dry fly fishing

A Nice Start to May Fishing

May 4, 2015 by Leigh 4 Comments

After a winter that went much too long and a slow-moving spring, the first weekend of May in Connecticut brought sunny days with temperatures reaching 80 degrees. Most of Saturday was dedicated to chores, but I was able to steal an hour at the local farm pond to test some newly-tied poppers. Despite the cool water temperature, I had quite a number of panfish strikes, with a few brought to hand. This was one of the largest and most colorful. I expect to see more of these and some nice bass as the summer progresses and the pond’s water warms.

The local beavers have been busy, working on what will become bass cover. I never see them in action, but they create a lot of wood chips.

On Sunday afternoon I headed to the Farmington River to meet my friend Paul. While I was gearing up, this escapee from a local chicken coop showed up. We were deep in the woods, some distance from any farm, so he was quite a surprise. I hope he finds his way back before he becomes dinner. It was mentioned that he would also be a great source of hackle, but I passed.

The day started out slow but ended well. Despite rumors of a healthy Hendrickson hatch, it had not yet arrived. Bugs were rare and fish rose sporadically. I took this first rainbow on a hares ear nymph. He was quite a slab and proved to be an impressive acrobat, launching into 4 vertical leaps before surrendering to the net. I’ll also give him the Mayweather award for being the best fighter of the day.

Later in the afternoon a hatch arrived and I landed two browns on small Hendrickson dries. The first was voraciously feeding on top. I had tied on a dry that matched the hatch, but was consistently refused. I took it down a size and he hammered it, bending the rod sharply and peeling off line.

The second I caught while leaning against the bank. I had reeled in and was talking to my friend when I noticed him rise about 20 feet away. I unwound a few feet of line and sent out a roll cast. He quickly sipped the fly and started running.

Hope your getting out for some spring fishing. Enjoy!

A Day in the Catskills with Walt from Rivertop Rambles

August 3, 2014 by Leigh 4 Comments

Started out Saturday by joining my friend Walt Franklin of Rivertop Rambles at Summerfest on the grounds of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum. Summerfest is mainly a fly fishing flea market, but there are also other events during the day. This is the second year for me and it is always a lot of fun.

We spent a couple of hours walking around, catching up, comparing blog notes and visiting the vendor booths, whose offerings ranged from fly tying materials to vintage bamboo rods. But soon were talking about the opportunity to fish.

Walt drove 3 hours for this day trip and I drove 2, so we wanted to make the most of the limited time we had.

I had never fished the Willowemoc and it had been some time ago for Walt, so we hopped in our cars and within a few minutes were on what looked to be low and clear fishy water.

The Willowemoc is a picturesque stream with plenty of fly fishing history.

It is a collection of pools, runs and riffles, easily wadeable and requires only reasonable casting effort. I was using a 9′ 5wt. and could reach the opposite bank when needed.

But looks can be deceiving. Despite the Willowemoc’s attractiveness, neither of us hooked up in the hour or so that we spent there. Eager to get into some fish, we had a quick lunch at a restaurant in Roscoe and headed to the Beaverkill.

I had some luck a few weeks before on the Beaverkill, but we went to an area that was new to me.

This particular spot is well known and well marked, yet Walt and I shared the water with only one other angler for most of the day.

When we arrived we were happy to see fish rising, but it quickly became a guessing game on what flies to use.

We practically threw everything in the flybox at them until we settled on small midges in the 22+ range. It took me several missed strikes to figure this out.

We caught fish on both light and dark colors, but darker colored flies prevailed. We were broken off several times. Walt and I will be forever haunted by the trout that broke both of us off and took our leaders and flies a few times that day.

After we unlocked the fly selection mystery, we were both into fish. Nice healthy browns, none more than 12″. All were good swimmers, vehement protesters and net adverse.

We spent a few hours catching trout, comparing notes and spotting fish for each other. The overcast sky that had accompanied us began to break but the temperature stayed comfortably in the 70’s.

But all good things must come to an end, and in my case, a wet one. As I turned to leave the river, I slipped on a rock and fell completely into the cold water. I was wearing pant waders, so when I stood up there was no hope of finding any part of me dry. Luckily only my pride was hurt. A quick trip to the car to change and I was dried off and good to go.

Walt and I packed up, said goodbye and headed out in opposite directions. As I drove home, the Allman Brother’s Blue Sky came on the radio and the Catskills sky turned to a nice shade of light blue. It reminded me that this trip was a great chance to reconnect and spend some time on the water with a friend. Hope you do the same before the end of the season. Enjoy!

Learning the Neversink

July 27, 2014 by Leigh 2 Comments

Had a chance to visit the Neversink River with members of both the Hacklebarney and Ridge and Valley TU chapters. I’d heard good things about the Neversink, but never fished it. My guess is that its relative proximity to the Beaverkill and Delaware places it down on the list of popular fishing options. So when the opportunity came up for a day trip, I happily agreed.

One thing that contributes to its relative obscurity is that this is not an easy river to find, or more accurately, find access. I drove through a series of rural neighborhoods to reach the entry point. Luckily other members of our party arrived before me or I would’ve driven right past. No real markings or parking area.

The next consideration is that this is not a park and fish destination. It was a 30-minute downhill hike over a washed out rocky trail, and it was twice as hard to climb on the return. I heard huffing and puffing on the way back, with some of our party opting for quick rest stops.

That said, the gain was well worth the pain. This is a beautiful river that offers, riffles, runs, pockets and glassy water, much of it waist deep or less. Wading difficulty ranges from flat sandy bottom to fast water over car-sized slippery rocks, so a wading stick is recommended.

We were into fish almost immediately, and continued to catch until the early afternoon. Most of what we hooked was wild browns in the 10-12″ range. My friend Fredy caught the fish of the day, a healthy 20″ brown. Bacon!

The pic below is of the 12″ that I caught on a standard elk hair caddis. It was one of three I caught on a dry fly.

These were really aggressive fish. Here’s a comparison of how my elk hair caddis looked after catching 3 wild browns of 12″ or less.

If you’re willing to make the trek, this is truly a hidden gem. We saw no other anglers, and the stream was not littered with bait cups and other refuse. One word of advice: Bring your hiking shoes and save your wading boots for the water. Enjoy!

A Weekend on the West Branch of the Delaware

July 2, 2014 by Leigh 4 Comments

Had a chance to join some of the members of Ridge and Valley TU from northwestern NJ for a long weekend on the West Branch of the Delaware River. I had not seen some of them in quite some time, so it was good to catch up and spend some time on the water. I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, but we were either fishing or looking for places to fish, so there was little time to take photographs.

The weather cooperated and over the course of the weekend we were all into fish. I caught many that looked like this little guy, but others were able to net much larger fish. They took a mix of nymphs and dries, mostly isos or caddis.

In addition to the Delaware, we also had a chance to fish the Beaverkill, which turned out to be more productive for me. I found fast runs and slow moving pools, with most of my fish coming on a submerged caddis.

We stayed at Dream Catcher Lodge and Cabins. They were clean, comfortable and right on the water. I would recommend them if you are heading to the area.

When the fishing slowed in the late afternoon we stopped in Roscoe to pick up some supplies. It’s amazing how much time you can spend in a fly shop when you’re flanked by your fly fishing buddies.

Next we wandered over to the Prohibition Distillery for an afternoon tasting of Bootlegger vodka and their craft bourbon. The distillery is located in an old firehouse, and they’ve really done a great job transforming the space into a distillery and tasting room. I’m surprised we walked out with only one bottle among the four of us. But then again, we came pretty well stocked.

We spent a fair amount of time on West Branch of the Delaware, since much of the East Branch was blown out and looked like chocolate milk. We fished well into the night on both Friday and Saturday, with mixed results.

All in all it was a great weekend, and we’re already working on a trip for this fall. Enjoy!

In Hot Water

August 5, 2012 by Leigh 1 Comment

As the thermometer climbed above 90 degrees, it became evident that this was not going to be a good day to chase trout – at least not on the river near me.

But all was not lost. It was still a good day to wet wade and practice casting using a 6′ 3 wt and some dry flies. I threw on my old wading boots, shirt, shorts and chestpack and headed down to a new section of river. Looking downriver I saw a nice stretch of small pools, riffles and pocket water, ranging in depth from a few inches to waist deep. The water was warm enough to be comfortable on my bare legs, confirming my earlier assumption.

The river was clear and less than knee deep, leading me to believe that it was going to be an easy wading session. But it turned out to be unusually rocky, making it feel more like a climbing challenge than streamside wading. Oh well, I needed the exercise anyway.

Started out using a Hornberg, but things really picked up when I switched to a size 16 caddis dry. Caught a number of sunfish. Many were surprisingly large given the skinny water where I found them. They were eager to take the caddis, and destroyed it in the process. At one point all I had left was the brown caddis body. It looked like a large brown midge, but still caught fish. Also tied on a caddis with a green body, but it didn’t seem to make a difference – they just wanted bushy flies. Note to self: next time bring some poppers.

Landed a couple of small and feisty bass on the caddis. Here’s the larger of the two, probably around 10″. This guy was really dark and I knew instantly from the way that he fought that he was not a sunfish. Gave the 3 wt a nice bend.

Apparently there are some big fish in there, based on this 3″ lure that I pulled from a tree. I’ll be back for them soon.

The most surprising thing today was how many fish were holding in small shallow pools like this one, as opposed to some of the relatively deeper water. This run was around a foot in depth and 8-10′ in length, but held many fish due to the shade, cover and moving water. There were many areas like this one.

Because this was a relatively narrow stretch of the river, it gave me some great opportunities to fine tune my roll cast and to practice mending in tight areas on short runs. Next time you think it is too hot to fish, leave the waders in the car and try some small stream action. Enjoy!