Trout Scout Fish Kill Creek, Ithaca, NY

I threw both my 7wt switch and 3 wt in the van when I packed for Emma's unofficial trip to Cornell this past weekend hoping that I'd get a chance to wet a line in either Fall Creek as it cut through Ithaca or Enfield Creek just south of the Ithaca on Route 13.  After a long but great day I lay my weary head to sleep in Horseheads, NY and I didn't think that I'd be up for fishing in the morning. I had to be back at Cornell for a meeting at 1100, but as morning dawned my spirits were rejuvenated and I was off.   I'd checked out Fall Creek the day before and didn't see any anglers which told me that the river-sized creek (and gorge) was GORGEOUS, but hadn't been stocked recently.  

I set my sights on Enfield Creek which my e-snooping indicated was stocked with browns and rainbows and may have brookies in its upper reaches.   Finding Enfield Creek was easy, its located in Robert Newman Park on Rt 13 just inside the Ithaca town line.  Enfield Creek looked promising, rocky bottom with a decent flow as it cut through the bedrock so I pulled into the ranger station for free advice.   The ranger, knowledgeable and happy company,  let me know that they'd recently done a water survey and hadn't found any brookies in Enfield Creek but that there were both stocked and hold-over browns and rainbows.  Normally I would have tried my luck for either, but as I'd brought up brookies he showed me a feeder creek (Fish Kill Creek) he thought held brookies in its upper reaches.  With good directions and a fresh cup of coffee I made my way to 'Lucifer Falls' where Fish Kill Creek joins Enfield Creek with directions to hike up a trail astride Fish Kill Creek for .5 miles before I started prospecting for brookies.  Problem: Lucifer Falls (the bottom of Fish Kill Creek) was too beautiful to pass up so I spent my 45-minutes fishing time working the lower portion of the creek, scaling mid-sized waterfalls and looking for pools.  

I found my first trout in a 20x30 plunge pool as a small fella came up and swirled on my 16 Adams, but never struck.  I suspect it might have been a brown as I couldn't cajole another strike pool after repeated good-presentations.  I continued upstream and found a half dozen trout ranging from 5-7 inches in a long 2-4" deep cut-bank-hole, but as I spooked them and their lair was protected by a cast-catching overhang I couldn't get them interested in my offerings.  With time expiring and Emma waiting for me I turned tail to get back to Cornell.  There are obviously fish here, brookies I suspect, and if and when we come back to the area I'll hit this again.  Next time I'll walk up the Finger Lakes Trail which starts on the backside of the Old Mill and begin fishing the first pool where we I had a strike them prospect upstream from there.