My return to the catskills

[flyI4]

So after a long semester at college I finally was able to give the catskillls a shot and thankfully just in time before the hendricksons were over. Got up on sunday afternoon and saw how windy the beaverkill looked so I decided to head to the cabin on the westbranch and see how the backyard looked. Right away I saw fish rising and a lot of caddis flying around so I gave it a shot. The first fish I saw took on about the 5th cast and a 15 inch brown took the pressure off right away. I walked up to that flat pool you can see from the backroads heading to deposit about a mile upstream from hale eddy and found atleast 50 fish rising freely to the hendricksons that were coming down. My dad and I had double headers twice and caught atleast 15 fish between us all of them being nice 15-17 inch browns with a few bows mixed in. The night cap was at buckingham where it looked promising with 3 fish for me and 1 for my dad before the night even began and then the cold came in and the hatch was done. No spinner fall and no noses to throw to as the daylight faded.
Monday was even more windy and bright sun so we decided to do some exploring instead of fight the wind in a 250 cfs westbranch that would be no fun. We ended up going to some of the spots my dad and I use to fish in our worm fishing days. THe first was the upper beaverkill and at one point in our fishing adventures I was so young and short my dad had to tie me to his belt so I wouldnt get dragged away when throwing worms with him into the pool. the tradition lived on as the first riffle I fished gave up 3 rainbows all of them in the 15 inch range. Tried to scout out some spots on the lower beaverkill and upper east but the wind was making things tough. The upper east looked like hell from the floods and the willow looked so beat up it made me sad to think of the many great evenings I've had on that stream in past years. The night hatch took us to the gamelands where fish were fising but not easy due to low flows. ENded up with 5 fish for me 0 for pops all being in the 15-17 inch range. Had trouble breaking the 18 mark this trip maybe because the water was so low but I cant complain with the amount of 15-17 inch fish I saw in the river. Give it a year with no floods and some decent flows and they are all big fish.
Friday we decided to try the neversink gorge and it payed off nicely with both my dad and I catching fish in each nice pocket and my dad having the big fish of the day a 16 inch brown which took a caddis pupa in a nice pocket. Overall it was a nice ending to my first trip this season but these low flows and already warming temps on the mainstem have me worried for the weeks to follow this season. The conditions of the rivers esthetically also kind of bummed me out as they all looked horrible in comparison to what the did a few years ago. hopefully they will bounce back which I know they can just need a few good years and a little luck.

PS. If anyone wants to take a trip sometime soon send me a PM and we can drift sometime or wade depending on how things are looking. TIght lines

JC Clark