Catskill Fishing 5/2/08 - Big Spinner works

[JeffK]

Was my off so I headed up to the Catskills for the afternoon. First hit the Willow by the museum. Was casting jigs to try to find fish and couldn't find any by the museum, but had a follow every cast and caught one beautiful
16" colored up brown at Hazel Bridge. The fish were right at the edge of the deep water - right where people were fishing.

BS'd in the flyshops for a while and headed to the East Branch. No hatches so the jig went on. Got two right away and had plenty of follows including a true monster. Saw one rise so got out the flyrod, put on a Hendrickson sparkle dun and caught the fish in a few casts. Saw another rise and cast to it and hooked up on the first cast. Saw no more rising, so hit spots where I had follows and on one cast a trout hit as my fly was moving as I began my backcast. Well I started stripping the sparkle dun in and got a few more fish. This was the best top water action I ever had for so few rising fish. The film was awash with dead bugs of all sorts. It started to rain and I got cold so off to Raimondos for dinner.

After dinner watched at Cairns and saw some rises so went down to Sunoco Station. Saw only one rise in the rocks at the far side of the river right across from where the floods had deepened the channel. Saw a few tan caddis around and tried every caddis in my box - cdc caddis, spent partridge caddis, iris caddis, etc. In trying the get a better spot to cast got a little bit of water over the top. It was cold and I wasn't a happy camper so I put on a Big Spinner fly I got in the fly swap a couple of years ago. Fish hit on the first cast and it turned out to be a fat 20" brown! That fish made my night - thanks to the Big Spinner.