There is good and bad news about fall trib fishing in the Finger Lakes IMHO. The salmon can run roughly in October and the browns in November (salmon run earlier than browns). I caught an 8 lbs male Landlocked Salmon in Fall Ck in Oct 2009, which at the time was my biggest LLS. Rainbows and less commonly lakers run in and out of the tribs as well when the water cools - lakes get to 50F more or less in Nov sometime. I have had best incidental fly fishing when lake drops to 50F and the salmonids move into shallower water to feed. The streams are often in gorges that are beautiful in the fall, plus I generally like to visit the Finger Lakes. If the fishing is off I can find plenty to do. The fall runs in the Salmon R have taken much of the pressure off the Finger Lakes runs, so you have more space. I am a fan of the Finger Lakes.
The bad news is that the streams and the runs are small and can be difficult to predict. The fish also seem to move and out quickly. In a drought fall there can be essentially no trib fishery and there are big year - year swings in the runs. While the LLS are supposed to run in October and the browns in November, they run when conditions are right so there is plenty of variation in the timing of the run. Therefore, I never make long range plans to fish the Finger Lake tribs and go up when conditions are right. I am retired and can do that. A rise of water will cause fish to move in and a few days afterwards as the levels drop is the time to go. There is a USGS station for Fall Ck in Ithaca: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ny/nwis/uv?site_no=04234000 that gives a good idea of what is happening. While the fishing is up and down, when a pod of fresh salmon are in a pool in front of you all is right with the world.
All sorts of trib tactics work and most anything that works in the Great Lakes tribs will work in the Finger lakes tribs as well. Buggers, swung wets, nymphs, and egg patterns all do the trick. Use a tribs tactic you are comfortable with. The one local tactic is to swing olive buggers or streamers in front of fish. The Finger Lakes tribs have spawning runs of smallmouth and they are filled with aggressive YOY smallies in the fall. The local theory is that these juvenile smallmouth annoy the spawning salmonids and they take swipes at them to protect their redds. The 8 lbs LLS I caught fell to a swung olive wool head sculpin.
There is also a small group of people who like to swing classic Atlantic salmon flies for LLS to get the full old school experience.
I have heard BS over the decades that the Finger Lakes tribs fish aren't spooky and you can walk right up to them. In my experience the people who catch more than their fair share do a lot of recon and stalk the fish very carefully.
