Mostly suckers bitng on opening day of trout season
BY SHAWN VARGO THE LEADER

MILLPORT - The suckers were out at Catharine Creek celebrating the opening day of trout season.

Fishermen lined the banks of the popular trout stream hoping to land a large rainbow trout, but were greeted mostly by suckers. Warm weather in January may have caused an early run on the rainbow, leaving anglers high and dry.

"If the season opened March 1 instead of April 1, you'd see a lot more happy fishermen," said Alan Brant of Corning.

Brant, who has fished Catharine Creek for 18 years, said the off-colored water and air temperature in the upper 50s made for good fishing - but the trout weren't cooperating.

"You couldn't ask for better conditions," he said. "The

water's nice and the fish can't see you."

Ivan Luther, who usually spends opening day in Naples, in Ontario County, made the trip to Catharine

Creek because he heard the trout run was pretty good.

After a couple of hours along the creek banks, however, he was still looking for his first fish.

"From what I had heard, the females have yet to pawn

out. If I could catch one, I'd let you know," Luther said.

Joe Pullano, who traveled to Millport from Syracuse with two buddies, summed it up well by saying, "There are times you h ear 'fish on, fish on' and there's other times you just stand here and watch."

Ten-year-old Lane Seymour, from Horseheads, wasn't disappointed when he hooked and landed a 19-inch sucker.

A day off from school will do that for a 10-year-old.

For those interested in catching trout, streams stocked by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation were the way to go.

David Matwiejow, o f Beaver Dams, was able to show off a nice cooler of brown trout after a few hours work at Post Creek working salted minnows.

His big prize was a 15-inch brown trout - one of the

many 2-year-old trout stocked in the creek each year by the DEC's Fish Hatchery in Bath.

"The water's high, so you have to have the experience

to catch them," Matwiejow said. "I've been fishing here my whole life."

The news that no big rainbows were being taken at Catharine Creek was good news to Matwiejow, who is a member of the Finger Lakes Trollers Association and spends his weekends on his boat at Seneca Lake.

"It's nice to hear that the big 'bows are out of there. I like to see them back in Seneca Lake," he said.