Roscoe, NY October 2012

On June 24th of this year, I was out on Kensico with slowdrift, talking about fishing, smoking a cigar, and enjoying the day. During our conversation, he would go on and on about the forums, and the fly fisherman around Westchester who were catching trout!  I agreed to check out these "forums" to see what it was all about. Later that week, I would join this community, get inspired by the fly fishers, and 10 days later I would hit the East Branch for the first time, ready to catch my first fish on the fly.  (which did happen that day)

3 months later, I find myself in Trout Town USA, Roscoe, NY. Wading the historical Beaver Kill and Willowemoc Creek, hoping that the couple dozen or so fish I've caught at the East Branch were enough practice to have me ready to be successful in the East Coasts premiere fly fishing areas.

This time of year, with the water temperatures being so cold, and the flow so quick, it's challenging to be effective out there. You need to tie your knots quick, move around with care, and not get ahead of yourself. For me, I was riddled with angst... having not shut up about fly fishing for the last 3 months, I couldn't get skunked for an entire weekend dedicated to the sport.

First day, I was on the water at 6:45am trying my luck nymphin the fast water.  It proved to be far more difficult than nymphing the EB and quickly I had to take a step back and collect myself.  After half a dozen snags, tangles, and near falls into the drink, it was time to catch my breath. Since light was breaking through the clouds around 9am, I took a short walk too a nearby pool and started running some streamers through it at various speeds and depths.  My thought process was to cover as many square inches of water as possible to increase my odds of catching something.

Second streamer, with some weight, probably my 80th or so cast into that pool..... Fish on! I now understand the rush, the sensations, and the emotion into catching a fish on the fly rod.  Forget the 12 inch brown that went on a 15 foot run on the EB... Whatever I just hooked in this pool was making me work for it.  Adjust your drag, move downstream, swivel the rod from your right to your left, keep the tension, not THAT much tension, show the net, let him run, now he's on the reel, reel him in, not to much, let him run, show the net, let him run, reel him back and move in for the scoop....

I felt like a kid opening up a present on Christmas morning…. Just 180lbs heavier! (me, not the fish)


I think it could have been a “2 hander” if I had enough sense about me to hold it the right way.


After the rush from catching that fish had subsided, there was a huge feeling of relief that came over me… for about 10 minutes.  I thought to myself, “ there are fish like that here? This is what it feels like to catch them?... I want more!”  and I went back to work.

Lady Fish Luck wouldn’t find me again until the following day, but when she found me, she found me with a smack in the face!  I was working this rock wall that lead into the Willowemoc, no more than 60 yards away from the backyard f the cabin we were staying in.  I was again drifting my flys in a way to cover as much water as possible before moving two steps upstream.  I was about 1 hour and 15 minutes into my routine, in mid afternoon.  It’s that subtle tug, rather than the huge smash, that more often than not catches me by surprise.  Where everything just gets REALLY heavy.  I knew from the first 5 seconds of having this fish hooked, that this was going to be a wild ride.
The short story is as follows.  After being hooked, this fish ran 30 feet, DIRECTLY AT ME!!! I started reeling and reeling and reeling as the slack was building up so fast.  He ultimately stopped 3 feet away from me, I could tell because I saw my leader sticking up out of the water, but I couldn’t see the fish yet. I had my leader into my rod, like I was high stick nymphing.  Then the fish took off downstream of me, the reel was screaming. I applied some pressure with my palm as a natural drag, but realized at that point that I was into my backing.  Panic cant even begin to describe what was going on. I suppose the hundreds of youtube videos I’ve watched had become ingrained my head because I started working my way downstream, reducing the area between me and the fish, I got back to my fly line.  Another run upstream had me now battling the current to close the gap even further. I could feel the fish tiring. Did I mention this was the short version? The real version took 5 hours, or at least that’s what it felt like to me. I was tired, so was the brown. She surrendered to me under the bridge seen in some of my pictures. I was solo for the picture, even though one admirer from the shore line asked to play photographer, best guess (knowing that my first fish was 17 inches) is that this was an inch or two bigger. Either way this brown was certainly heavier. Couple of pounds or so.







Here are some other memorable shots from the weekend, you’ll see slow drift in here a few times. He also had a successful outing. And yes I’m referring to my 50 hour, 2 fish trip as successful. Enjoy the pix.

2/24/12 East Branch Croton

Water is cold and a bit higher than Tuesday morning. TONS of fishermen out today. Counted over a dozen. Met Rich out there, Good to see ya bud.  But the main story of today is that it was SLOW.  No one was catching anything!  I spoke to 12 or so other fisherman, and besides the Perch that I caught early in the day, there was only one other fish caught and that was also a perch.  Dozen fishermen skunked...  We'll I wasn't leaving without a trout, and i was REALLY tired and wanted to leave.. lol... so after being at the bridge at 6am, 2 miles down the road at 11am, back to the bridge at 1pm, back and forth to Phoebes 3x (AND I NEVER GOT TO FISH IT!!!) I was just flat out beat... but I went to the tub one more time to see what was going on...  Same thing, 3 or 4 fish feeding, wont take a blessed thing. Tied on a white bugger, got 2 followers but no hit. 

I'm not experienced enough for situations like this, but perhaps that worked in my favor.  Only a few people have given me advice on fly fishing - One of which is my good friend's Father.  He's the man when it comes to fly fishing. and through all the knots he's showed me, flies he's given me, and technique he's helped me out with, I remembered his one tangential piece of advice. "Well if you're going to fish the East Branch of the Croton, and the Beaverkill up in Roscoe, there is one thing you need to know... When nothing else is working, you tie on a god damn beetle, and cast that sucker nice and high so it PLOPS down into the water... Thats how you catch picky trout.  Here let me tie a few beetles for you now so you have them.

We'll I took out a home made beetle, cast out so the line went taught about 4 feet from the surface and let that sucker plop down in the fast water on the far side of the tub. The beetle quickly started to move down stream with the fast water and before I had time to think about mending or recasting.... BAM.  Slurped right off the top and immediately went into a frenzy.  This fish faught like a champ. He even went on two small runs because trying to hold him still was putting a LOT of pressure on my leader.  Hope the picture does it justice, cause he was a chubby bastard for sure.

You can even see the home made beetle in the background, very similar to some of the store bought ones that I've seen as he ads bug legs too them sometimes too.   I continued to cast the beetle and I got 2 more bites and had several chases.  Soon after I went home very satisfied even though I really had to put my work in for my one trout, but on my way out I spread the word to some of the fisherman still trying their best, that a beetle was getting a lot of attention on the east side of the bridge.

Here is the perch i caught.. 5 inches, maybe...

8/10/12 East Branch Croton River

I had the privilege of meeting some fellow www.WestchesterFishing.com/forum/ members out on the East Branch of the Croton River today. Along with the company, there was good fishing to be had.
Down in the deep pool at the turn (is this Pheobes pool? i dont know) I saw a Rainbow come take something off the water, and show its side... 18 inches at least.  I fished at it for 2 hours... Sorry to report I did not catch it.

I Aarived at 7am or so, left at 12:30, and I almost hit for the cycle.  I caught fish today on a Streamer, Dry w/ wet dropper, dual nymph, setup.  But i did not catch one on the dry, so no cycle for me.


The first fish came under the bridge with a dual Nymph setup. Bead Head copper john out in front of something tasty with an indicator. The Rainbow took the copper john.





After that I put on the streamer, BH olive wooly bugger has been my good luck Charm at the EB each time i've went and it delivered again.  Brown on, and landed, also in the Bathtub.




As I was seeing many smaller fish in the fast water, I decided to tie on just one nymph, and practice my high sticking. Took another smaller Brown which I didnt get a picture of.  My one nymph was a copper john.

After that, the rain forced a little break in the action, so when it subsided I headed downstream past a few other fishermen, and ended up in the big hole.

Using just the Copper John again, nymphing the far side fast water, i picked up this little tiny brown. Couldnt have been more than 4 inches.



After that I tied on a dry / wet dropper setup and landed a couple of more browns, one at the pool, and another back in the bathtub.








All in all, this is my best day yet. And I kinda lost count of the fish, and what I was using, and I didn't snag a picture of each one... and that makes me feel good inside.  Now that I can consistently catch some trout, it's getting back to being more about the fishing than the accomplishment and validation. 

All fish were released without harm.

8/5/12 East Branch Croton

Went out on the east branch in the Croton watershed today and continued my success at this stream.  Took these two rainbows by fishing an olive wooly bugger (bead head) in the bathtub towards the bridge.  Had some good company as I met with Manny from www.WestchesterFishing.com forums as it was his first time fly fishing!  He caught a yellow Perch and a nice 12 inch brown trout.  Way to go Manny!

Here are some pics from the day:

Both fish were released safely.

7/28/12 Shamrock Charter Boat

** Not fly fishing related***

Yesterday we went out on my Father In Law's annual company fishing trip on the Shamrock out of New Rochelle. Normally we target Bluefish but this year they were not biting, which was pretty upsetting considering that we chugged all the way to the coast of Stamford to find a nice school of them, then we fished the school for about an hour!  First fish wasn't on board until about 11am, which is drastically different than the 8 - 8:30 that we're used to.  On top of all that the water was REALLY rough and we were getting tossed around.  Here is my buddy Ed who was feeling the effects of the back and forth movement!

The captain and the crew made a decision to have us switch over to Fluke, because we were more likely to catch multiple fish and we can do it in Oyster Bay, where the water is calm.  So off we went to the cove in Long Island to fish for Fluke.  Along the way, those who had been partying pretty hard all morning fell victim to a nap, and I seized the opportunity to snag a very rare picture:

Once we got to Oyster Bay, we had multiple fish on the boat very quickly and just like that the day had turned around.  We fished though the rain, wind, and flurry of Sea Robins that we constantly taking our bait and getting in the way of catching Fluke, but all in all it was a great day.  I rounded out with 7 Fluke and a dozen or so Sea Robins.

And wouldn't you know it but once we got to calmer water and started catching some fish, Ed was much more lively!

Nicole cooked up the Fluke when I got home and it was tastier than I thought. With a homemade tartar sauce, and a light mixture of ketchup and hot sauce to vary the flavors, I really enjoyed the fresh Fluke meal. It was much better than the usual Bluefish that we catch, that's for sure!

All in all another great trip out on the Shamrock, and I'm already looking forward to next years trip, whether Bluefish, Fluke, or anything else the skipper thinks is worth fishing.

However I am looking to get back to the fly rod very soon!!!

East Branch Croton Res - Late July 2012

I went out on the East Branch of the Croton Res again this morning, it was simply beautiful out there with some light rainfall the day/night before.  The water is still cold but the levels are certainly dropping. I attempted Nymphing for the first time with not much to show for it but a handful of tangles, snags and a half dozen lost flies... Part of the learning process I guess.  I also wanted to try streamers, as I'd like to start using them for prospecting new streams and rivers.  I found a nice new hole that was created from a tree that fell from earlier in the month and to my surprise, fish on!  The fish hit the streamer and jumped out of the water immediately, it was quite the rush but it didn't take much to bring in the 10 inch brown trout.  

And of course, a safe release for the fish.

My Gear

I recently was cleaning up and reorganizing my gear so I snapped a few pictures.  keep in mind this is just what goes in my best and bag that I carry while wading.  My tackle box, and rods and reels are not seen here.

East Branch Croton Reservoir - Brown Trout

Went out on the East Branch of the Croton Reservoir on July 8th and picked up an 8 in Brown Trout. This is my first catch on a fly rod and it came off of a Dry Fly!  The brownie took a size 14 or 16 Adams for a quick little run and easy retrieve.  The fish was released safely.