The Kid and the One that got Away

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..

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...

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..

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............

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..

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....