Salmon in the Adirondack High Peaks

Yes, you read that title correctly. Last weekend, after a rough week, I headed up to the Adirondacks with a close friend to camp out and take it easy... and of course, do some fishing. I was surprised with the results.

We camped next to the headwaters of a small river in the high peaks region. It was crazy just how low the water was. I can't remember it being this low ever. Luckily it was still in the mid 60's, temperature-wise.

The river has a typical Adirondack "boulder field" as its base. Lots of places for trout to hide, even with low water. This also makes for some great hiding spots and successful sneaky fishing with a long Tenkara rod. 

The first catch had my surprised. At first look, I thought it was a baby brown. But closer inspection upon landing the fish indicated that it was not a brown, but in fact was a small Atlantic salmon parr. 

After moving down stream a bit I caught a little Brookie. I thought maybe the Salmon parr was just a one time fluke.

I fished a mini-gorge next, the section I had been wanting to scout since noticing it on my map. And this proved that the Salmon Parr was not a fluke.

The river had some older growth trees that were a reminder of times passed.

The first night I played around with my red light and the night sky. My camera is not really made for this, but I made it work.

We were tired and hit the sack early. Which was good, because I woke up really early the next day. I let my friend sleep while I went fishing.

 More Salmon. It was an active morning. 

This would be the last fish for this particular fly... you can see it coming apart in the fish's mouth.

I had pulled a stupid move and left my main fly box at home, next to the vise, after tying some new flies for the trip.

Instead of being mad about it, I just used what I had... a small plastic box with 5 dry flies, and the one bead head nymph that was already on my spool from the last trip. So I fished mostly dries all weekend. It was fun.

We had in mind to bushwhack a lower elevation mountain nearby. The hike started out just fine as we navigated around a swamp and found some beautiful woods.

Following the lay of the land as best we could, aided by game-trails, we pushed our way through the thick adirondack woods.

At some point I got enough spider webs in my face and spiders on me to actually start to change my mood from great to "less than excited."

We soon gave up on our bushwhack and hiked back to camp with the promise of a cold soak in the stream. There were many beautiful things in the parts of the forest that rarely see humans...

Back at the river I found some Chanterelles. We decided to head up river to explore some possible swimming and fishing holes. I was eager to see how far up the Salmon could go.

But it was clear that the Brookies dominated above our site. I caught this beauty in the first deep hole we found. The brookies in this area often seem to have dramatic iridescent pink and purple hues along the belly.

My friend worked on his Tenkara skills, and caught some Brookies as well.

This tomato worm was floating in the stream. Too big even for the trout, I guess?

Late season flowers were still in bloom, even as the leaves began to change.

My home for the weekend.

I had some more fun tinkering with the camera and got a great photo of the stars.

In the morning I packed up my stuff quickly and couldn't resist a few more casts. I caught 3 or 4 more Salmon parr and finally hooked into a brown trout. 

I knew they were in there, but for some reason I just couldn't get one until the last cast. Appropriately, it was the fish of the weekend for me. Look at those markings!

I've noticed two different kinds of brown trout that I've been catching in the Northeast USA, with some crossover/hybridization... this type has larger red spots with white circles, more closely resembling the mediterranean brown trout I caught in Italy than many of the browns I find in the average New York river. 

We had a long drive ahead. We stopped at a Bison farm to buy some blueberry cake and fresh veggies to take home. It had been a nice weekend to relax and take it all in. 

Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to the Tenkara USA Summit in Estes Park, CO! Stay tuned for updates starting next week.

A new Tenkara fan is born in the Catskills headwaters

Last month I took one of my best friends camping in the Catskills. He has a new family member on the way and while extremely, exciting, it was also great to have a break from the rigors of daily city living.

After a few hours on the road we were deep into the woods in the southern Catskills. We picked a prime designated campsite by the river and set up the grill. My friend got a little fire started. There wasn't much wood that wasn't rotten anywhere nearby. Glad we had brought the grill for cooking this time!

We looked for some Chanterelles but didn't find any. 

What did find was beautiful.

I set up a couple of Tenkara rods and we hit the stream. This campsite was along the headwaters of a well known trout stream. The fish up here are very small, as well as few and far between on most day. But we had some luck and my friend had his first Tenkara brookie in a few casts.

I caught a few as well.

At night, the same run looked completely different. I tried night fishing but didn't catch anything.

We did spot this crazy large spider carrying an egg sac over the rocks. 

The next morning we woke up and packed up camp. The plan was to go find a swimming hole that also made for a nice trout hole on another headwaters in the area and explore it.

The water was clear and cold... the fish were there, but it was hard to sneak up on them.

I succeeded in landing a few nice wild brookies.

The stream was beautiful. Lots of mossy rocky ledges and sunny bends.

When the water is this low, it exposes the channels in the rock. This is a huge opportunity to take note of the best casting spots for the following spring or when water is at higher levels.

The fish were concentrated in the deep runs and mini-gorges that were still flowing well.

My friend and I both caught small fish.

There isn't much public land to walk on this headwaters stream. Only some of it falls within state lands.

We did find the swimming hole. I saw one decently sized brookie, but it darted under the falls as we arrived.

For whatever reason, we were unable to hook any fish here. 

We got back into the car and headed south, deciding to stop on the upper Neversink at one of the few areas one can access it on un-posted land. I had never fished it before but had high hopes. That was too bad, because the water temps were high and the fish were somewhat absent.

Not far from there is a covered bridge. Here it is posted and one cannot fish, but I was able to spot a fish in the channel below. Can you see it? Hard to tell what kind. We weren't convinced it was a trout, though.

Even if the water wasn't as cold as I wanted, there were other things to see. The flowers were in full summer glory. All around the banks and the fields were showing their colors. 

A cool breeze and views like this make the afternoon a good one.

We put the rods away and continued to head south, deciding to visit the Shawangunk ridge on our way home. Always fond memories here for me, I spent a good deal of time around here during my childhood.

As the sun dipped, we surrendered to the flow, taking us back to the city and our daily lives. Another adventure logged and a new Tenkara fan has been born.