A weekend with NYC Trout Unlimited in the Catskills Day 1

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...

Big fish, small pools - a tributary of the Hudson River on a low water day.

Last week I took a few hours to hit a stream I had been eyeing on the map for a long time. It flows into the Hudson River and is fed from a combo of feeder streams and a lake. 

Water conditions were low and I figured now was the time to hit it, knowing the fish that were normally spread out in the raging current would be concentrated in much smaller pools and easier to find.

I hiked a bit to find a suitable place to navigate the steep gorge down into the river. On the way down I saw a lot of these large millipedes. I hear they bite, but they weren't bothering anyone.

I found evidence of camping, old times, military presence and other anglers along the way. It was clear that I was fishing a stream that was not much of a secret, although there were enough fish to go around.

Conditions were indeed perfect, with cool water concentrated to the plunge pools and deeper runs between boulders. 

I saw some interesting bugs on a few rocks and fished the pool next to them. Soon a brown trout was brought to net.

A nicer pool with a bit of a water fall was much larger than the rest. I extended my rod all the way and fished right into the falls.

A couple of Rainbows fought valiantly in this pool, one jumping clear out of the water in an attempt to throw the fly.

But this day the luck was in my favor.

Here's a video of one of the rainbows fighting on the line before being landed:

In the hole below, I hooked and lost a really nice fish deep in a run on the opposite side of the exposed rock.

The scenery was fantastic and pool after pool came into view with each rock I climbed. 

 Some sections were slower and flatter than others.

Creek chub and some sunfish were in slower sections of water.

Others seemed to be dominated by rainbows that slammed my fly without hesitation. No brookies here.

At one point, I fell and lost my camera. Realizing it later when I went to pull it out, I retraced my steps to the place of my fall and there it was. Sometimes you get lucky! 

It was definitely a successful day overall, and I still had some nice pictures to show for it. Until next time...