First Columbia Basin stillwater trout experience

It’s that time of the year again, a time when spring can’t make up its mind between winter and summer.  Mud season is in full swing, Ice out is happening in some areas, and the ever present ear wigs come out in my backyard trying to sneak inside.  Here in Central Washington the wind is blowing, sun shining, and lakes are fishing quite well and only getting better.  I’m not going to mislead you, I only started fishing lakes because I could only play so much Call of Duty in a 24 hr period and my local river was unfishable.  I had to get my fish on somewhere.  So a few weeks ago a friend suggested I check out a desert lake about two hours drive from home.  I always tend to follow the rule that you should spend more time fishing then driving.  So I waited for the weekend and packed up the camping gear and headed out.  I showed up at sunrise, assembled my gear including float tube and kicked my way in reverse. I looked around and realized that I had the whole lake to myself.  I took this as a good sign.   I hadn’t done a lot of Stillwater fishing up to this point so I was just going off of suggestions from friends and research that I did online.  I was told to troll a leech pattern on an intermediate line on my way to the opposite end of the lake.    During my 10 min leg workout I could feel some hits but kept missing them and never hooked up for more than a second.  I took that as another positive sign. Upon arriving at the spot I was told to start deep nymphing some chronomids I stowed the streamer rod and broke out nymphing rig.   Within two minutes my indicator went under and I was fighting a frisky 15 inch rainbow that refused to stay in the water.  After releasing the bird in a fish’s body, I kept at it and soon landed two more.  At about 20 minutes into it I started noticing a flotilla of float tubes, pontoon boats, and small boats with trolling motors making their way toward me.  It felt like I was watching the Allied invasion from the wrong end.  As it turned out I didn’t see the sign that said fishing is allowed starting at 0630, not the 30 minute prior to sunrise thing like I’m used to.  As it also turned out, the day I decided to fish was the opener for a lot of surrounding lakes. This would play a role in finding a campsite later that day.  I kept fishing my 18ft nymph rig with slip indicator and chronomid imitations and only landed two more.  As soon as someone would notice that I was hooked up, they would not so subtlety make their way over to the area I was working.  I guess personal fishing space is lost on these guys and no one was having any luck. So what the heck, they must be over where that guy is.  This wasn’t a very large lake and there were clearly over 25 various craft on the water.  The fish must have thought a new species of large birds had landed and took up residence.   I switched back to the leech rig and kicked to an area that had the least amount of “ass hat” to water ratio.  The wind started to kick up and within the couple of hours I was there, the wind went from glassy to choppy with small waves breaking over the sides of my tube.  I was already satisfied that I had a successful trip by lunch time and decided to go look for a campsite, fully intending to return at dusk for round two.   I kicked back through gale force winds only to find my truck almost trapped by other vehicles.  I threw the gear into the truck and made my seventeen point turn to go back the way I had come. Driving down the road there were many more people headed to the put-in with their float tubes and fly rods.  Unbeknown to me the day I decided to go was the opener for other nearby lakes.   It was then I realized that I wouldn’t be camping legally anywhere near this lake.  Every campsite I visited they pretty much laughed when I asked if they had any campsites available.  I was at a crossroads.  Do I stay or call it a day.  I was pretty tired already; I hadn’t slept the night before in anticipation of fishing a new area, tying flies, and possibly some Call of Duty.  I decided the best course of action was to return another time so as to not deal with the “rubber hatch.”   Whenever I hear the term rubber hatch I think of condoms emerging from the water and flying away.  Just me? Never mind then.  I chalked it up to a life lesson and made the drive home, almost breaking the fishing time to driving time ratio.  So that was my first time on a desert lake and it wouldn’t be my last.  Since then I’ve  fished several others and have had decent success on both subsurface and dries.  I’ll save that one for the next time with instructional tips and pictures. Till next time “Honey Badger don’t give a S%$#”

    Is it weird that I select a smaller numeral for font size thinking it‘ll be bigger like hook sizes?

Categories:

Carpin 101 : Gear and Flies

I have been getting questions lately about the carp fishing I have been doing from people wanting some tips, fly selections, etc. My fishing tempo has been in high gear the last month so I have not had time to do any informational posts so this will be the first in a series of posts I will force myself to sit down and write. This first post will focus on the fish themselves as well as gear and fly selection. Ill go into more detail about feeding flies to them in future posts.
Carp fishing gets a bad wrap because of a lot of things, whether its the places they live, the food they eat, or just the fish themselves a lot of people have a hard time getting past the rough exterior (pun intend) to get out and chase these fish.

Carp often live in less than desirable fishing locations which add to their bad reputation

I can lay some of this to rest right now by assuring you that in the opinion of someone who has caught almost all of north america's freshwater gamefish, carp pull pretty damn hard. In fact, given room to fight this is one of the strongest fish pound for pound you can catch in the lower 48. Add that to the fact that these fish are incredibly intelligent, or well adapted depending on how you look at it, and you have a fish that will challenge you and reward you at every turn.
Often when I mention how selective carp can be when I'm fly fishing people scoff at the idea. Most people have memories catching them on doughballs or bread crust at the local pond. I can attest to this, carp are suckers for any type of bait. You have to take into account the fact that carp rely heavily on their sense of smell (that's right I said smell) while feeding. It is widely believed that when selecting food items they turn to their sense of smell. vibration, and sight in that order when deciding whether to eat something or not. As fly fisherman, we cannot satisfy their scent requirement without cheating so we can only entice them through vibration or movement and sight.
Carp see extremely well so your fly patterns need to be very suggestive and their lateral line is very strong so they can detect movement with precision so its also important to make sure you don't over do it with your retrieve as well as making sure your cast is close enough to the fish to be effective yet far enough not to spook them. With these facts in mind you can start to see how the combination of factors would make carp very difficult to fly fish for and I didn't even mention sound and taste yet.

GEAR
I want to talk about what to bring with you on a carp fishing trip because I have found that most guys go out with all the wrong gear. Big carp, like big fish of any other species didn't get that way by being dumb so good leaders of proper length and material are key. I always fish a 12ft fluorocarbon leader when fishing in clear water to keep the line as far from the fish as possible. I build my own from straight Seaguar flouro and I vary the recipe based on the size of flies I am wanting to turn over.  I use the Borger system so I will generally make my leaders with 5 feet 15lb,  2 feet 12lb, 5 feet 8lb. For heavier flies or murky water I use 5 feet 40lb, 2 feet 30lb, 5 feet 20lb. It seems like that leader system is heavy and that's because it is, I don't find the fish to be shy of fluorocarbon systems and if you do manage to get into a bigger fish you'll be glad you have a heavy line to reign the fish in if necessary.

Fishing for carp in clear water calls for appropriate leaders

One of the mistakes I see guys make on a regular basis is going out for carp seriously under-gunned. If you are in a location with even the possibility of a bigger fish you shouldn't be out with anything less than a seven weight, preferably an eight or a nine weight. A large carp will seriously test your gear and you simply wont be able to land a big fish on a 6 weight or less without stressing the fish to the max and you definitely wont be able to do it alone. You also want to make sure you have  good drag system. If your'e fishing a large enough piece of water carp have the potential to tear you into your backing every time.
The other mistake I see people make is in their clothing. These fish see well and you just can't get away with bright colors as well as you might think. I always wear dark colors or shades of blue. You can catch fish wearing anything you want but try it both ways and you will notice a significant increase in your success rates.

FLIES
Carp flies are somewhat specialized but chances are you already have some effective flies in your boxes. Carp are omnivorous in that they eat both plant and animals but I have found that the most effective flies are what I call bottom crawling flies. Carp flies for your everyday fishing need to do two things, they need to sink fast and they need to ride hook up to avoid fouling and increase hook ups. I have found that crayfish flies work very well and a good portion of my flies all resemble a crayfish on some level. Worms are another big food source so you cannot go wrong with the San Juan or any variation of one. Another group of flies I like to use are damsel flies and dragon flies. Remember, the main key is that your fly gets to the bottom quickly so you can get it accurately in front of feeding fish. Here are a few photos of some carp flies that I carry.

Carp Crack

Egan's Headstand

Ritt's Fighting Craw

McTage's Foam Trouser Worm

Categories: Awesomeness, Carp, Fly Fishing, Fly Patterns, Leader, Tips

Best day this year in less than the best conditions

This is the fourth of many Carp fishing posts and though this is yet another report there will be an informational post about the fishing coming very soon.
This trip was different in that it came with less than ideal conditions. The water clarity was good but the overcast skies and stiff breeze made spotting fish very difficult. What I did find however that if I was patient and staked out a spot and waited very patiently. Fish would cruise back into the banks where they were hiding out. The good thing about it was that in my experience fish on the banks feed very well and even the fish who were not on the banks were much less spooky. The downside was that since I could not see the fish well in most cases I had to fish flies much slower than my already slow pace which made detecting strikes very difficult. For many of the fish I could not visually or physically detect the take so I had to slowly drag the fly an inch or two with the rod tip every few seconds to make sure I had no action.
This type of fishing proved to be very successful but I certainly did not tempt any of the big fish in my favorite new carp pond. For this type of fishing I turned to a popular fly on the web that provides a lot of movement. I chose "McTage's Foam Trouser Worm" in yellow, one of several colors I tie it in and which can be found on his blog here. This fly has great action especially when given movement or when fished in an area that has any current at all which plays out in my fishing.

McTage's Foam Trouser Worm

The this day actually started out hot this day and I had steady action all day. In my carp fishing expeditions steady is not a word I would have used in the past but you can be sure I will search out these conditions again.

This first fish came right off the bat and unlike the others this day he came from the center of the pond. I was able to spot him with a few of his buddies through what refer to as a small "window" and he was actively tailing. I cast past the small school and brought the fly back into them. The fish showed no interest so I let it sit for a minute and gave it a small twitch. He immediately swam over to the fly and gave it a very long inspection. Long enough that I took my eyes off him for a second and as soon as I did he sucked it up and immediately took off hooking himself. Not the size I look for but a lot of fun nonetheless.

This next fish was a cool eat because he was a very happy bank eater. I spotted this fish while walking around the pond and unfortunately put the fly right on him for which he promptly took off. I was patient though and after only a few seconds he came right back and took up his position. I waited around thirty seconds and dragged the fly with the rod a few inches and he moved a good five feet in a flash to take the fly without hesitation. Not my biggest fish but this guy was all muscle and put up an awesome fight. Here is a video short as always in which you can see how slowly I was moving the fly if at all, plus it's always cool to just see some fishing footage.

Carpocolapse from Get Em Wet on Vimeo.

Categories: Awesomeness, Carp, Fly Fishing, FlyCarpin, McTage

Introduction

     Well I guess I should thank Matt for inviting me to contribute. I should also apologize for not doing it sooner. It's hard to sit down at a computer when the fishings hot and there's empty spaces in the fly boxes.  I guess I'll start with a mini Bio first.  Matt has gotten most of the high points down as far as who I am and where I come from.
     Grew up in Hawaii and was addicted to fishing from the very beginning.  Spent most weekends growing up catching anything that could swim in Pearl Harbor with a cane pole.  Eventually graduated to exploring the reefs and sandy beaches on Oahu with spinning and casting gear.  A little after highschool I took up spearfishing and put down the rods.
    After joining the Army I was stationed in NC where I took up fishing for bass and catfish to fill the gaping hole left by being transplanted from my home island.  It was during this time that I was first introduced to the world of fly fishing.  A buddy of mine invited me to the Great Smoky Mountains for a weekend of trout fishing using fly tackle.  I'm not going to lie here folks, at first I was hesitant to give fly fishing a try.  "You mean catching those little fish using that girly long rod and whipping it back and forth?" I mused. Against my better judgement I said what the hell and went along on the trip   He provided everything minus the waders, which I rented locally.  After a brief description and impromptu casting lesson, I was pointed out a fishy looking run and told to go forth and apply what I had learned.  The proverbial "trial by fire."  Not completely sure what I was doing I gave it a try and low and behold, I landed my first trout!  This wasn't some majestic 20 inch brown caught on a 22 bwo dry fly during an evening hatch.  It was a 13 inch stocked brown trout caught on a gold hare's ear nymph around noon.  But the experience stuck with me and awakened some unseen force within me.  Little did I know that a simple invitation and single stocked trout would alter my fishing path forever. Man I make it sound like I'm about to go on some epic journey to throw the one ring into the fires of mount doom. But that's neither here or there.  Where was I?  Immediately following that trip I ordered an entire setup of fly rod, reel, net, waders, even a spiffy vest for my one flybox of around a dozen storebought flies.  I knew that I wanted to give this fly fishing thing a real go at it.  I attempted to flyfish at every chance I got.  I tried to reproduce that first experience in the smokies like a junkie chasing that first high. Soon after that I was shipped off to Honduras for a year where the flyrod collected dust.  Yes I know what your're all thinking.  I didn't know you could fly fish in the ocean. It was later that I learned  Honduras is home to some of the best salt water fly angling in the world.  I'm still kicking myself in the butt to this day.  I chalked it up as a life lesson and moved on since then.
      After my tour in Honduras I found myself in upstate NY, which looked nothing like New York City.  Give me a break I grew up on an island in the Pacific and hadn't traveled outside of the state.  Everything I knew about NY came from TV and movies.  I quickly learned that New York is considered the birthplace of American Fly Fishing and is home to some world famous rivers and creeks.  What better place to begin my journey to Fly Fishing fanatasicm.  I was stationed at Ft. Drum, which is conviently located at the doorstep of Adirondack Park.  It was here that I met Matt working behind the counter of a fly shop in Lake Placid.  We quickly became friends after learning he was a Army engineer with the NY National Guard.  After that I'd make the drive to fish on the weekends on the West  Branch of the Ausable.  Matt also introduced me to Smallie fishing in the Saranac Lake region.  Along the way I was introduced to several other Fly Fisherpeople who I consider Mentors and friends including Rachel Finn, Mike Gray, Evan Bottcher, Wayne Walts and Al Conklin of Troutfitter in syracuse, and  Vince Wilcox.  I was also fortunate to fish for stripers off the coast. If  I couldn't  fish in the Adirondacks I would head south to the Salmon river and fish for lake run steelhead and salmon.  Under the tutelage of Malinda of Malinda's fly shop and several staff members of Whittaker's fly shop, I became familiar with fishing  the great lakes tributaries.I was stationed in NY for five years but actually physically present in the state for 3 years due to overseas deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Those two years spent in the desert didn't hinder my thirst.  I focused my efforts on fly tying and casting using real rods and an echo practice rod.  After returning from my most recent tour in Afghanistan I spent the fall and part of the winter of 2011 fishing my old haunts in which would become my last season in NY.  I sadly said goodbye to my friends and started a new chapter by driving all the way across the US to Washington State.
     So now I find myself here in the present, exploring the West and applying what I'd learned from my former Jedi masters.  I've realized I'm learning something everyday out here.  I've linked up with new fishing friends young and old alike.  Stefan Woodruff, Craig Hettinger, Craig Chittenden, John Hughes, and others that have grown up in the West and have fished the Columbia drainage for years.  I've been able to fish a tailwater in Colorado and plan to fish in Montana this summer.  I call my homewaters the Yakima River and it's tributaries. Within our area there are plenty opportunites to tangle with bass, crappie, and other various warm water species.  There are nearby basin lakes which hold hard fighting rainbows, browns and the occasional tiger trout.  As well as the world famous western steelhead rivers on the other side of the Cascade range. 
    So that's who I am and my current journey leading up to this point in my fly fishing career.  Hopefully I can pass along some experiences and tips that have aided me and my quest for the perfect fish.  Once again thanks to Matt for allowing me to babble on his blog about my obsession with fly fishing.  At this point I'm suppossed to make some kind of catchy sign off statement.  Like "stay classy San Diego." I haven't thought of one yet, but for now I'll leave you with "Honey Badger don't give a S*&%."

Categories: Awesomeness, Introducing, Pro Staff

Carpin 3: Its officially an Urban Assault

If you've read the blog the last two days you can see I have been doing some carp fishing. Its been so good that I decided to put in work for the third day. This time I armed myself with an arsenal of actual carp flies and I brought backup. My friend Mike came along with me and good thing too because without him I could not have landed at least one of the fish and I certainly wouldn't have good photos.

All in all today was good. I picked up a small fish on a wiggle nymph not too long after we we got there but unfortunately things slowed down for quite a while after that.

Small fish on a wiggle nymph

In the down time after that fish Mike and I fished our little hearts out taking hundreds of shots at fish without too much interest at all. Mike was fishing the far bank when he noticed a little gosling stuck in a hole near the bank and after a quick rescue we had a new buddy for the day. That seemed to turn things around because not too long after that I hooked up a nice fish on a crayfish.

Our good luck charm

This fish almost swallowed the clawdad I threw at it

After the release it took a solid hour to get any more action but it was worth the wait. I was eyeing up a really nice fish all day but he was pretty spooky. I could see him feeding but a fly put within 20 feet of him sent him running. I waited for the fish to cruise around and I put the fly right where he had been feeding. Sure enough a few minutes later he came back and I gave the fly a twitch...nothing. I let it sit for maybe another 15 seconds watching him root around and then I saw the line twitch. I can actually say everything went right on this fish and he turned out to be my largest carp yet, a true dinosaur and a good way to end the day.

Monster fish late in the day

Look at the shoulders on this brute

Categories: Awesomeness, Carp, Fly Fishing

Carpin Part 2 : Flats style carp fishing

Well I had some time to burn in town today between chores so I decided to do some carp fishing again. This time I did it right and asked someone where to go, with very little coaxing required he gave up this spot and when I got there I was stunned at what I saw.

As soon as I arrived this is what I see the second I get out of the car

I was stunned that he gave this place up but I was happy as ever. The water was crystal clear, shallow, and packed full of carp. They were very spooky and it got worse as they day went on but in the end I managed to fool three and land one.

Had this all day

The fish were spooky as I said before but 15 foot leaders and small flies proved out. The best method today was to target the cruisers and get your fly fifteen feet ahead, as soon as the fish got about two feet out and small twitch usually got at least a look. One thing for sure, I will be back soon!

This was my fishing buddy today, she was very patient with me

Here is a quick video montage of me blowing it on the pond today, best viewed in full screen so you can see the fish better and get a feel for the fishing in this awesome place

Categories: Awesomeness, Carp, Fly Fishing

Carpin!

Carpin Grounds

So I went out and actually targeted carp today all by their lonesome. Trout fishing has been slow but I wanted to get out anyhow, and after seeing a few carp on my last outing to the Black I figured there may be a few more there this time. My logic turned out to be spot on, the water held many carp and I hooked into two very very large fish but I wasn't able to bring them in. THere were still a ton of Suckers in the river but I managed to stay away from them for the most part, landed a few here and there but Im figuring out how to not catch them in that river. One fish I couldn't keep off the line however was bullhead which is new to me, I hadn't seen them in this location before and they were eager to eat the fly.

Couldn't keep the bullhead off

I also managed to hook into a nice bass that ate my big black stone but he was very lethargic so I didn't even take him out of the water. For you toothy guys like myself there were also  ton of pike and pickerel in the river too. I will probly head back this week to try to get revenge on the carp I will keep you posted

Another pesky sucker

I swear I did not stage this

Categories: Awesomeness, Bullhead, Carp, Pike, Suckers

Early Season Brookies

I have been setting out on a fishing adventure just about every single day here now but I wanted to take a break from the steellheading and brown trout trips for a day to get out for brookies. I decided to check out a new creek and I was not dissapointed. Being so close to Fort Drum I wasnt surprised to see a few people but again, not surprisingly when I got a few hundred yards from the access point there wasnt a soul in sight. It was a very beautiful stream with a small smattering of brookies and plenty of other small fish species. I was happy to see that it has a good amount of feeders and appears to be well shaded too. I will definately be visiting here again in the early summer.

Categories: Awesomeness, Brook Trout, Chub, Fly Fishing, New York, Small Streams, Trout

Getting My Fix Updated w/Pic!!!

      I went out last evening to hopefully run into a spinner fall at the EB of the Croton in Brewster, NY.  I fished an area that I have been scouting for sometime now, in hopes of tangling one of the big brown that I have seen.  The spinners never fell, but I was able to manage 2 before I decided to call it quits.  I was able to find some trout who were feeding sporadically.  Made 2 good presentations on each and landed both.  Both fish smashed the rusty I had on, and fought hard.  Got home a little early to help my wife put the kids to sleep.  Tonight its off to The Angler's Den to teach an introduction to saltwater fly fishing and tying class, then going on the hunt for some spring stripers!

*Update;  The spring striper scene is still goning strong, the fish are feeding on herring, and they are starting their migration to the lower Housatonic River and to the LIS. Saturday night is was a lot of fu to watch schools of herring geting smashed by hungry stripers!!!



Saturday night Stripes!

Categories: Brown Trout, Bugs, Dry Flies, English Angling Trappings, Fishing, Fishing Report, Fly Fishing, Hungry Trout, New York, Saltwater, stripe bass

Trip to "The Sink"

     I took a day trip with my Uncle Robert and met up with Anthony on The Neversink River.  When I arrived caddis were hatching and flying around.  The fish were cooperative as they took our X-Caddis flies willingly.  At times the bugs were so think, they were hitting us in the face, climbing in my sleeves, sitting on my hat, and it was like it was snowing caddis.  The caddis definitely invaded the entire Catskill System over the weekend.  It was nice to get my uncle into and land a nice 16"  brown with in 5 minutes of getting into the water, kind of takes the pressure off a little!  The caddis were out in force almost all day long, right up till dark.  There were tan, apple, black, and brown.  We were hoping for a Hendrickson hatch, but they have been going strong, and it really never happened. It started, and duns were on the water, but the fish never did turn on.  I did manage one on a sz. 14 Hendrickson Dry.  We did nymph up a couple, mostly on tan wiggle stones, but the sporadict rises made it very hard to focus on nymphing.  We hit a lull around 6:30 pm, and Anthony was just about to get ready to call it quits, because we didn't see much action.  As soon as he started to move out of his spot, a big fish started rising.  I knew we would be there until dark! Good thing we stayed because there was a nice spinner fall, and we were locked and loaded again, mostly smaller fish.  I lost a nice fish that was feeding on the far bank in a little cove made by a tree.  I must have made about 20 casts to get the drift just right, and he whacked it pretty good.  After a few strong runs, he broke me off. After all that work, and a take he was gone.  By now I couldn't see to tie on another and we called it a day after many battles, some lost, some won with the trout.  I took a good spill after getting my feet tangled in a log.  I hadn't seen it all day, but I managed to find it after dark!

      It was a great day to be on the water, and to have my uncle catch 2 beautiful trout was the highlight of my day.  Its always nice to fish with him, since we started fly fishing together way back in the day.  It was amazing to see all the bugs all over the place all day long.  It was a long weekend of fishing.  I think I spent more time fishing than actually fishing this weekend.  Now its time to get some yard work done and outside spring chores finished.

Caddis party

 



Look at his spots

 

 

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

 Look at the black caddis in his mouth to the left of the wiggley stone!

This is a nice Housy Brown Anthony nymphed up last Friday!

Categories: Adventure, Anglers Den, Brown Trout, Catskills, Dry Flies, Fly Fishing, Hungry Trout, New York, nymphing

Spring Striper Time!

Took my first real fishing trip for stripers last night, and I wasn't disappointed.  The fish were in their usual haunts feeding on the herring that invade the Housatonic River, CT each spring.  I first fished the Derby Dam, and had a couple of swipes on my custom blue and white 10 inch sluggo.  Things were slow up there, and I wanted to eventually work to the mouth, so I moved down river and found a nice area full of herring and hungry fish.  I could have stayed there all night, but I did want to do some scouting for the spring trips.  The two guys fishing downriver of me must have thought I was nuts for leaving, I'm sure they jumped right in, even though the whole place was full of fish.  Yozuri's, clousers, and herring flies were the ticket.  I used the spinning rod to search out an area, then used the fly rod if I could reach the drop offs and feeding fish. Wish I had the kayak out, just to see the fish finder light up! I eventually worked to the mouth, only schoolies down there, and a ton of guys, so I didn't stay long because I had to be back to my son's baseball game.  Then it was off to The Angler's Den for a jamboree! A long day indeed.  Time for a scotch, and its off to "The Sink tomorrow to look for some hungry hendrickson crazy trout.  A great night out with my first keeper bass of the year.  Sorry the picture is blurry, I was having problems with my timer on my camera all night.

Categories: Adventure, Anglers Den, Awesomeness, Fishing Report, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, stripe bass

Croton River Report and Swift Rod Review

I met up with Tom from the Anglers Den on Monday after a doctors appointment at West Point. It was nice to be in my old stomping grounds and with nice weather to boot for the first time this year. Hendricksons have been coming off there at about 1:30 but unfortunately I didn't make it to the river until 3:00. There were still some bugs coming off and Tom had raised a few right before I got there but the main part of the hatch was over and the dry bite shut down.

After a lost car key mishap in the parking lot we hit the river for about a half hour before Tom had to head off. Luckily right before Tom left I hooked a fish and was able to use him as a camera man. I was putting a Swift Epic 764 that I just finished through the works and I have to say that this rod was awesome. There is no way I am selling this now so I am going to have to build another.

Nice Brown to break in the new Swift rod

Hero Shot 

I was incredibly pleased with the action on the Swift. The rod is very crisp for a glass rod but it maintains the nice soft feel of traditional glass. It has plenty of backbone to make casts but handles a line very well in the mend and translates all the feel down to the handle. This is a stellar dry fly rod, the presentation you get is amazing. This thing lays down a dry with unbelievable delicacy. I cannot recommend this tool enough, it may not have enough backbone for streamers but it does what its meant to do very very well.

"Swift Epic 764-3 Natural" in action 

After I landed that fish and Tom took off I headed down to the bathtub to finish out the night and hope for a spinner fall, that never happened but I did get into some great action on rainbows as would be expected in that spot and. I got enough action to satisfy me so I moved down river to fish some less productive water that I just loved to fish back in the day. Realizing the river changed drastically I headed back out and ran into Frank.

Nice rainbow from the bathtub

Another nice E.Branch fish

Look at the colors on this little guy

I decided to put the rod up and film Frank for a little while hoping to catch some footage of the giant rainbows we spotted from the bridge mixed in with the suckers. He never did manage to hook those fish but he came tight twice on nice fish and landed both of them. All in all it was a great day and if it is any indicator of what the season will be like it is going to be awesome. Right now there are plenty of holdovers in the river and the hatch is in full swing. Give Tom a call at the Anglers Den for an up to the day report.

Categories: Anglers Den, Awesomeness, Brown Trout, Fiberglass, New York, Rainbow Trout, Report, Swift Epic

Delaware River or bust

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Big Fish 200 yards from the launch

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.

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.

Beautiful day on Sunday

Great pool for dries, but it never happened

Golden Stone

Croton River report to come...

Categories: Awesomeness, Catskills, Dry Flies, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Hatch, New York, Trout