Sorry for the long Hiatus but I've been on a four day out of town fishing extravaganza. There will be more pics and reports to follow.
I
had a great weekend, probably the best fishing weekend of my season
so far. I met up with my great friend Robert Lewis of Rob's
Realistic's in Roscoe. For those who don't know thats “Trout Town”
USA in the heart of the Catskills, the birthplace and undisputed home
of all around dry fly fishing in the lower 48. I know there are many
of you who would dispute this but the storied traditions and folklore
of fly fishing run deep here in the Delaware system and anyone who
has spent a good amount of time here can attest to that.
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| Geared up and ready for saturday morning |
I had come into town on Friday night
and like many anglers I made Roscoe my base camp. The rivers looked
great but like most of my other trips late Friday night the storm hit
and turned the rivers into raging muddy torrents. I was nervous about
seeing what the West Branch looked like. Rob spun into town on
Saturday morning and met up with me to get things started. We got the
day going by doing a casting demo for a good friend who had new fly
fisherman visiting his property and than we wasted no time shooting
down the road to Hancock, NY. Hancock is the base of operations for
most people who fish the West Branch of the Delaware because its
location is in close proximity to most of the the good boat launches
on this system.
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| Heading down to the casting demo |
When
we got our first look at the river we were happy to see we had about
eight inches of visibility as long as you stayed within three feet of
the bank and we both knew the game immediately. These are prime
conditions for streamer fishing, and in my opinion the best time to
fish this water. The big browns that made the D famous are giant,
aggressive, nasty, mean spirited fish that love to eat giant chunks
of meat and when the water is like that it pushes them into the banks
where they are easy to fish to.
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| Muddy Water |
I
knew the day was made withing 200 yards of the launch. I was putting
flies up on the bank as close as I could get them and I was doing a
pretty good job when I got the first freight train hit within sight
of the truck. I managed to land the fish which actually turned out to
be only nineteen inches but he was a solid fish with the biggest
shoulders I have ever seen, he was a brick shithouse.
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| Big Fish 200 yards from the launch |
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| Releasing the monster |
The rest of the
day was tough but Rob stayed on the oars and I stayed on the stick
and we worked hard to move a few more fish. After about four more
hours I decided to cast to the center of a riffle in a very wide
section of the river because of a slight change in visibility in a
small spot that was redirecting the sediment flowing downriver and
SLAM. My fly which is huge by the way got hammered by a nice fish
which than jumped at least three times. He turned out to be only
around 17 inches but again, big and full shouldered more so than most
fish I have seen in this system. This fish also had beautiful colors
and the most pristine fins I have ever seen on a fish.
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| 2nd Nice fish |
In
the end we worked hard all day and picked off two nice fish and it
felt great to be rewarded. The next day we woke up to bluebird skies,
calmer wind and really good water clarity. Our friend John drove up
to fish with us and we figured the great conditions would turn on the
dry fly bite that's been sporadic so far. Needless to say the wind
ended up not cooperating and the bugs never happened for us, I think
we saw two rises in a 7 hour float. We did manage to move a few fish
on nymphs but no connections. For me all that did was make the first
two all that sweeter. I love the streamer bite and I fish them a ton
now. You really feel rewarded when you stick a fish and when you do,
he's going to be a serious specimen.
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| Beautiful day on Sunday |
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| Great pool for dries, but it never happened |
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| Golden Stone |
Croton River report to come...
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