December the month of no blogging

So it appears we have not updated the blog in almost a month. Yes here at GTO Outdoors we have been slacking, but December is a crazy busy month with the holidays going on deer and duck hunting coming and going and some of the best steelhead fishing of they year occurring.  We have been busy busy busy, but I am here to tell you a new blog will be posted for your eyes to enjoy within the next day. 

Sorry for our slacking

Billy

Winter Steelhead

With a Little bit of Work Winter Steelheading can be Really Rewarding

Most of the challenge of chasing steelhead during the winter, especially Great Lakes steelhead, can be getting past the weather. Getting yourself out there in the snow, the ice, the freezing temps.  Getting past all this can lead to a very rewarding experience.  Usually you can be blessed to be the only one on whatever piece of water you choose to fish.  Less people on the water gives you the angler room to play these winter chrome monster correctly. Swinging big, colorful steelhead flies is a great choice in our opinion.  With fewer and fewer fish in the waters as the season goes on, swinging flies for steelies can become a game of numbers, very low numbers but, but rewarding numbers.  Even fewer fish will give in and take your swung fly. With the odds already stacked against you, you cannot afford to miss sticking your fly right in front of the fish's face. These fish are on the move so you need to be methodical, graceful, and technical with your swing.  You need to know it can happen at anytime and it will.

When you really think about it you're basically searching the water on a concentric circled pattern, a grid pattern search if you will.  Pick an area to begin, cast across the current as far as possible making sure to not miss any holding waters, and let your fly swing down and across till it directly below you.  Now strip some line in take a big step down stream and repeat. Swing the fly across all holding waters and eventually you'll place that big, colorful pattern right under steelie's nose.  Keeping up on the swing can produce a great day on some winter steelhead waters, but what if the simple swing is not enough?

What if while swinging through a nice pool you get a timid, little tug that you're sure was the silver monster you've been after?  Immediately bring in your line change out that purple, black fluffy Duffy to a pattern different in action and color, I prefer to change color the most. If you're swinging purple, tie on pink, pink tie on white, black tie on orange. You get the point.  Now move back upstream and begin your swinging pattern again.  Steelhead are on the move remember so moving back upstream and beginning our swing pattern is key. If you get the same timid hit this time through change it up again. Find the color that really enrages that fish that's timidly checking out what your swinging by him.  You'll find that color and before you know it you'll have a great winter steelhead on and he'll be emptying your reel to the backing as he fights to get back downstream. Bringing that fish to hand that you had to put time and effort into is so much sweeter than the rest of them. 

Good luck out there chasing winter steelies. This is one of our favorite times of the year going after these great fish. Have fun and be safe.

Cheers

Billy

Recipe: Roasted Leg of Venison with Root Vegtables

Roasted Leg of Venison

-team GTO 

Ingredients: 1 leg of venison trimmed up

1/2 cup of olive oil

Salt and pepper

3 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

3 sprigs of thyme

5 carrots

5 potatoes

2 turnips

3 onions

1 cup beef stock

1 1/2 cups good red wine

1. Peel and rough chop vegetables 

2. Rub leg of venison with half the oil and generously season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and thyme

3. Place a roaster pan on med high heat and heat remaining olive oil

4. Sauté vegtables with some salt and pepper and a sprig of thyme until vegetables are nicely  colored 

5. Deglaze pan with stock and wine

6. Place leg of venison on top of vegtables, cover with foil, and place in the oven at 425 degrees

7. After 3 hours remove foil and finish of in the oven uncovered for 30-45 minutes. Take out when meat tenderly falls from the bone and has good color

8. Let leg rest for 15-25 minutes before carving. 

This is a great recipe for the holidays. From our GTO family to yours have a great safe holiday season

Billy

Gun Season

Well the annual whitetail deer gun season is upon us here in WNY. A time we look forward too for the entire off season.  This year was no exception.  For a week before opening day I anxiously awaited departure for our southern tier hunting and fishing camp, Plumbottom.  Gear packed, food and drink purchased, tree stands in tow we were ready to harvest an Alleghany County monster and start the season off with a bang.  How appropriate cuz that's how the season would kick off, with a bang.  A bang. A bang at one of those times when you are no where near prepared to harvest a huge mature whitetail. At about 11:45am the second day of the season I was sitting in a rocking tree stand as there was a good amount of wind when there was what sounded like a bulldozer coming through the woods behind me.  I stood and turned slightly to see what the commotion was about and two doe were standing looking behind them when a huge 8 point buck all of 140" stepped from the scrub brush at 75 yards. Bringing the gun up and focusing on the stud buck the prize does trotted to a patch of pines and the buck started after them. Safety off, trigger pulled and into the pines the buck followed his girls. Down the pines they scooted and out of site for the Rest of the trip.  The largest buck I had ever had the chance of harvesting and off he trotted with one thing on his mind and it wasn't my horrible luck.  Shortly after just for me I was kept company by a small doe who took up bedding fifteen feet from the bottom of my stand for three hours. Not having dmp's for the area I was stuck hanging with the young lady for the afternoon.  

Now Mike Baehr, Gary's brother, had no problem with his four year old stud opening day. Harvesting a score able  11point opening morning just after sunrise.  This is a beautiful buck that we've seen on the Beahr Farms for a couple seasons and have plenty of pictures of him on trail cameras.  

Also on the Beahr Farms GTO Outdoors jr member Trevor got the job done with his first ever deer putting this nice list swamp donkey on the ground around the same time I was missing the buck of my career done in the southern tier.   Great job Trevor. Trevor's dad team gto member Gary Beahr has had a great season so far filling all his doe tags, but has not had the chance to fulfill that buck tag. Gary is looking to tag out with something that puts his little brother's monster to shame. Good luck with that brother.

We will continue to keep on these whitetails while we fit some late season ducks and steelhead into the equation as well. Stay tuned for more GTO whitetail updates from the 2013 season. 

Thanks 

 Billy

Report From the Burt

On Friday we set the guns and bows down and picked up the fly rods for a morning of chasing big browns and steelies out of Lake Ontario.  The morning was nice and crisp and overcast with the occasional sprinkle.  I could not think of better conditions to get our fly on.  With the tunes jamming in Bill's jeep and a hot cup of joe from the local deli we headed up into Niagara county to the famous fisherman's park at the Burt Dam.  Upon arrival we realized it was going to be one of those days when we pulled into a parking lot that was already tripled stacked and over three quarters full.  Considering other locations we decided to stick it out and give it a whirl.  Geared up and new GTO steelhead patterns in hand we headed down into the gorge where we were greeted with fishermen all over 18 mile creek.  Lined up and down both sides of the creek there was definitely fish activity with multiple gentlemen hooked up and fighting fish.  On the walk in I saw a 40 inch fresh salmon netted after the guy said he played the fish for over an hour.  Fresh salmon?  Really this late in the season I thought, today was definitely the day to come.  Continuing to walk towards the dam each piece of real estate along the creek was taken up until we came to a quick run, ripple section that shrinks down into almost a funnel that leads to the pool below the Burt Dam.  No one on either section of this water lead me to believe that it was no good, no production, multiple areas to snag, something had to be wrong with it.  As we stood there and watched the water I counted ten fish moving through this section of water heading upstream to the dam area.  This was going to be an alright spot I said.  Rigging up the fly rods with some new GTO fly patterns that we were trying out I noticed multiple fish being hooked up on just down stream from our location.

First cast and swing with the GTO cotton candy streamer produced nothing.  Second cast upstream, mend the line, tighten things up, and bam .... FISH ON!!  The fight lasted just long enough to get the adrenaline running and make me want the full monty even more.  Not long after, that is exactly what I got.  A beautiful brown trout put up a great fight up the current almost to me then ziiing line emptied out as the brownie tried to head back to the lake.  Finally getting him towards the slow current we tailed him and landed our first fish of the day.  A beautiful 20 plus inch fish with great color and beautiful placement of the GTO hand-tied fly.

A beautiful fish, pictures were taken, fist pumps pumped and the nice trout was released back into the creek for others to enjoy.  We were at the Burt for close to three and half hours and had close to a dozen hookups with 4 fish landed on the shore.  An awesome day on a forgotten piece of water produced an epic day in the minds of us trout junkies.  There was one fish that day that I wish we could've gotten in.  This fish took us almost to the backing twice and was full of acrobatics and aerial displays.  This is the same fish that stole my new cotton candy streamer pattern as he snapped my ten pound leader.  Yes this fish was amazing size, a fat steelie just starting to turn green with a pronounced red hue running down its side.  Theres always next week I guess to try and get that fish to hand.  All we landed that day was browns, beautiful browns that fought like hell.  Theres nothing like that tug, the sound of that zing as your line empties out of your reel.  It's the reason I choose to chase all species on the fly and haven't taken a spinning set-up with me in years.

With the day going great and being proud as a peacock sending photos of the days bounty around to all that get going about fishing like I do, I decided that we were going to try and hit the grand slam for the day.  We would travel back home to Akron, change into our bow hunting gear and go out to Baehr Farms and try and harvest ourselves a nice whitetail buck.  A nice mature doe would do to fill the freezer, but bucks were on the mind.  We geared up, changed out arrows, covered ourselves in scent control cover spray and headed into the field.  Upon arrival  at the farm I was extra excited as that day happened to be the day the gentleman that farms the land decided he was going to harvest his corn.  Seeing this I decided there was no other stand I wanted then the one directly in the middle of the woods  between all the fields.  Up into the stand I climbed as I slithered into the woods stealthy undetected.  After getting myself set-up and comfortable we sat while the hum of a combine worked away off in a near distance.  The woods calmed down and the squirrels came alive, hahaha.  They were everywhere and everywhere they were I thought there was a deer sneaking up on me.  I sat and sat and waited and waited, today was supposed to be the day, the day we hit the grand slam.  As sundown approached the woods quieted and off in a distance I could hear some rustling, thinking nothing of it since the squirrels were having a grand old time, I sat and studied the woods looking for any sort of movement.  As i peered over my shoulder searching for anything I heard some rustling again.  Still not seeing anything I could start to make out what the ruccus was all about.  It was a the sounds of a buck rubbing on trees, thrashing scrub brush, the signs of the rut.  Now i was awake I was anticipating the perfect day coming to the perfect end.  I sat still and quiet listening to the testosterone charged mature buck mark his territory.  With no grunt tube or rattle bag with me I decided to let out one simple snort wheeze and see what happened since the sun set was quickly becoming a reality.  Wheeeeeze huff huff and the bustling and rustling stopped.  Well I ruined our chances, I sat there and thought as I tried to find a location to our buck.  Nothing, then as I sat pondering getting down for the day and walking the fields back in from behind me I could hear something coming down a flooded lane behind the stand.   Swish, swish, swish through the water, I slowly peered around the tree I was sitting in and here he came, nose to the ground and on a mission, our buck was walking a straight line to death.  I picked up my bow, arrow already knocked and waited for the perfect moment.  Having missed a nice buck from this same stand last year all I was focused on was the perfect shot.  The buck went behind a tree, I pulled back and waited for him to come out behind the tree and some scrub brush.  Waiting, waiting, at full draw for almost a minute finally he moved into position and when  I had the red pin of my sight on the buck's shoulder I let it rip, THWAP.  It sounded like I had shot a piece of 3/4 inch plywood, the buck turned and took off, crashed into a couple trees and knocked out my arrow.  Dragging his right leg along and slight blood trickling out of that shoulder area I thought I had gotten the job done, I had hit the grand slam bottom of the ninth World Series game 7.  Or had I?  Upon recovery of the arrow it appeared i had hit the shoulder blade square and had gotten very little penetration into the deer.  The tip of the broad head was broken and the entire broad head was bent.  There was some blood on the arrow, but there was a good amount of bone also and the arrow had only penetrated into the deer about three inches which would explain why it came out so easy as the deer turned and took off.  By the time we had found he arrow it was pitch black in the woods so we decided to let the deer lay for the evening and come back out in the morning to recover my buck.  Well we are still looking for the buck to this day, grand slam maybe not, the outfielder jump at the warning track and robbed me of my buck, but not of an awesome day in the water and in the field.

Report from a Duck Blind

These past couple weeks have been exciting, hectic, and busy all wrapped into one. WNY is alive with wild life activity and GTO Outdoors is trying to capitalize on it all. With the whitetail rut winding up and the steelhead running out of the Great Lakes up into the tributaries there's plenty to do. Add on top of that trying to keep on top of this start up company and sell our brand to the masses. For those that do not know we have hand tied flies, roe sacks, and jars of salmon skein for sale. You have a couple options of how you can get your hands on said products. First you can stop by either Nature's Prize in Akron NY or Captain Bobs Outdoors in Clarence NY as they carry a full line of GTO products. Second you can email us at grillingtheoutdoors@gmail.com and tell us what you would like. We will get back to you ASAP and get your order filled. For those with no Internet and do not live near WNY give us a call at (716)560-0364 and Bill will be glad to help you get your hands on whatever your needs may be. We will be simplifying this process also in the next couple weeks as we are expanding our coverage online and will have a fully functional website up and running by the end of November. You will be able to view all available GTO Outdoors products and purchase right from the site. The website will also have photos, videos, links to this blog and all our social media sites along with much much more. We will make an announcement once gtooutdoors.com goes live.

In other news besides missing deer with the bows and chasing steelies and big browns out of the lakes it is duck season!!! One of GTO's favorite times of the year. This year has been treating us well with multiple birds on the ground. Now things could always be better, but we are having a blast and this sick obsession is taking time away from other things. Not only are the birds raining from the sky, but the hysterics and mischief that has been happening in the blind is a great time. The best part of the whole thing is we do not believe the migration has kicked in yet and we have until mid December to keep it up. We are Hoping to get some white tails on the ground next weekend during the firearms opener in NY state so that we can get back In a duck blind to keep the good season going. With all this going on we have been delinquent on our blog posts, but ill try to keep on the guys to post more in the upcoming weeks as we really ramp up our hunting, fishing, and grilling of the outdoors. Till then we leave you with some photos of our harvest during the bird season this year.

Cheers

Billy

PS. Many new products coming in the next couple weeks. They will all be available on gtooutdoors.com. Thanks guys

Steelhead

The rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss) is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea or lake run rainbow trout. They are anadromous usually returning to freshwater to spawn after two to three years at sea; raoinbow trout and steelhead are the same species. Several other fish in the salmonid family are called trout; some are anadromous like salmon, whereas others are resident in freshwater only. The species has been introduced for food or sport to at least 45 countries and every continent except Antarctica. 

Venison tenderloin on an open flame

Tonight's dinner in the woods

Recipe:Butterflied Venison Tenderloin Steaks

Here's one that team GTO will definitely be making this week at camp. A simple yet tasty way to prepare your harvest this fall.

Ingredients

1 venison tenderloin cut into 3/4 inch butterfly steaks
1 cup Speide Sauce (check your grocery store's marinade aisle)
2 tbsp sea salt and pepper

Cut your tenderloin into 3/4-1 inch venison steaks and place into a sealable freezer bag with 1 cup of Speide Sauce marinade. Seal bag and make sure sauce in liberally applied to all the steaks. If more is needed add more sauce. Place steaks into the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Light your charcoal or propane grill, preferably hardwood charcoal. When grill is ready take out your steaks and liberally apply sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to all the steaks. 4-5 minutes on each side until your reach a nice medium/medium rare and pull off the heat immediately. Serve right away either naked or with your favorite sauce. A nice chimichurri would be wonderful over the platter of steaks.

The next time you harvest a beautiful white tail or elk try this one out

Cheers

Billy

Fall Trout

The fall can be one of the best times of the year to catch big trout in lots of waters.  Here in WNY we have the best of all worlds, while we can chase the salmon run up tributaries off Lake Ontario, sneak up on chrome steelhead off Lake Erie, or retrieve big gaudy streamers though the wild trout waters all over the area and catch the large browns that have done a great job avoiding the summer pressure of fishermen.  The limited pressure on the rivers and creeks this time of year makes it a wonderful time to get out there and land one of these beauties.  Deer hunting helps kill the pressure of crowded banks and streams.

What techniques can we use?

Like the early season don't be afraid to hook up a strike indicator and drift your favorite nymphs through the riffles and deep pools along your favorite trout stream.  Theres not much of a hatch in WNY to match this time of the year, but all time favorites like the hare's ear, red headed brassie, or pheasant tail nymphs will get the job done.  Pick a seam outside the fast current where food would pile up and drift your indicator through making sure you have enough weight on your line to get your nymph low and basically feed it to the big brownies.  If this isn't working don't be discouraged the trout might need some help realizing how fun it is on the end of your tippet.  If drifting that favorite nymph isn't creating the desired results  then it's time to drop a dropper of the back sub-surface wolly bugger or small streamer.  Tie an 18 inch section of fine tippet off the leading fly and drop a small nypmh off the back.  The top streamer or bugger while getting attention of the fish will either get the job done or get enough attention to hunger the fish enough to gobble up the trailing nymph.

Another option for fall time trout is beating the banks with streamers.  The bigger, gaudier, and flashier the better.  Give these bulls something to chase, something that looks like a meal.  Look for undercut banks, down trees, boulders or large rocks.  Places that huge trout can hang out, feel protected, and run out for food all in a small area. Short, quick burst, erratic retrieves with bunny streamers or mouse flys will drive big buck trout crazy and result in a definite hook up.

Fall trout fishing can be some of the most fun you can have on the water all year round.  Big wild browns is my goal usually, but I'll settle for just about any kind of trout.  If anything this will be one of the most enjoyable times for you since the pressure will be low and you can experiment with multiple techniques and flys.  Fill that fly box up with multiple nymphs, wet flys, and big gaudy streamers.  floating strike indicators or no, a couple split shots or floating line take your pick.  It will all work out as long as you work on the perfect presentation in the perfect holding spots on the creeks where these smart trout have been hold up all summer long.  Good luck out there and remember to enjoy the outdoors while you're out there hunting, fishing, and grilling the outdoors.

Cheers

Billy

Overtime

Tis the season. The season I wish there were thirty hours in a day and nine days in a week. The salmon run is in full effect out of Lake Ontario, bow season is starting to get good, and duck hunting opens in a week. From stream to stand as much as I can leaves little time for blogs to be written, face books to be posted, or twitters to tweet. I love October and everything that goes along with it. I love fly fishing for huge salmon and steelhead. It's a treat to grab a huge brown trout while drifting for these awesome fish. When not wading the tribs of the Great Lakes I sit in a tree stand admiring the changing of the leaves. The beautiful transformation passes the time as I sit in stealth and await a trophy whitetail. As the days pass and the weather changes those same whitetail begin to change their behavior patterns as well. Do they know why this happens? Do we know why? Mother Nature changing the environment right in front of our eyes.

In the coming week we will be going to our southern tier operation for four days of bow hunting and fall brown trout fishing. We will prepare the camp for weeks and weeks of debauchery, camaraderie, and hopefully a productive whitetail season. The whole idea of a hunting camp is what drew me to the sport. An escape, a place we gather to de-stress and fulfill our primal urge to harvest and provide. It might just be an outhouse and trailer from 1984 but it is a sanctuary that I look forward to coming back to every time we leave.

October, a time of change, a time of harvest. The month of Halloween, the month of hunting, fishing, and cooking. Huge salmon, nice big browns, bucks and does preparing for the upcoming rut, and flocks of migrating ducks and geese. I might complain about my lack of time or how busy I am, but I truly do love putting in the overtime in the field, in the woods, or waist deep in a Great Lakes tributary. Stay tuned for reports from the many adventures coming up throughout the next couple of months as we hunt, fish, and grill the WNY area.

Cheers,

Billy

Get outside

  Anyone claiming to be bored needs to get outside. Turn off the tv, the computer and all your other electronics. I understand hunting and fishing equipment can be expensive. 

  NY state has so much more to offer. Theres tons of state parks and land to hike on, walk on, fish on, hunt on or even ride your bike on. There's some very picturesque parts of NY that aren't hard to get to.

  If your into fishing theres countless possibilities. Even in winter. Don't have ice fishing gear you say. Theres streams that don't ice up that offer steelhead fishing all the way till spring. Hook into one of these "muscle" heads just once and you'll be hooked. Theres many small streams all over that offer good bank fishing for trout. Then theres enough park ponds and lakes that hild largemouth and panfish to get you through the summer. Which takes you into fall and the salmon run off Lake Ontario. Having just got involved in this myself for the first time. Let me tell ya. This is some fun fishing. Drag screaming runs. Fish that fly out of the water. Not to mention its just a beautiful time to be outside. 

  If you can pull yourself away from the salmon and steelhead streams, theres more than enough to hunt. Deer hunting starts in October and goes till December. Throw some duck hunting in there. Before you know it the snows flying and your spending late nights a field hunting coyotes. Then it's spring and your turkey hunting. Theres a little break to be had during summer. Thats when you can enjoy your quarry on the grill, or in the smoker. 

  Theres a whole years worth of activity. Stop being bored. Get outside, make some memories with friends. Maybe you'll even meet somebody new. 

Josh

Withdrawal

I've been back to work now for two days. Two days since being on the Salmon River. two days since feeling the fight, hearing the scream of the reel. Two days since feeding my need. Some may say I've been distant these last two days, while some may say I've been cranky. I personally would say none of them are correct. I'm an addict, an addict for big fish. I need to experience the fight , the thrill, the challenge and reward of fishing for chinook salmon. Not just fishing,but chasing the king on the fly. Tying our own creations, tasty morsels of thread feathers and yarn that these monster fish just can't resist lashing out at. The run is ramping up, more and more fish are going from staging in the lake right off the mouth of our tribs and running upstream to spawn and eventually meet their maker. More and more fish to chase means less and less days of the annual run. The run will die off the fishing will succeed and I'll be back at square one. With drawling for one more fish, one more hook up, one more acrobatic display or run upstream while my fly reel empties out. Sure there are lake run steelies and browns that temporarily feed the urge, but that last king salmon will always be in the back of your head. Urging for the next hook up the next season of another chinook king salmon.

Billy

River Report: Salmon River pulaski, ny

Not knowing what to expect from the salmon river set me up for a great experience. The town of Pulaski itself is a perfect American fishing town with river side lodges cleaning and smoking fish for a nominal fee. The waters did not disappoint. Picturesque landscapes, rippled waters, bends turns and pools were all amazing experiences. With miles of public fishing access the salmon river has a spot or situation for all to enjoy their day on the water.
Only having two days in the salmon river region we got to work on different locations along the river. First day we fished the sportsmans pool. The better action day of the two, Monday we had multiple hook ups on the fly, but like the many other anglers we seen, not one was landed. Close, but no fish in the nets. Broken leaders, straightened hooks, dislodged hooks, we saw or experienced many disappointments. Out of the over one hundred hook ups we seen throughout our long day on the water about ten were brought to a net. Still the fight, the screaming of the reel, the jumps and acrobatics of chinook salmon made our trip.
On Tuesday we moved our adventures to a fly fishing only section upstream of the salon river salmon hatchery. The day started out amazing with three hook ups right away in the morning. More screaming reels and laying line while doing battle with the salmon river kings, but once again more dislodged fish. After a couple hours in the upper fly section I hooked into a large chinook salmon and battle we did do. Upstream, down stream, line laid out and brought in for more time then I had in any previous fight this trip. 6-7 jumps, air acrobatics, summersaults and leaps. While maintaining great pressure and finessing the drag of my reel the salmon came in for us to get a great look at him. A king of fish darkened and silver all at the same time. This fish was about to cap off an amazing trip when it decided differently and took off on a last minute dash, a run for it. Down stream and into the heavy currents my line peeled off, a jump and roll and like that the battle was over. The fish had spit my fly, dislodged the hook once again. Defeat gave way to my sore wrists that had tired throughout the battle with the fish of the weekend.
Shortly after all the negativity was wiped clean as I looked down shore and josh was hooked up with a king salmon of his own. He had drifted an orange imitation sack through a pool and fed it to a beautiful hen. Finally for the first time of the whole trip we got a fish into the net, landed. Team GTO had landed a famed salmon river salmon. Our homework paid off, our custom tied flies hooked many fish, probably a dozen for the trip. It was a success.
All in all a great trip with great friends and great beers. Fat tire from New Belgium brewery and a harvest pack from Boston brewing company kept the soreness to a roar dull all trip. We have finally experienced the famed salmon river and already have another trip planned for steelhead fishing and one more for next years salmon run. Like previously stated in past blogs its like an addiction. A sickness if you will. The fight of the fish, the screaming of the reel, the pull of the drag. Energy shoots through me like a main line of adrenaline. The salmon sickness, if this is the only cure, that's alright with me.

The Salmon Run

One can't explain the craziness that I experience during the annual fall Lake Ontario salmon run. I don't know if its the acrobatic aerial displays that the fish put on or the screaming of my fly reel. It could possibly be the fight, oh the biggest fight felt from any game fish in the WNY area. This year has been no different. The salmon started entering the Lake Ontario tributaries in the beginning of September and have really started coming upstream now that the evening temperatures have started to drop. We have been seriously filling our sickness, I mean addiction to these beautiful fish for two weeks now. Lots of hook ups, lots of broken lines and leaders, and one straightened hook have paid off a couple of times when team GTO has had the pleasure of not only landing the salmon, but and early run beautiful brown trout. While we have mostly fished locally, 18 mile creek or oak orchard, this coming week we will be traveling to the world class east coast fishery known as the Salmon River in Pulaski NY. Reports coming in say we will be hitting the Salmon and the Oswego rivers in the peak of the season. Lots of Chinook, Browns, and Steelhead are being reported throughout the river. Telling this to a salmon addict is like dangling smack in front of a crackhead. Everything I do I cannot focus on, all I think about is throbbing in my forearms as my fly reel screams with line tearing off into the backing. The long drawn out fight and finally if I'm lucky grabbing that huge trophy from the net, twenty pounds plus of muscle that just fulfilled my salmon addiction.
I'll try to get serious about this blog and post regularly again. My partner in GTO, Josh, has also agreed to contribute to the blogosphere. Stay tuned for more stories as we get into our busy season hunting, fishing, and grilling the outdoors. Until then here's a couple picks of some nice fish we've gotten this week in the WNYarea.

Thanks,

Billy

River run

River rage has been the state of most of our spots

River has been the state of most of our minds

Swelling subdues, weather does too

Come Sunday next FISH ON we will be saying too

Report from the Genesee River Part 1

Heading out of town on Saturday night there was a certain giddiness, an eagerness.  I could not wait to get to GTO's southern tier camp.  I could not wait to get in the river and stack the browns and brooks up like cord wood.  We would have four guys there was no way we were striking out this trip, there was no way even with two members fly fishing beginners.  We made great time leading our caravan of vehicles down through many small trout towns. Max had arrived first and opened up camp so upon our arrival we plugged in our generator and we were officially in business.  Saturday night may have involved some random hoopla and a few too many drinks, but we were all ready for the next day, the river was alive with trout and the weather was supposed to be beautiful.

Shaking off the previous nights activities we ventured to town for some breakfast and hot dogs, yes hot dogs.  After breakfast it was time, time to venture to the Genesee.  We chose the bottom of the dam in Belmont to start our search from some beautiful browns and brooks.  

I was planning to drift nymphs all weekend and help josh learn how to cast his newly purchased fly rod with some great on water experience.  Gary and Max would be conventionally fishing with spinning reels and jigs and spinners.  They also drifted some Gulp eggs that were recommended by a local at a local bait store.  After throwing the nymph around for twenty to thirty minutes I was being nosey and watching all the other anglers on the river and noticed one gentleman over waist deep in the water right up by the base of the dam catch two nice size browns within 15 minutes of one another.  I started casting and moving up stream, but didn't receive the bite I was looking for.  Walking back downstream to the rest of the guys I stopped by to see how Josh was doing and to give him some pointers while gracefully stepping off the rocks into the river I performed the falling swan dive right into the water.  Good thing it was warm out cuz my right arm and shoulders were soaked.

Ok I may have came in a little hot, but who knew these rocks were so damn slippery

After fishing this beautiful area downstream of the dam for awhile and not landing any fish (Gary had some bites and was having his bait stolen but could not land one) I wanted in on this dam area where the previously mentioned gentlemen were hooking up with nice size brownies.  We took a little break, changed flies to the white/yellowish nymphs i could see floating in the river, and trekked back upstream to the low head dam in the middle of downtown Belmont NY.  Where the dam empties over and another tributary empties into the Genesee Gary and myself attempted to cross out to a stone island out near where I had seen gentlemen landing nice fish.  We were going to go land us some nice size fish and feed all four of us and Syd back at camp on trout all night.  We are the backups for that show River Monsters, we can concur mother nature and her mighty swift currents..... OR not!!!!  Trying to cross the river out to the island I slipped again on some river slime and went completely under.  Gary being right behind me grabbed me and all was good at the moment.  Now to just get back to shore hahahaha. We managed back, I walked downstream a ways to fish in the sun cuz now I was completely soaked.  Wet

COLD

and no fish

Thats how day one goes down

Genesee 1

team GTO 0 and wet

Recipe: Creekside pan fried potato encrusted trout

Creekside Pan Fried Potato Encrusted Trout

Ingredients:

2 12-14 inch trout of any kind (my favorite-rainbow)

2 russet potatoes sliced thin on a mandoline

salt and pepper

tbsp garlic powder

canola oil

flour for dredging

1. filet fish and remove the skin, the potatoes will act as the fish's skin to protect the meat

2. season all 4 filets with salt, pepper, and garlic powder

3. shingle potatoes and place filet onto the potato sheet so that potatoes take the place of where the skin was before it was removed

4. dredge each potato encrusted filet in flour

5. heat 1/2 cup of oil in a cast iron pan over med to med high heat depending on your range

6. place filets potato side down in the pan and cook for 6-8 min

7. flip and cook for 3-5 minutes

8. flip back to potato side and finish to a golden crispy brown

9. finish with a lemon butter sauce and fresh scallions

WHAT A BREAK

It has been weeks since we last conversed indirectly through the expansive technological feat known as the Internet.  There has been reasons, some planned some not, that has led to our tardiness and lack of motivation to publish a blog post. I had a surgical procedure done on my nose and the weather in western NY has been less than optimal most will say.  The conditions have been some of the most brutal spring climate I have seen in years.  Still team GTO has been on the water grinding it out.  From steelies to the trout opener we have plenty of material and pics to bring you multiple posts in the next coming weeks.  

Most of the GTO pro team will be together this week at camp for a half week of trout fishing the Genessee river along with the many small creeks and tribs branching off.  Trout season is in full effect and we plan on landing plenty of fish and having plenty of laughs.  NY state DEC has dumped thousands of hatchery browns and brooks into the waters we fish in Alleghany, Cattaragus, Wyoming, Genessee, Erie, and Niagara counties.  This aggressive stocking plan coupled with beautiful projected weather should lead to plenty of hookups, a great time on the water, and some awesome camp cooked meals.

We have been busy doing some business moving our young company forward during our hiatus also.  We have plans to produce an independent film chronicling our on water adventures this year with possibility of producing a full length DVD and/or YouTube series.  The film will also be an entry into the 2014 fly fishing film festival.  check out their website to learn more about this awesome tour bringing the sport to many around the US and Canada via awesome film makers and fly fisherman alike.  To go along with this we are in talks with Steve Tedesco to help GTO out with filming, editing, film production, etc.  Steve is a highly talented, artistic film maker and photographer.  The way Steve looks at the world and the items in it are no where near how you or me see them.  Having Steve on board highly excites me to get this film project moving along with maybe some test shoots uploaded to YouTube for ya'll to check out.  To view some of Steve's work check out Sonny Westgate Photography on Facebook or check his IMDb.

In the mean time still shots on this awesome blog are gonna have to hold you over.  We'll be back with the next 12-24 hours with various photos and blogs about some on water and upcoming plans for the ole Grilling the Outdoors crew

Thanks

-Bill

Cooperation

When everyone or everything works in unison incredible things can happen. When variables decide to work against one another like oil and water, disaster is eminent. This week at GTO was a week dependent upon cooperation. Cooperation of schedules, cooperation of conditions, presentations, fish activity, you name it things had to line up like Jupiter and the fifth moon from Saturn for us to land a fish.

We were supposed to have three team members attack to niagara again this week, but come Monday morning we were down to two. Josh and myself made our way to Niagara Falls early on in the day so we were sure not to miss a feeding or any high steelhead activity. A deep freeze had moved into the WNY area late last week and was supposed to have moved on by Sunday before our trip, but here we were lugging our gear down into the niagara gorge in a balmy 20 degree temps with 15-20 mph winds making it feel like 10. As we started our decent we quickly realized ice was going to be a contender today. The river was filled with ice chunks breaking off the falls, but was clear, real clear. The current wasn't too bad and we only had one guest with us today. No boats to contend with, we had 200 yds of the bank to ourselves....

And we casted and we floated and we quickly spent the entire today switching setups and hoping and praying and casting.

We were skunked again, but not only were we skunked the three other guys we seen fishing that day were skunked. I witnessed one fish, a lake trout of ok size was caught by a gentleman during the morning on a huge white and pink buck tail jig. That would be it for the entire gorge that day as we talked to more than a done anglers, from multiple access sites along the gorge. The whirlpool and devils hole were full of ice making any sort of fishing impossible and all the way to art park had no action. Zero. Notta. Not a single fish. Plenty of stories of good strikes, but no one landed a fish but one gentleman? Were we all horrible fisherman? I think not,but if we could we would definitely appreciate some more COOPERATION from all factors involved next week in GTO land.

Sunday schmooze

Tomorrow we take to the river that flows from the Niagara.

We skunked once 7 days before, shame on the conditions.

Silver headed ballet battle is what we strive to achieve.

Run of the drag,

screech of the reel.

Addiction is a disease some say. GTO hopes there's no cure for such a disease.

Afflicted....

So we've been like your estranged brothers

It's true we have been gone for ten months. It's true that we wrote and published one entry in this brand new blog and then ran away to the woods to hunt and fish. You're all right and we apologize. We have decided here at team GTO to take things a little more seriously this year and that includes all of our social media outlets. If you follow along on twitter @grillingGTO you have gotten some updates and some photos throughout 2012, now we promise at least a blog a week so you can follow along at home on our adventures throughout WNY enjoying the outdoors.

So starting things off for the new year in blog land we'll talk about last week in GTO life. We've been fishing hard in the WNY area for steelhead and big brown trout in Lakes Erie and Ontario's amazing tributaries. Affectionately known as part of steelhead alley locals know you can hook up with some amazing fish throughout the winter months. Last week took us to the niagara river where action had been hot for the last couple of weeks with some large steelhead, brown trout, and lake trout haven been taken in the last 3 weeks. Most of these fish in the 6-8 lb range with some exceeding 15 pounds.

Expecting good action after striking out in a complete blizzard the week before we arrived to an mid sixties gentleman battling a beautiful chrome dome. After watching the fight go on and the elder statesman become the victor I was pumped to land me a big ole niagara river monster. There was a crowd of bank anglers and a half dozen boats drifting the mighty niagara and for hours we all enjoyed the beautiful weather and that's about it. Of the twenty guys I watched fish either from boat or bank this morning had the same exact luck, cast and tug, cast and drift, cast and nothing. Except a break in the action, could the feeding be coming,
"gentleman fish on", Gary states
Three GTO guys, two hikers, and a few Canadian geese watched as Gary pulled in an amazing 24-26 inch beautifully gold fish colored CARP!!!!
A carp, middle of February fishing artificial chubs in the niagara river under a float and we walked away with a carp that we graciously gave back.

After this omen we had to move on so we packed up, hiked out of the gorge and moved up north to the amazing little town of Lewiston and fished the niagara gorge below Artpark state park. This location wasn't as crowded and we were all able to have our own little spot on the river as there were only two other bank guys and only two drifters for the mile long area that we occupied. A couple of great strikes and bait taken. A couple average sized chromers landed by others within eye sight, but nothing for team GTO. Another strike out two weeks in a row, but were back on the trail again next week......

Bill