Last weekend I joined the local chapter of Trout Unlimited on a weekend in the Catskills. On the way up I spent the afternoon fishing along the Neversink. After missing a few large fish on the main stem, I found a beautiful tributary which was too hard to pass up.
Small streams are always my favorite. I instantly felt more at home, and I was into some small brookies right away. The first really nice pool held a gorgeous wild-born brown trout.
The gradient of the stream was steep, but as I worked up it I found many beautiful pools in which to cast my line.
In places like this, staying low and being proficient at bow and arrow casting is of paramount importance.
Sometimes if you're quick enough at landing the first fish, a second fish might come from the same pool!
I missed a really large one in between the overhang and the current here. Spooked the pool too, too bad.
A few monster stoneflies surprised me.
A beautiful stream for sure.
Each pool held fish, some had a few.
I did my best to pick apart spots like this by fishing the closer water first.
This way you can take more than one fish from the calmer sections without spooking the entire pool or run.
A particularly nice fish was calling this spot home:
Many difficult casting situations made this an ideal "short rod" tenkara day. I mostly used my Shimotsuke Kiyotaki 24. I'm looking forward to a small stream zoom rod I have on order and it should get me from about 240-290 with two lengths to fish with.
This was surely a very healthy stream with many fish on the larger side for small stream brookies.
There were also many great formations in the rock that created prime fish lies.
In this interesting mini-cave, water flowed between pools, but it wasn't part of the main current.
I pulled a couple of nice ones from down there!
I fished up to a spot where a trail crossed the stream, and that was my signal that it was time to pack up and head out.
The walk back among the Rhododendrons was beautiful.
One more peek at the main stem before heading back to the car.
A beautiful old pine forest lines the trail. I was soon back at the car and headed to meet the rest of the guys at the Catskill fly fishing center and museum. More on this trip in the next post...
Adam, what a memorable outing. Those trout have awesome tails, they must have put a bend in the rod. The water levels look great
ReplyDeleteWell done.
Brk Trt, thank you, yes it was a memorable outing for sure. Water levels were perfect... it had rained a little bit two days before, leaving just the right amount.
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