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.