Charlotte Creek and West Branch

Friday night we spent fishing the West Branch from Hamden to Walton. Still waiting for the water to drop a bit more, but it's fishable. We didn't have much luck aside from 2 10 inchers and a big old mama bass.

Saturday morning was a different story on the Charlotte Creek near Davenport with my buddy and I pulling out a pair of 13 inchers and a nice fat 15er. All brown trout, all on salted minnows.  

J-Fish

After a successful day on the Charlotte I confirmed the browns are living off crayfish. These free stone streams around here are full of them. Using what I had in my desk I took a stab at a crayfish pattern. I think the action of the marabou should imitate the tail flick and the way the claws just trail loosely as they flit along the bottom. 

Hook: #6 streamer, weighted w/ lead-free wire. 

Thread: olive 6/0

Claws (tail): 2 tufts of olive marabou, divided and posted to the sides

Legs: green rubber band legs

Body: brown chenille

Tail (wing): marabou tuft, posted down

Charlotte Creek Report

Monday morning, 4/21/14

The levels are still high but coming down steadily and the water is still stained but clearing up. I noticed a few stone flies and midges about, but no surface activity. I fished streamers on sink tip line for most of the time and the tried my hand at high stick nymphing with a stone fly pattern before casting a few dry caddies patterns, mostly for the fun of it. I didn't have any luck, but my buddy caught a nice 16" brown with salted emerald shiners on his spin rod. 

Mickey Finn Streamer

Hook: #6 Streamer

Thread: black or olive 6/0

Body: Silver Tinsel

Rib: Wapsi Silver Wire

Wing: bucktail (yellow, red, then yellow again)

Light Spruce Streamer

Hook: #6 Streamer

Thread: 6/0 Olive

Tail: Peacock sword fibers (herl subbed)

Body rear: red yarn

Body front: peacock herl

Rib: Wapsi silver

Wing: badger or brown saddle hackle

Hackle: badger or brown saddle hackle

A "Blue Spruce" I tied for my daughter with a blue jay feather she found in the yard. 

Charlotte Creek Report

West Branch at Delhi: 479

West Branch at Walton: 1320

The water was quite high on the Charlotte Creek upstream from Davenport Center. Visibility was less than two feet still. My guess is that the water will need to drop another foot or two before fishing picks up. I fished a sink tip line with a moto minnow trailed by a buck tail streamer but had no luck. My fishing buddy fished a spin rod with salted minnows and had no luck either. Seems like the the streams are still too high and with the water temps in the high 30s, the fish aren't likely to bite unless you hit them in the teeth with a tasty morsel. That said, a TU friend of mine has been having luck with night crawlers, so if you know where the fish are lying, perhaps you'll have more luck than I. 

BWO CDC Cripple

A modified Madison Guide Cripple pattern using CDC for the wing and colors to imitate a BWO. 

Hook: #16 Emerger

Thread: black 70 denier 

Shuck: Himalayan goat fur

Body: Olive hare's ear

Wing: dark dun CDC tied cripple style (trim butt end to protrude from hackle to end of thorax)

Hackle: natural dun (take 2-3 wraps over CDC butts and 1-2 in front of wing. Trim notch in lower hackle so that hackle is slightly less than the hook gap)

Upper West Branch Report

Output at Walton: 1500 cfs

Output at Delhi: 600 cfs

Water conditions were poor but fishable. The water was muddy with visibility of only a foot or two and the water was much higher than I like. Weather wise it was a beautiful spring day with temperatures in the 50s. I fished from 11 am to 2 pm using salted minnows (emerald shiners). The riffles were extremely fast and even the runs were flowing fast so I needed a lot of weight to get the minnows down. 

I was hoping to use a sink tip and fish streamers but I foolishly left my fly box on my tying desk. 

Quill Gordon

Hook: dry fly #12-14

Thread: black 70 denier

Tail: natural dun hackle fibers

Body: stripped peacock herl

Wing: wood duck or mallard flank

Hackle: natural dun

A famous Catskills dry fly pattern straight from Art Flick's Streamside Guide. The first mayfly to show up in the East is the Iron fraudator and is due out on my local streams in a week or so, once the water temps rise a few more degrees. Per Art, look for these guys mid April at around 1:30pm in the warmest part of the day. 

Red Pheasant

An attempt to imitate the male Ephemerella subvaria or Red Quill (aka male Hendrickson) without red rooster quill. I will also be tying a few parachute style to fish as a truer emerger. Should be fun to see which performs better. 

Hook: Daiichi 1160 (klinkhamer) #14

Thread: Brown

Tail: Pheasant tail (4-5 fibers)

Body: wrapped pheasant tail

Rib: gold wapsi wire counter wrapped

Thorax: UV cinnamon ice dub

Wing: Mallard flank or woodie

Hackle: Natural dun