Oak Creek Report

I decided to scout out some new water on my day off so I headed west of Cooperstown to Oak Creek, the stream the flows out of Canadarago Lake. I started my search near Cattown, but I couldn't find a decent way to access the water there so my journey took me upstream to the town of Schuyler Lake where I found a bridge near a small dam.

A rather nice local gentlemen who was putting his canoe in the water informed me that from that dam the quiet water extended all the way up through the forest to Canadarago Lake proper and, from what I gather, is an amazing warm water fishery accessible almost exclusively by floating.

Well, I had been planning on trout fishing, but the water near the bridge looked promising so I gave it a go. I'm not going to bother much with fly selection here because the small mouths and perch hit pretty much everything I threw at them sub-surface and even a misshapen Henry's Fork Hopper on top. Streamer, bugger, nymph, crayfish all landed fish and an olive and black wooly bugger even drew a huge largemouth out of hiding to follow it all the way in to shore. It didn't take the offering, but it was certainly enough to get my heart pounding when that behemoth emerged from the shadows.

Extended Body Light Cahill

Hook: #14 Emerger

Thread:  tan 70 denier 

Extended body/tail tied separately: white deer hair

Hackle: cream

Wing: calf hair

West Branch Report

The gauge at Walton was down to 300CFS so the water was looking pretty decent tonight. It was still a little cloudy, but any clearer probably would just make the approaches harder at this point. As the weather has been a bit cooler as well, I was hoping the conditions would be ideal for a good night on the water.

JBP and I didn't get out to the river until after 6pm so we missed the afternoon hatches and surface activity was pretty much non-existent until dusk. I puttered around with a nymphing rig (light cahill dry above a gold-ribbed hare's ear) for a bit, but only managed a couple of chubs on that. Once dusk came on, things started picking up as there was a solid hatch of light cahills in about a size #14 coming off of the riffles.

I managed to land a couple of small browns, one on a mahogany dun and another on a light cahill, in the fast water and had at least one nice fish throw my fly. The prize of the night came at dark when a 17" brown gently slurped my cahill from a current seam leading into a large, slow eddy. At first it swam right towards me and I thought it was a smallish chub, but once it got a look at me, the fight was on. Thanks to JBP for manning the net and helping me land it. You shall have your reward, grilled with Lawry season and bacon!

Extended-body Deer Hair Mayfly (Paradrake)

This was a special request from my fishing buddy JBP. The extended body is tied separately on a bodkin, finished, then pulled off and tied onto the hook.

Hook: #12 Dry

Thread: black

Tail: black bear hair

Abdomen: deer hair

Thorax: black dubbin

Wing Post: black bear hair

Hackle: grizzly tied parachute style

West Branch Report

Happy Solstice!

I woke up early this morning, something I don't normally advocate unless absolutely necessary, and made it down to Hamden in time to get on the water before the sun hit it. The water level was down and easily wadeable at just over 400 CFS at Walton, but the water was still very turbid. Insect activity was pretty low and the rises came only sporadically. Rather early on, I caught a pretty little brown on a rusty spinner, but that was about it. A second fish was rising, but it wasn't interested in the spinner or any of the other flies I drifted over it.

After a dozen different flies with no success, I decided to move on and do some prospecting. No other fish were rising that I saw so I tied on an Adams wet fly and started moving. Aside from an occasional chub and other small brown, I didn't have much luck. Around 10AM I was working my back to where I started the morning and noticed the same fish was still feeding in the same spot. At this point, the only thing I hadn't tried was nymphing, mostly since it's one method with which I'm not particularly comfortable. Basically on a whim I set up a nymphing rig with a light cahill on top and a hare's ear nymph about 2 feet below that. There were some nymphal shucks drifting by so it seemed like a decent idea.

The first experimental cast caught a large chub on the hare's ear. Not feeling all that optimistic, I decided to go after the fish that had been thwarting me all morning. Two casts later, I had the drift right and and a beautiful 15" brown hit the hare's ear. The hare's ear was deadly and landed a ton of chubs and few more small browns and the light cahill, tied with calf hair wings, was perfect on top. Highly visible, it floated like a cork and survived plenty of dunkings and snap-t's without needing to be retreated.

About when I was ready to depart, I noticed another fish rising in a small eddy. It took me a bit to creep over to within casting range, but once there, the first cast drifted past the edge of the eddy. I nearly jumped out of my skin as a large brown came clear out of the water to smash the cahill. Unfortunately, it quickly threw the hook and I figured that was that. Before leaving I decided to try another pass at the eddy and a second fish hammered the cahill as soon as it hit the water. This one I managed to land; another 15" female.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend the last morning of spring.

Light Cahill Dry

Here's another fly I copped from Bob Wikoff. These flies show up early to mid June in the Catskills.

Hook: #14 Dry 

Thread: tan 70 denier

Tail: cream hackle fibers

Body: Hareline light Cahill dubbin

Hackle: cream 

Wing: calf hair (Bob Wikoff uses snowshoe rabbit fur)

West Branch Report

The gauge on at Walton had the upper West Branch at close to 800 cfs, but Wednesday night is fishing night, so JBP and I were not to be deterred. As expected, 800 cfs is pretty high and rather muddy but somewhat wadeable if you know the area. Rises were few and far between this evening and I had no luck prospecting sub surface with a "Maple Syrup" streamer nor on top with a Mahogany Dun or a Light Cahill.

In a desperate attempt to save the evening, I walked to a bridge abutment that's definitely over-fished, but is always good for at least a few smaller browns. Tonight was no exception, and predictably the rises began picking up right around dusk. In less than an hour, I landed a half dozen or so small browns in the 8-10" range. Perhaps not the classiest fishing I've ever done, but after a couple of hours of getting skunked, sometimes it's nice to just land a fish.

Wikoff Mahogany Dun (Isonychia Dry)

My attempt at a traditional dry fly pattern based on a fly given to me by Bob Wikoff. This pattern worked magic for Bob on the upper West Branch in early June. 

Hook: dry #12

Thread: rusty brown 70 denier

Tail: brown hackle fibers

Body: chocolate brown Hareline dubbin

Hackle: brown

Wing: lemon wood duck

The original:

I believe Bob used a dark dun for his hackle and tail but I didn't have a dun anywhere near that dark. Also, seems his thread was tan and not brown. 

West Branch Report/Lesson in Humility

JBP and I headed down to Hamden for some evening fishing and this time were joined by Bob Wikoff, founding member of TU Chapter 210 and all-around smart-ass and fishing legend. The weather was cool and over cast, and the stream had dropped 100 or so CFS overnight but was still a little murky. I would've thought the conditions were perfect. However, to quote Bob, there wasn't much going on tonight. That, of course, was after he had caught 20 fish in two hours. I myself caught 4 (a chub, and three browns 12" or less) and JBP caught a nice 15" brown, a 13" brown, and a small mouth. So basically, Bob out-fished us 3 to 1 all while taking time off to dole out pointers and smack talk and fly selection/tying advice.

And this is why I recommend to anyone interested in fishing, to get involved with your local TU chapter and/or Rod n Gun club. You meet some cool people and many are more than happy to show the ropes. Bob has 50 years of fishing experience from all over the globe and spent a decade or more as a guide, and yet he happily joined two rookies on a local stream just for the fun of catching stocked browns and the occasional chub and passing on a lot of knowledge and history in the process.

Beyond his knowledge of where to find the fish and which flies to use, the most impressive thing about Bob's fishing was his presentation and accuracy. When a fish rose, his fly was landing delicately a foot or two above it, first time, every time. Actually, I lied. The most impressive thing is that despite his history and skill, he was genuinely happy to be out there with us fishing and he doesn't care if it's a chub or trout, he just loves catching fish and bestowing knowledge.

CDC March Brown Emerger

Hook: #12-14 dry or emerger 

Thread: rusty brown 70 denier

Tail: natural Hungarian partridge 

Body: thread

Rib: round gold tinsel

Thorax hare's ear

Wing case/wing: CDC dyed wood duck (I left the trimmed butts exposed for a buggier cripple look)

Catskill Creek

JBP and I played hooky from work and went adventuring in Schoharie County. Without much to go on other than DEC maps, we picked up the Catskill Creek near Preston Hollow and fished it up through Oak Hill. Near Preston Hollow, the creek was tiny and the fishing was mostly pocket water but by Oak Hill it had grown quite a bit and there were more deep runs to explore. The photo above doesn't do justice to a beautiful waterfall that gently cascaded into a long clear run. It was easy to imagine Art Flick pulling brookies from the crystal clear water.

While the water was beautiful and certainly looked "fishy" to me, we didn't have a whole lot of luck on the day. I'm going to blame mid-day sun and my lack of pocket-water experience. I only managed one small mouth on a bucktail streamer on the day. Beautiful country. I'm sure those in the know have lots of luck in their secret holes.

For reference, USGS reported the flow rate down at Catskill, NY at ~285 CFS and the weather was sunny and in the low 80s.

West Branch Report

With last night's rain, the water levels were up a bit (~450 cfs at Walton) and the water was a bit more cloudy than its been for a few days. According to the pros, the higher water and cooler temps should be good for fishing so here's hoping. While out on the West Branch near Hamden I did see some decent bug activity, though the surface feeding was sporadic for most of the evening.

Best guest at what I was seeing is that we had Hendricksons, Blue Quills (dark bodied, dark winged mayflies), and the occasional bright green apple caddis. I fished a few different patterns throughout the evening, starting with a basic March Brown wet fly, and then progressing to a Hendrickson parachute, a blue quill, a BWO with CDC wings, and a rusty spinner. Dark flies definitely seemed to be the most effective tonight. I had trouble seeing the small #18 blue quill though I think it was probably the best choice based on color and size of the naturals. I tied on the #14 BWO since it was a little bigger and floated a lot better making it far easier to spot. It caught a beautiful 16" brown that casually slurped it from the foam. I admit, I knew he was there, but I thought he was a much smaller fish when I casted to him.

West Branch Report

After several sunny days in a row, the water levels have dropped quite a bit on the Upper West Branch to ~325 cfs at Walton and the water temperature has risen a bit as well. At around 5:30 it was breezy with little to no insect activity and a few intermittent rises on the surface. That all changed as the even went on. The wind calmed and a huge spinner fall (either red quills or march browns I think) made for a fun evening.

The PFD rusty spinner in size 14 proved a killer landing nearly a dozen fish on the evening. To be fair, most were chubs, and of the brown trout I caught, the larges was 13 inches. Still, it was a lot of fun just casting to rising fish and being rewarded time and again.