Untitled Document



A GREAT EARLY MAY WEAKEND!

 


The other morning while fishing the Beaverkill ("Sunoco Pool"), I
hooked into a nice 14" - 15" Brown Trout (See the photo below
or click the following link for this photo + more,
http://www.njflyfishing.com/photopost/index.pl?photo=93)
using a March Brown nymph (size 14). Andre, one of the guys I met while in the
Beaverkill Angler and a fellow board poster was nice enough to take a photo
for me. Andre and I post on a few other boards and we accidentally met up while
in the Beaverkill Angler. The two of us agreed to fish together. We left the
Angler and set out for a pool that Andre recommended, "The Sunoco Pool"
on the Beaverkill. At about 1pm we geared up and fished together for the rest
of the day. It was windy as hell but we battled the wind and fished anyway.


After about 45 minutes of fishing the same spot and landing this nice Brown
Trout, I moved onto another spot about 1/8th of a mile upstream. The river was
pretty rough for wading, one slip and you're doomed. I saw the spot I wanted
to fish about 1/2 way across this section of the river (Approximately 1 mile
downstream from Cooks falls). There was (and I'm sure still is) a nice little
spot that I couldn't pass up. It took me about 10 minutes to wade into position.
I had no intention of using a dry fly so I continued using my March Brown nymph
(Same one I caught the Brown below on). About 5 minutes went by and I see this
monster rise from the deep and grab something on the surface. Another minute
goes by, and there he is again. So instead of casting, I watched for about 5
minutes to see what this guy was taking. It looked like a combo of little grey
caddis and March Browns. I put on a grey caddis (size 20) and cast over him
maybe 6-7 times and could clearly see that he was not interested. I then put
on a Brown Quill dry fly and cast over him a few times and I could see that
he was definitely interested. He was about 2 - 3 feet under water but I could
see a white movement each time my fly passed over him. On about the 4th or 5th
cast, BANG! This baby comes up slowly and slashes at my Brown Quill! What a
sight and so exciting to see. I'm used to the little 11" trout with no
meat on the bones (most NJ fish). The 11" fish I'm used to seeing are either
sipping or compound rising. When you have nothing else, this will do. Now, back
to the story. This fish ran my line for about 15 feet and it took me a good
5 -6 minutes to bring him in. Well, bring him close enough that I could see he
was about 3" larger than the brown trout in the photo. About 4 feet away
from me, he was released. It was ok though because just seeing him rise for
my fly and slashing at it was good enough for me. I wish I could explain the
excitement this brought me. A spectacle indeed! I must add that no NJ fish ever
fought the way this one did, nor have I ever seen a NJ fish come up for a fly
the way this one did. Sorry for the NJ Trout bashing, but it's true.


After a few hours of fishing the Beaverkill, Andre and I then drove up to the
Willowemoc. We were there for about 1hr and saw 1 trout rise a few times. I
cast over him with a few different flies and finally got him to slash at my
tan caddis. I missed him, and we left a few minutes later being that absolutely
no other fish were to be seen anywhere. A few March Browns, some caddis, and
a spinner hatch, but NO FISH! Go figure?...


Later that night, we went into a restaurant and chatted for a while about fishing.
A few other anglers came into the restaurant and started to chat with us. Well,
I'll tell you that Andre is one lucky guy. He has fished in just about every
stream around the country that you can possibly think of. This guy really gets
around. If you're planning a fishing trip, talk to Andre. If he's not too busy
I'm sure he will point you in the right direction no matter where you're headed.


The following day, Andre and I went up to the West Branch. I saw two fish rise
between 9:00am and 11:30am or so and that was it. We then went further upstream
to Balls Eddy but not before visiting the Delaware River Club. Balls Eddy is
a nice place with lots of nice runs in there, but nothing happening. After about
2 hrs of that, we left and went our own ways. Andre to the Willow and myself
to the Beaverkill.


I stopped at Hendrickson's pool and wasn't going to fish as I still had a Mothers
Day gift to purchase by the following day and it was getting late, but after
watching this fish rise a few times I couldn't resist. I ran to the car and grabbed my rod and vest and proceded to the a spot about 10 feet downstrem from where I saw this fish rising. I put on a tan caddis
and floated it over his head maybe 6-7 times and got the hint that he wasn't
taking. Then noticing that there were also some little grey caddis coming off,
I put one of them on and after about 4-5 casts, BANG! This fish was pretty big
too (about 3 - 4" bigger than the one in the picture). A really nice Rainbow
Trout and very rich in color. He ran my line about 15 - 20 feet and I finally
landed him after 7 - 8 minutes. I would have loved to take a photo but the batteries
in my camera died and I was too excited to get into the river so I left the
camera in the car (what a mistake that was). That was the only trout I saw rising
for a while. The pool I was in was about 6 feet deep. I fished for about ½
hr. with nymphs for the entire time. I moved about 10 feet upstream and watched
for about 10 more minutes. Then I see this submarine slowly emerge and slash
at a big ole' March Brown. This thing looked like a tree trunk floating down
stream! I've honestly never saw a fish this big come up from the deep and take
a fly off the top (live). As a matter of fact, I've never seen a fish take a
fly as big as these March Browns. I guess I should get out more often. About
a minute later, I see him again do the same exact thing. There was a guy standing
about 20 - 25 feet behind me and with all my excitement I asked him if he'd
just seen the gargantuan trout that just came up. He didn't see it. I was surprised
because it made a loud splash. This trout was so big… awe forget it, it
was just amazing. Anyway, I put on a Brown Quill for kicks and never thought
this creature would rise from below for my puny little size 14 Quill. About
3 casts, and here he comes. I couldn't believe this. Could he be coming for
my fly? I doubted it, and quite honestly, I put it on as a joke thinking to
myself, wouldn't it be funny…….never expecting to catch this thing.
I used the word Submarine previously to describe this fish because if you've
ever seen a submarine emerging from the deep, you would understand… they
seem to come out of nowhere and then they are in plain sight and wow, where
did that come from (not to mention the size of these things… You never
expect them to be as big as they are). So I'm watching this thing merge up slowly,
slowly, then suddenly, WHAM!!!!!!! He actually takes my fly. I'm using a fast
action T&T 5wt rod, and I've never seen it bend so much before. Come to
think of it, I've never had any of my rods bend like this before (for trout
fishing at least). My line ran out over 30+ feet, and my hands were getting
sweaty because I was so nervous about losing this thing. I had to touch it if
it was the last thing I did. He took off upstream, then downstream, then across
stream. This was indeed the largest trout I've ever caught. I was using 6x Orvis
tippet material which held up just fine during this battle. After about 10 minutes,
I finally landed the fish and as usual, held the fish and slowely revived him
for at least 5 minutes, maybe more. He swam away looking pretty healthy.


I had a small discussion with Andre the other day while sitting at the bar.
We spoke about how people catch a "21" fish and let's face it, it's
only a 14 - 16" fish like the one in the photo he took of me. I thought
the fish in the photo was a little bigger than 14 - 15" until Andre brought
me to my senses. Let's face it though, that fish caught in any NJ stream is
certainly an 17 - 18" fish. You know it and I know it. We go home, tell
our friends that we caught a 20" fish and if you take a ruler to it, you're suddenly
humbled beyond belief. For an example, click on this link (http://catskillflies.com/images/cond_01.jpg)
how big is that fish? He's a good 18". In NJ, that fish is instantly a
24" fish. Now take a look at this link (http://njflyfishing.com/photopost/index.pl?photo=82)
and tell me how big you think that fish is (by the way, that's not me holding
that fish). Off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you how big that fish is, but the Brown trout
I caught in the Beaverkill the other day was exactly that size. Even if I had
my camera, there was no way that I could have juggled the two in order to take
a picture. I didn't think trout that big existed in the Beaverkill. To see this
thing come up and take my fly was simply breath taking. After I caught this
fish, I cut my fly off reeled the line in and left for the day. I was out by
2:45pm or so, went and purchased my mothers day gift, and was home by 5:30.
My weekend was spectacular!