Simms Artist Series is now featuring the work of Andrea Larko. We recently caught up with Andrea talked about art and fishing. When she isn’t working she can often be found on the river, or tying flies
What type of flies do you like to fish out in your area?
Come the spring I like to fish a lot of dries, and I fish some wets and do some Nymphing. But I’m not the best at Nymphing. I don’t know if I just haven’t figured it out or what, because I’m mainly self taught so (laughs).
I gotcha, I just started in the last year or so.
Really, I think the first year and a half I only caught one or two fish. I just didn’t quite have it figured out. But once it clicks and you get the flow of it, you figure it out really quickly. But I’m not the best caster in the world by any stretch of the mean. I think I get a pretty good dead drift going on. I’ve figured out how to present the fly to the fish so they want to eat it. I fish a lot of the same streams all the time throughout the spring, summer and fall. Mainly through the fall and the winter I go brown trout fishing and King salmon fishing in New York. This is the first year I’m trying to go Steelhead fishing so I tied up a bunch of Decoteau’s and Senyo’s flies that I saw on Steelhead Alley Outfitters, but I haven’t had a chance to fish those yet. I can’t wait to put them in the water.
Where are you going to fish for Steelhead?
I went a few days ago up to the Cattaraugus to go with my dad and sister but we couldn’t find any stream gages before we went up there, and when we got there it was totally blown out. There were four people in the water and they weren’t fishing they were getting their gear and getting ready to leave. So we drove three hours for nothing, but we ended up going antiquing and it was fun anyway. I want to try and go to Lake Erie this winter and see how that goes. I also want to go to Steelhead Alley, 18 Mile, and 20 Mile and see what all the big fuss is about. I see pictures all the time online of all the beautiful fish they pull out of there and I would love to catch one. I think that would be a lot of fun.
What are your favorite spots to fish that you don’t mind talking about?
There are probably three or four streams that are within five miles of my house that I like to fish. A lot of them have wild trout in them. So I fish there when the weather’s nice four or five days a week even if I can only get out for a half an hour. But other than that I like to go to the yellow creek trout club. I mean they stock fish, but the trout there are huge and they have such a variety and there are never the crowds that are often at the other places close to where I live. I go fishing there a lot and it’s a lot of fun. I caught my first tiger trout there this year so that was cool.
What is your most memorable catch?
I went Salmon fishing three or four years ago and everyone was fishing on the side of the stream, no bank fishing everyone was just standing in two lanes down the middle and fishing the banks right around the edges where the deep water was. I turned around to walk to the other side and I look in front of me and there are three absolutely huge brown trout sitting in probably 8 inches of water. I was saying to myself “oh my gosh I hope nobody sees this”… I put a couple of casts out, and on the third cast I got it out to the one in the front in his mouth and I caught him. That was definitely the biggest brown trout I’ve ever caught. It was just beautiful. I was so excited. I would have to say that was my best catch. I was elated and couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t until my first or second year fly fishing that I actually had a drift that went where I wanted it to go. I figured out the flow of the water, how much weight I needed. I mean, that took me a long time to figure out. I was really excited. It was definitely my best catch.
What would be your favorite fly fishing destination to visit?
I really want to visit Alaska.
The fishing there is supposed to be like nowhere else in the world.
That’s what I hear because I have friends from all over the world on my Facebook page. Most of my Facebook feed isn’t even in English anymore. I see all these photographs of people from all over- in Alaska, British Columbia, and down in Brazil. It just makes me think of all the places I want to go. It makes me want to work harder because I know I’ll get there; it will just take time. It gives me more reasons to work as much as I can every day. From when I wake up until the time I go to bed I’m doing something with my business. Either sending stuff out, marketing, posting to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Etsy, taking photographs, doing research on new pieces, [and drafting] contracts. The drawing portion of what I do is really only 10% of what I do between taxes, buying inventory. I wish I could just draw and hire someone for everything else. Check out more of her work on her Etsy at andrealarko.etsy.com on instagram @andrealarko , her website andrealarko.com or on Facebook facebook.com/artbyandrealarko
