It’s only been recently that I began checking out the online kayak fishing community. Doing so has already resulted in my meeting and getting to know some fine people, with Kevin, the founder of Fishgator foremost among them.

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet and benefit from the local fishing knowledge of yet another kayak fisherman in the Rochester, NY, Area. A joking private message to John Franchot resulted in an invitation to come along with him to fish for steelhead trout in some Lake Ontario tribs. I accepted and despite the usual trepidation about meeting online acquaintances in person, numerous and prominent pictures of John with large fish on several fishing forums convinced me that meeting him might indeed be worthwhile. I was not disappointed.

John Franchot posing with a nice locally-caught salmon.

Having moved from Oklahoma to NY going on six years ago and spending most of my fishing days since in the still waters of the Finger Lakes, I had not yet had the opportunity to go after steelhead. I was also really excited to have the chance to get into some fishable water after this long and very cold winter.

John advised what I would need in terms of rod and reel and described the terminal tackle that we would be using and which he said that he would provide for me. We met at his home early Saturday morning and after getting introduced, headed out to one of the regions many trout-filled tributaries that John frequents.

Upon arriving, John proceeded to set my rig up in a very specific fashion for drift fishing. I’m not used to having someone else set up my terminal tackle, but listened attentively has he deftly attached float, sinkers, and hook to the line and leader while explaining the reasons for each component. We then headed out into the creek and walked up to a promising spot and then John carefully demonstrated the proper technique.

The creek had several other anglers on it and we moved from spot to spot with John evaluating my technique and providing helpful hints and tips the whole time. We had the same luck as most of the other anglers that we encountered that morning (zip), but throughout the morning, investigated two other tributaries.

At the last creek that we visited, I had a bite, but didn’t hook up. We moved to another spot that John said had produced a large fish and found it occupied by a fly fisherman. John struck up a friendly discussion and after politely asking, the other angler offered to slide downstream and let us ply the deeper water with our rigs. After a few minutes, John hooked up with a really LARGE fat-tailed steelhead. I pulled my line out of the pool to make room and the fish headed downstream. In an effort to keep clear of the friendly fly fisherman, John horsed the fish a bit to hard and lost it. We tried again for a few minutes and then headed back to John’s house to end the morning.

Among anglers, it is rare to find a person who is so willing to share their knowledge of the sport without expectation of personal gain. John is a great guy who I enjoyed fishing with and learning from.  It wasn’t kayak fishing - hard to do right now because of ice-covered lakes - but it was fishing nevertheless.  I look forward to hitting the water again with john sometime in the near future - perhaps next time will be in kayaks!

By the way, John is also a master at cleaning, repairing, and customizing reels. In addition to his day job, he has a business called Reel Smooth Reels and specializes in Daiwa, Shimano, Abu Garcia, Plueger, Quantum, and JDM reels. John is also an active member of the Flower City Sportsmen in Rochester, NY.