Ninemile is seeded generously -- some might say too generously -- with more than 20,000 trout annually by the Onondaga County-owned Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery. Some 80 to 90 percent of those fish are browns; and, perhaps one-fourth of the browns are plump 2-year-olds.

Yet from June 15 through the end of the season in mid-October, I guarantee that at least two-thirds of the trout you catch in Ninemile Creek will be wild. The pressure is simply too much for most of the stockers to last the spring.

Lately, Ninemile has also acquired a bit of reputation for rainbow trout. Last season, I caught ‘bows up to 13 inches long in the creek, and the year before that, I reeled in a 20-incher.

Amazingly enough, these sleek, high-jumping trout seem to be of natural origin, with vibrant colors and perfectly formed fins that put their hatchery cousins to shame.

State biologists don’t know where they came from, but suspect they migrated out of Seneca Lake or Cayuga Lake into the Seneca River, swam east to the Onondaga Lake outlet, then entered the lake and finally shot up Ninemile Creek. My 20-incher, which had spawned before I captured it in April 2005, looked remarkably like a wild Finger Lakes rainbow.

In any case, the presence of these silversides makes Ninemile even more desirable to trout fishers.

The creek parallels Route 174 from Otisco Lake through the towns of Marcellus and Camillus before veering north toward Amboy and Onondaga Lake. Early in the season, fishing for stocked trout is very good south of the village of Marcellus. But after early June, the better water by far will be found from the vicinity of Marcellus Falls down to Camillus, where a series of large limestone springs infuse the creek with cold water all summer long.

Early-season fishing in Ninemile Creek can be productive with live bait or artificial nymphs, depending on water level and clarity. In April of 2006, fly-fishing was better than usual because heavy hatches of tiny black stoneflies (Capnia gracilaria, matched by No. 16 nymph and dry patterns) caused resident fish to strap on their feedbags. At month’s end, excellent midge hatches triggered some surface feeding in the flat water upstream from Camillus, too.

Ninemile Creek is about 10 minutes from downtown Syracuse. Take Route 690 west to Route 5, turn left off the Camillus-Marcellus exit ramp. Turn right at the stoplight and then take a quick left onto Route 174.

For more information on trout-fishing opportunities in western New York, contact the DEC’s field offices in Region 9 at (716) 372-0645, Region 8 at (585) 226-2466, or Region 7 at (315) 607-7053.

Think you need help finding lodging and other amenities while visiting the streams mentioned above? Just contact the state Tourism Department at 1-800-I-LOVE-NY, and ask for brochures on Cattaraugus, Ontario, Cayuga and Onondaga counties.