Trout Water Adventures

The Ausable River

2009-08-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

I ran a group trip to the Adirondacks a few weeks ago...I teamed up with Rich Garfield ( http://www.flyfishtheadirondacks.com ), and we split the group...We fished the West Branch of the Ausable and while the hatches were sparse the fishing was good...There was sporadic hatches of Golden Stones, ISOs and caddis...We caught lots of fish but most were in the 9-12 inch range...No big boys netted in the 3 days but we managed to land some nice ones up to 17inches...Mostly browns with the occasional rainbow and brookie...If we had one hot fly it was either a yellow stone fly nymph or the Ausable Ugly but we caught them on Stimulators, wulffs, Beadheads, Caddis and the Motherbiter...Basically anything we threw at them that was presented well....

While I believe the Delaware system is by far the best fishery in the East, I dont know if there is a more scenic river than the Ausable....Some pics from the trip....( My horrible pictures can never really show the beauty of this river, it must be experienced)

On a sad note...we stopped by Fran Betters shop...All I can say is that it is very sad to see Fran in this condition...I would rather remember him 25 years ago when I stopped in his shop and he handed me my first Ausable Wulff and full of advice for a young fly fisherman...

A New Season has Arrived...

2009-04-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

I have not been true to this journal and let it lag again...I have been looking to start it up again and what better timing than the start of the Fishing Season and the arrival of the Hendricksons...

There has been alot of fishing since my last post...From Chasing Fall hatches in the Catskills to Tricos and Isos on the South Branch...The winter midge fishing was good but my steelhead trip was basically a bust with high water...

Hunting season was also a success with two deer in the freezer including a nice 8pt taken in the Catskills...

So I will again to keep this journal updated...I just may need a push every now and then....

Some pics of missed post opportunities;

Trico Time...

2008-09-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks I have been fishing over some nice early morning trico hatches ..The fishing has been very good at times with early morning risers and cooperative fish...The hatch is an early one occurring around 7:30 am and lasting up to a few hours...The spinner falls occur almost immediately and at times there is an overlap of the emergence and the spinner fall...

I have been having success with a parachute size 20-22 and a size 22 black beadhead nymph or size 22 pheasant tail on a dropper 24-30in below the dry...It has been about a 60/40 nymph to dry catch ratio..

Stealth is absolutely necessary, the streams are clear and low and these fish have been getting alot of pressure from not only fishermen but natural predators as well with this seasons conditions...

Typical Trico Water...

Jessie's Catskill Intro

2008-09-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

Jessie called me in early July to discuss booking a Catskill day trip...There is nothing I like better than taking people fishing on the rivers that I love soo much, but conditions forced us to delay the trip for a month...Finally the water temp and flows was perfect for some fishing...I really wanted to show Jessie a good sampling of these famous waters so I put together a good agenda to fish the Beaverkill, Willowemoc and East Branch of the Delaware Rivers...While we did get to fish on all 3 rivers during the day and the fishing was good for mid-summer, with a mix of dry fly and nymph action, I felt we just scratched the surface on showing her even a sampling of the system...But it was only one day and a fisherman can spend his entire lifetime exploring the trout waters of the Catskills....

I will let Jessie describe the day in her own words...She is a regular on http://www.njflyfishing.com using the name ONEMORECAST...This was her post on our day togther...

A Catskill Odyssey

People have different reasons for hiring guides. Some want to be put on big fish, others want a learning experience in a place they’ve never fished before. I belong to the latter category, so in an effort to shorten up my Catskills learning curve, I decided to hire a guide (Dan Ansbach, known as “bkill” on this site) to show me around the Upper Delaware system. After a couple of postponements due to weather and flow/temp conditions, we settled on this past Saturday.

The day started off at the Beaverkill, where we covered one well known spot, Hendrickson’s Pool, and a few nameless spots. Being August, it was no surprise to Dan to find the river devoid of people. Not many bugs, but tricos were doing their thing and my first fish came up for one in the back eddy of Hendrickson’s, despite some rookie mistakes on my part.

After that, it was on to Roscoe, where we stopped by Mary Dette’s shop. It was great to meet her and support her business by buying a bunch of flies. Too many flies. After a slice of pizza, we went back to fishing.

Casting into tricky currents proved to be the lesson of the day as we moved on to other Beaverkill spots and the Willowemoc where we prospected with big dries in fast water. I missed a hit in one spot, while retrieving my fly and had a nice rainbow break me off in another. Expect the unexpected, I told myself. At the Willow, we threw a mix of dry flies and nymphs, which brought out one fish (landed) and another missed hit. I found the Willow to be very picturesque and we competed for spots with some feathered fish-killers at times. Again, no human anglers on the river.

After another break, it was off to the East Branch, which told a different story. We spotted didymo in this section, accompanied by these clumps of beige-ish "bunny fur" blooms.

We did see anglers on this stretch of water, however, they were few and far between and we could fish wherever we wanted. We attempted stalking a few browns rising to sulphurs in a deep, glassy pool.

Once I was in up to the belt of my leaking waders in 50 degree water, and STILL too far away from the fish, it didn’t take long before I gave up and said “let’s go”. On the way back downstream, good news! We spotted some more rising fish and the better news was the water we stood in didn’t go past the knees. Despite frozen feet and a bunch of poorly aimed casts across another tough current, I finally drifted a fly right over a steadily rising fish. The head comes up but was it to MY fly? Gee, I’m not sure. I do nothing, while Dan says “Set! Set!” “Oh, that was me?” What a dumb blonde! How many times have I heard if you can’t see your fly, set the hook if a fish rises anywhere it? Must work on those reflexes! Tie on another, more visible fly (hey – these are old eyes here!) and I finally hook one on a take I could see, a fish with some heft. He threw the hook after less than a minute and that was the end of the fish and the end of our day.

I had stung a bunch and landed two and learned a thing or two about the rivers. I can’t promise I’ll retain it all, but hopefully, over time it will come back to me with each experience. Overall, a fun time in the mountains!

Dan "the Man", rigging me up while I cast dry flies with the spare rod.

Willow Brownie

#20 Sulphur, but there were a mix of sizes

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE BUT......

2008-07-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

It seemed like a simple plan..Take advantage of the recent heavy rains and spend the weekend on the Beaverkill, Willow and East Branch..The Beaverkill hit 16,000 cfs this past Wed but as always, it dropped like a rock and was running 1200 cfs when I arrived Sat afternoon..The only problem was it looked like chocolate milk..There was alot of damage and erosion on the upper Beaverkill...Rt 206 was closed due to the flooding...The East Branch wasnt much better, so my options were the West Branch or the Willowemoc..The Willow was running high and slightly off color but very fishable...I stopped by a friends house and convinced him to go fishing...We hit the the Willow around 6:30. There was very little bug activity but the fish were hungry and hitting big dries...We both landed a few nice fish and lost quite a few in the heavy water..
The next morning the Beaverkill was still running brown, so I hit the no-kill section on the Willow...Again the fish were cooperative in the heavy water..I was fishing a high floating size 12 attractor with a beadhead Pheasant tail dropper...I missed a few fish in the fast water, and landed a few nice owns before lunch..It was equal between the dry and the nymph but I landed more that were hooked with the nymph...Black Clouds and Lightning chased me off the river, so I took refuge in the Catskill Flyfishing Museum and it was a good choice because I was stuck there for at least a 45 minutes as the skies just opened up...

We were wishing for rain, but this is just too much!

The Museum

Afterwards the Lower Willowemoc was unfishable, all the tribs were dumping liquid mud into the river..I drove upstream in hopes of finding some clear water and once I got above Debruce I found some fishable water...Like the morning, The fish seemed eager to feed and I landed another handful of fish, all small browns, on the tandem dry/nymph rig. At this point the sky was blue and the sun was out but I could still hear thunder in the distance...All of a sudden I noticed the water getting darker and faster. It was like I was fishing a tailwater and someone opened up all the gates..A few minutes later I was standing in thigh deep brown water and wished I had a wading staff...I bailed out and hiked back to the truck....

BEFORE

AFTER

A Trib about 2 hours after the rain

The tribs on the Beaverkill and Willow really took a beaten in last weeks flood, there are piles of stone and debris, some which are 3 feet higher than the main river, at their creek mouths...Be careful when wading, I noticed alot of changes to flows and pools!!

A Willowemoc Brown from the No-KIll

An Upper Willow Brown

The Adirondack's Ausable River

2008-07-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I led a trip to the Ausable River in New York's Adirondack Mountains, which is arguably the most scenic river in the East...It is also one of the most diverse with slow, deep pools, riffles, Large waterfalls, fast chutes and heavy treacherous pocket water...Low water and High sun made the conditions challenging. There were no bugs on the water, but we found some fish that were cooperative...Most of the fish were stacked in the deeper pools in the fast pocket water. There were some tricos on the water, and we caught some fish that were sipping early in the morning and at dusk in the slower water...The largest fish landed was a 17inch rainbow and a handful of other bows in the 14-16in range were released, but most of our catch consisted of 9-12in Browns...Only one brook trout was caught...Of course the big one did get away, I was 3 feet from netting a 18-19in brown when he made one last run into some fast water and came off..We lost alot of fish in the faster water and had a few breakoffs and more misses than hook ups (but that can be expected when fishing pocket water)...Besides the fishing, we enjoyed some Lake Placid restaurants and attractions...As always, a great time on an exciting river in a beautiful setting...

Summer has Arrived, So has Opportunity..

2008-07-10T05:41:00.000-07:00

I have never bee a "summer" type of guy..I would like to think it is because I am an Eastern trout fisherman and the two don't always mix well...I Love Spring and Fall and enjoy the solitude of Winter. While I do look forward to wearing shorts and backyard BBQs, the trout fisherman must become an opportunist once the rivers drop and the water temps rise...So that is exactly what I have become over the last month, an "opportunist"..When the water temps were too warm for trout fishing I was hitting up some of my local ponds and I wasn't disappointed...The bass and bluegill fishing has been red hot in the evenings. I have been fishing mostly with large simulators, sometimes just adding a twitch and other times stripping in, either way the fish have been all over the flies...As for trout fishing,I took advantage any cool nights and rainy days and would hit the water with fair results.. I have had a few guide trips and while the fishing was slow, we did catch a few nice trout along with a mix of redbreasts, rock bass and smallmouth. But most of the fishing has been early morning or late evening...The morning fishing is my favorite with fish lazily sipping spinners in the deep pools. The fishing hasn't been easy but I have fool a nice one now and then...

Last night a friend and I hit up a private stretch of water on one of the more popular rivers in the state...Typically the trout fishing would have been poor, but what is special about this stretch is that there is a large dam which has created a small Tailwater fishery for a couple hundred yards below the dam. With hot and humid weather all day, there was zero bug activity, but that didnt stop the fish from hitting our flies..We caught and released about dozen wild browns from 6 to 11 inches all on dry flies and didnt even get to the deep pool below the dam...Walking out of the water both of us knew we were lucky to have such good trout fishing on such an evening.. Sometimes it pays to be an opportunist...

Fly Fishing the Catskills...My photo Journal

2008-06-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

I spent a few days chasing bugs in the Catskills. The conditions were not ideal with low water and high sun but I found bugs and cooperative fish...I even ran into a beautiful Green Drake spinner fall (Coffin Flies)...I fished the Beaverkill, Willowemoc, East Branch and Main Stem...The fishing was fabulous at times...All fish caught on Dry Flies....

Here are a few pics of the trip...ENJOY..
The Beaverkill River...

Wading the Beaverkill...

A Beaverkill Brown...

A Beaverkill Rainbow...

A Beaverkill Slam (Brookie, Bow & Brown)

Chasing Mayflies on the Willowemoc

The East Branch of the Delaware River...

HEED THE WARNINGS....

Some East Branch Trophys..

Fish of the Main Stem...

The Big Boy of the trip....a 22 in Brown that was fooled with a rusty spinner...

All Fish were released unharmed....Protect the resource, Practice Catch & Release..

See ya on the water!!

Meet Mr. Brown

2008-05-30T17:37:00.001-07:00

Caught a real nice Brown last week on the wooley bugger..Long fight ..Always fun trying to land a fish in the dark...I was fishing with my brother, so it was that much more special...

Meet Mr. Brown...All 23 inches of him...

One For the Lady

2008-05-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

I had a client on Saturday, first time with a fly rod...Despite High water conditions she landed a few nice trout including this 24in rainbow...I dont know how she is going to top that...Its true, Women make much better students..

South Branch Rainbows and Cahills..

2008-05-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

The water was HIGH and off color on Saturday morning when I met a few clients for a trip on the South Branch…I was expecting difficult conditions but thought the off color would actually spread the fish out and improve our chances at some of the bigger fish…What I didn’t expect to find was 52 degree water in the AM…So the morning started out slow with high cold water…We did land one fat 18inch rainbow on a muddler minnow and lost a monster that hit on the swing but the fish used the high water to his advantage and was able to roll over the leader and swim away without feeling my net … By lunchtime the water remained off color but was dropping and we picked up another fat 18inch rainbow on a olive wooley bugger .. In the early afternoon we noticed a light but constant hatch of a size 12 to 14 yellow mayfly…At first I thought it was a sulfer, a little big and early but upon closer inspection and investigation, I believe it is a Light Cahill …Please comment if you think otherwise…There were some sporadic rises to the emergers but couldn’t convince the fish with our imitations..

We tried nymphing but needed 3 split shots to get down and still had too fast of a drift…We picked up another 15 inch Bow on the wooley bugger…Finally toward mid-afternoon and the end of our trip, we saw a few rising fish and hooked a native brown on sulfer emerger fished on top..

Overall an enjoyable day in tough conditions but landed 3 beautiful, large fish including 2 of the largest trout the client ever caught, Lost a few Big Ones and had a few laughs...Maybe not what I was hoping for but a successful day in my book…Now I need to catch that hatch when the conditions are a little better…See you on the water!

The Kid and the One that got Away

2008-04-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Had a guided trip on Saturday. It was a father and son team that wanted a stream orientation; see some water other than the Gorge. My plan was simple, show some different water types, that had easy access and good fishing. I have been on the water all week so I knew what was happening and where…We met at the shop, Shannons Fly & Tackle, in the early morning and planned our day... Unfortunately when we showed up at the first spot, it was already occupied. So I started them High Sticking some nearby pocket water. The morning started out pretty slow and I was already planning our next move when I positioned them to fish a popular water fall ...The father hooked into a fish and Pat and I ran to net the fish but the fish was gone by the time we arrived..So I positioned the boy on the far side and told him to cast upstream into the base of the fall..First cast and he was hooked up into a large fish..I saw the initial flashes and new he was a brute. Pat fought the fish like a seasoned fly fisherman, you would never think he was a 12 year old..He was able to keep the fish in the pool and out of the side currents which are fast water chutes, filled with downed trees, branches and 3 series of drops. We saw this fish many times and he was a LARGE BROWN between 23 and 25 inches. One of the largest Browns I ever seen in this river. After about 5 minutes we thought the fish was ready to come to the net, when the fish made one last fast run into the chute, over downed branches and broke off...We were all broken hearted, as were the small audience of fisherman and a biker that stopped to watch the fight...Pat held up his hand and said I am shaking...I showed him my hand and said So am I...I told him he did a great job and that it is very difficult to land a fish that big especially where we were fishing...He than told me that if we would have caught him, he would have released the fish anyway...You got love it!!

Late in the morning we finally ran into a pod of fish that were cooperating and we ended the day landing a handful of rainbows and a wild brown on dry flies...Pat asked me if I thought the big fish was stocked, I said it almost was certainly a stocked fish. He said that catching and releasing a wild fish on a dry fly, is much more exciting than a stocked fish...I nodded but was still shaking when I thought about the one that got away...

With kids like Pat, our sport has a great future...His quote of the day " This beats playing video games any day.."

Brookies, Browns & Bats ..OH MY..

2008-04-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

My wife was finalizing a Masters project so I knew my fishing opportunities were limited this weekend but I did manage to sneak
away on Saturday afternoon for two hours during the mid-day..It was a
beautiful sunny day, the kind of day we all dream about during the
greys of winter..I chose a section of the South Branch that has a high
population of wild fish, they are small but they readily take dry flies
once the season kicks into gear..Therewasnt any bug or surface activity so I was prospecting with a Hendrickson Comparadun..It didnt take long to find some fish. The little brookies were quick and I missed my first few strikes..Got my timing down and landed my first of the day..A colorful 6 inch brookie, typical for this section..I ran into a fe more pods of fish including some Browns, the largest
being about 12 inches..I landed about a dozen fish before I looked at
my watch and knew the boys were getting over their nap and needed to
help out the wife...I closed my eyes, took in a deep breathe, with the
sun on my face just stood there for a minute taking in the sounds and
smells of the river..I made one more cast, and landed one more small
wild brown..What a day...

Sunday was a different story, it was overcast and breezy...But it didnt
matter, I spent the day with the boys, playing like a 2yr old...It was
a long day and they passed out by 6:30 that evening..I looked at my
wife, and she said, you could probably get in an hour of fishing if you
leave now..I love that woman..

I fished another stretch that is known to harbor plenty of wild fish including some brutes...There were caddis
coming off when I reached the river and it took me a good 20 minutes to
find some rising fish..But I found a pod of fish and managed to land a
half dozen wild browns from 5 to 12 inches..They were readily taking my
size 16 Olive...Caught one fish that thought he was a rainbow, he
leaped at least 4 times before I brought him to net...about 8:00 I saw
my first bat, notunusual on a trout stream, but within 5 minutes I had
a full blown bat hatch on my small pool..I have never seen anything
like it, there were at least 50 bats swarming over the pool..When I
would cast, a half dozen would swoop on the fly. They were flying all
around me and it got to be too much...Exit Stage Right..

The Bow, The Browns and the Spoiler...

2008-04-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Every evening I face an hour long, mind numbing commute home. This past Wed, I bolted out of work at 5pm and was on the water by 6:30...The South Branch was stocked by the state the day before so most of the pools around my home stretch were occupied. I surprisingly found a piece of popular water that didn't have someone standing in the middle of it. Perfect. Now I was already in my waders, and only had to put on my vest, tie on a fly and enter the water...By the time I had on my vest, two cars pulled in behind me. I gave them the "Are you kidding me look" but it didn't help...They were plopping power bait in the middle of the main drop pool...I ignored them and focused on nymphing the head riff..Tricked a rainbow with a caddis pupa...The Berkley Boys didn't have a bite within 5 minutes, so they moved on to greener pastures (or a pool with tracks left from the stocking truck)...
After a long day at work, I really wanted to decompress. What a better way than to watch a dry fly float on the clear waters of the SBR..So I tied on a comparadun and enjoyed watching my imitation float thru the pockets and pool...I worked my way around the bend and came to a fast riff, that was exploding with Quill Gordon Spinners. The bugs were loaded with an orange egg sack..I left on my Hendrickson Comparadun and fished it into the riff and immediately was into fish..The fishing was fast and the spinner fall was thick..I love fish that cooperate and eat my drys...I worked my way to the pool and was hoping to see some larger fish and sure enough he was on the far side rising just above a large rock. I waded in position and laid the fly about 4 feet above the fish..Perfect..The fly was drifting to my fish, and had closed the distance to 2 feet when along came the spoiler...The little redbellie grabbed my fly and made 2 acrobatic leaps basically shutting down my chances at Mr. Brown....The spinner fall stopped and the river faded to black.....

South Branch Bow

The Spoiler

Hendricksons..

2008-04-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Fished for a few hours this afternoon on the South Branch..There were both Quill Gordons and Hendricksons on the water..I started nymphing but one rise was all I needed to convince me to tie on a dry fly, light brown comparadun. The stretch I was fishing is choked on both sides with briars, so I was wading the middle of the river and casting upstream..The rises were very sporatic but I managed to pick up a 4 wild brookies and a 10 inch wild brown before I saw a nice riser at the head of a deep bend pool..I stalked in position but as usual there was no room for a back cast and there was an overhanging branch over my fish..Using sidearm casts, I managed to lay a perfect cast under the branch and my fly drifted perfectly into the trouts lane and was immediately inhaled...I knew it was a large fish instantly, he shot upsteam and down stream and after a 5 minute fight, I brought him to hand..Unfortunately I didnt have my net so landing him was tricky..And taking pictures was even more difficult, with no bank or net...He was a beautiful 18 in Brown..Snapped a few pics and released him back to his lie....A Wonderful Day on the Water..and My first on the dry fly for the season..

The South Branch of The Raritan River...

A Ephemerella subvaria or Hendrickson (Missing a tail)

A South Branch Brown

In The Beginning............

2008-02-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

I guess this is the latest "thing"...Blogging...I think I will just call it a journal..Blog sounds like something you clean off the bottom of your shoe....I am a two season sportsman...There is Fishing Season and Hunting Season...To me, fishing season is fly fishing for trout...I occasionally revisit my roots and hit the salt but I prefer streams and rivers..They are Peaceful places where I can escape and feel like a kid again...I grew up on the Jersey Shore and fished the local rivers for stocked trout, farm ponds for bass and panfish and the beaches and jetties for whatever would bite...In my late teens I worked as mate on a few party boats and eventually private charters...But trout fishing was always my favorite...In the mid 80s, after reading a story by AJ McClane, I took a trip to Trout Town USA to fish the Beaverkill River...It was that trip where I got my real first look at fly fishing..The following year I was back on the Beaverkill with a Cortland package flyrod kit...My first attempt at Fly Fishing was a sight to be seen...My brother and I just showed up on the river with our "fly rods" still in the package. A gentleman just walked out of the river and we rushed him with questions...He took pity on us and rigged up our rods, picked out the best imitation we had for a Grey Fox and wished us luck...By the time we waded into position, the Green Drakes started to come off and it wasnt long before we had a full blown hatch...To this day, I have never seen water boil like that evening on the Beaverkill...We had fish rising all around us. One even jumped out of the water and hit my brother in the leg...But we couldnt catch a fish...Noone showed us how to cast, we knew the concept but our technique was flawed...And we didnt know anything about fly floatant. We just thought that was why you backcast soo much to dry the fly...Of course we missed any fish that was stupid enough to hit our fly...At one point I was using spit to try and keep the fly afloat, it kinda worked...The night was just Hilarious..We laughed the entire time..The more fish that rose, the more we laughed....Just before the bats kicked us off the water, a fish exploded about 10 feet in front of me and he was on the end of my line...I fought the fish and quickly brought a beautiful Brown Trout to the net...We both admired that fish and gently released him back into the clear cold water....My brother and I waded out of the water as different men, baptized into a life long quest of perfection, beauty and trout.....

I will try and keep a weekly journal of the experiences during this fishing season...I tried to keep a Hunting Journal , http://www.beaverkill.blogspot.com ,but I let it lapse and just could never get it back on track..I promise to do a better job...So stop by now and than and lets talk Rivers, Hatches and Trout...

Fishing with Jack Frost..

2008-02-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Its been a long winter and while I spent much of my free time in Quest of a wily old 10 pt buck that has eluded me for the last two years, I didnt do much fishing. Which is really a shame because New Jersey rivers fish real well in the winter. The few times I did wet a line, the fishing was good...I also am limited to fishing weekends and with two very young boys, even finding time on weekends can be a challenge...So when I saw an opportunity to fish this past Saturday, I jumped at it...

I hit the Ken Lockwood Gorge section of the South Branch of the Raritan, this is one of NJs best rivers and if you didnt know better, you would swear you were deep in a Northwoods Forest..The river has a healthy population of Browns, Rainbows and Brookies..The stockies far outnumber the wild fish but the fish hold over well. The fish also arent pushovers, this is one of the most popular waters in the state...It was a cold, grey day with a fresh dumping of snow from the day before. I was pleasantly surprised not to run into any other fisherman...I noticed some small black bugs in the snow on the waters edge, a closer inspection revealed little black stone flies...So I tied on a black hares ear and added an egg pattern on a dropper with one split shot and no indicator..I waded into position to fish a slower section behind a large boulder..On my fourth cast, a nice 12in brown took the hares ear...A quick landing job, photo and released..I tried to keep the fish in the water, not wanting and damage from the freezing weather...Over the next hour I caught another brown and one fiesty rainbow...But the real trophy of the day was just standing knee deep in cold, clear water, snow covering both sides of the deep Gorge and much needed solitude....