportunities during the winter. When its warm popular fishing areas can be overwhelmed with anglers. The colder temperatures and sometimes snow lower the angler pressure and many of the good pools become frequently available to fish in solitude. When I fish the winter, I like to start out swinging streamers or wet flies, before I move to dead drifting flies lower in the water column. I’ve had some really great experiences in the winter catching big browns, rainbows and steelhead on a swinging fly which brings me back to the technique. Swinging flies is easily one of the most satisfying ways to catch any fish.
This Brown was caught on a swinging fly on a dry line at Oak Orchard Creek in the late fall of 1996. It was recommended by an older fly fishing friend of mine to try a Green Butt Skunk and a Fall Favorite. I hooked the brown on the Green Butt Skunk shortly after I rose a steelhead on a Fall Favorite. My first tributary rod, a custom made switch rod prototype, on the ground next to me.
Each fly fisherman’s journey progresses in its own unique way. Many will stick to fishing solely during the dry fly season and learning to match the hatch, some will fall in love with nymph fishing and its deep slow presentation and productive nature. My personal fly fishing journey started on the tiny alder strewn tannic streams of the southern Adirondacks and the pristine crystal waters of the Tug Hill Plateau. During those early years of my youth catching a trout seemed like a dream come true. The trout, was very elusive and beautiful to me, and to hook one on a fly rod and bring the fish to hand, I considered a very special experience. During my youth I never had a camera and the experience of catching a trout was a moment shared only with nature. My grandfather was the main influence on my early fly fishing and how he fly fished was exclusively swinging wet flies and dead drifting dry flies in the solitude of an off the beaten path quiet stream. I watched what he was doing and what flies he used and tried to mimic those techniques on other outings with my dad, who didn’t fly fish, as a result my early fly fishing exclusively involved swinging flies on a mono leader and floating line or dead drifting dry flies.

At the Old Farts Pool on the Salmon River in the 90s before the bank behind me eroded away. The water looks gorgeous and many times I fished the upper river in solitude. Caught a fresh little fish on a swinging wet fly and my dad who would hike along the river while I fished took this photo.
My fly fishing journey started by swinging flies without added weight to the leader. As with many anglers I had a stint with thinking that fishing near the bottom would catch more fish and that catching more fish would help fulfill what I was looking for in fly fishing. After many years of swinging flies with a single handed rod, I spent part of one season in 2000 fishing the Lake Ontario tributaries fishing a technique that is now called “Euro Nymphing.” This technique in its early form was used by many guides on the Salmon River in New York. It involved long light rods, a a fly reel, a running line, a lot of backing, long leaders and light tippet. Enough weight was added to the leader to get the fly down quickly into deep holes where steelhead hold in the winter and the cast was made using the added weight by flipping the weight and letting excess running line hanging below the reel shoot through the guides. The end result was the weight and the fly bumping along the bottom. I stuck it out for a few weeks trying to learn this technique thinking I would catch more fish and I did catch some nice fish but the technique became very annoying and laborious. The line management, the dredging the bottom and the frequent snags of the weight and flies in the boulder strewn river bed of the The Salmon River made actual work out of fishing. Sometime in December of that year shortly after I started learning this technique I abandoned it for swinging flies on a single handed rod once again. My first outfit for swinging flies for tributary fish was a custom made switch rod made by a local rod maker named, Steve Payne, who has since passed. He was a pleasant man and suggested I start with a nine and a half foot seven weight rod with a small handle so that I could also cast the line with two hands. I purchased this rod and used it to swing flies on the Lake Ontario tributaries in the nineties before I took my stint with the running line technique. My background swinging , instilled in me by my grandfather, was strong and the urge to swing soon overcame the deep nymphing experiment. Just as I did as a child, once again I was casting a fly line and swinging flies.

By the Old Trestle, which is now gone, A hefty Male Taken Using Deep Nymphing with a Blue/Black Stonefly.
After many years of swinging flies with a single handed rod and dead drifting flies using various outfits, mostly 10 foot rods with a floating line and sinking leaders or a small amount of split shot added to the leader, my friends older brother suggested we try what was called a “Spey Rod.” He was a man of very few words and had many phrases and I always listened to what he said. The first rod I tried was his 13 foot Orvis Trident spey rod. I immediately found standard roll casting easier and could easily propel a heavy fly much farther out into the river and the length also made mending line and manipulating the fly through the pools and runs much easier. That first day fishing the long rod prompted me to immediately purchase a twelve and a half foot rod and a bigger reel in order to hold a larger weight forward spey fly line. My first line had a 52 foot head and I did some reading on casts and developed a right handed double spey and single spey fairly quickly. It felt like I had starting fly fishing all over again as sort of a re-birth. I initially fished with a mono leader without added weight and progressed to adding a sink tip or a small amount of shot and eventually over a number of years completely stopped using split shot. Once again I found casting any bit of shot, changed the dynamics of the cast and became less pleasant. I now fish solely with outfits rigged with floating weight forward lines, or floating shooting heads, and either a “dry” monofilament leader or a sinking leader.

This beautiful fish took a Lady Caroline Atlantic Salmon Fly in the late autumn of 2024.
There are many ways present a swinging a fly. One simple set-up I use for medium sized tributaries of the Great Lakes or the Finger Lakes consists of a 10 or 11 foot 7 weight single handed rod, an 8/9 weight floating weight forward line, a 9 foot tapered monofilament leader, a 3 foot tippet and a weighted or bead head fly. I always try to use a tippet of 8 pound Maxima Ultragreen or greater which helps absorb the shock of an aggressive take and helps fight a big fish. One presentation that has been effective, is to cast across or just slightly upstream keeping in mind the down stream spot you want the fly to swim through. As the line drifts down stream put some subtle mends in the line allowing the fly start sinking and keeping the fly line relatively straight by removing bows in the line caused by the current between you and the fly. As the line moves downstream follow the line with the tip of the rod. When the line gets to about a 45 degree angle downstream of you, gently tighten and cease mending the line and let the fly swim across the stream. Fish will often take the fly as it first starts to move across the current. Try to envision the fly under water while also watching the fly line so you can swim the fly through areas where you predict fish to be holding. When the fish strike the fly using this technique there will be no doubt its a fish as the line will instantly tighten.