Saturday's Fishing

[Caddis]

I met up with Andre and Trig (MNTrout) at 8:00am Saturday morning. Andre suggested we hit the Willow.

We got on the river and Andre and Trig took there positions while I put on a new flyline (Orvis Advantage - nice line). Once my line was on, I worked my way upstream from Andre and Trig. Andre did pretty good the night before using various Quill body's. The caddis were comming off fairly strong in some areas, but no fish rising for me. Andre hooked into a few nice ones while Trig and I were somewhat skunked. After about an hour and a half, we drove downstream a few miles and fished another pool. I walked upstream and didn't see any fish rising. Andre and Trig on the other hand had the hot spot on the river and were catching fish pretty consistantly. I had to jump in-between the two and finally landed a fish. It was a 15" brown trout with very little energy. He must have been caught 15 times that morning. After an hour and a half, we packed it in and set out to search for JoeT.

We started on the lower Beaverkill and took our positions. Andre must know the hot spots because he hooked into a nice 18" Brown followed by a smaller Brown. I picked up a 15" brown on the bottom. A little while later, I hooked into a monster who didn't feel like being caught. He took my entire tippet with him. We left for a pool upstream about 1 mile or so, fished it for a half hour but no fish rising or being caught. We then move upstream again. We found some really nice water, but no fish rising.

We finally wound up at the Cairns pool. Andre took off downstream while Trig and I sat on the bank and watched some of the fishermen. No fish were being taken. Caddis were coming off, but from the bank we did see a few fish rising. A few spots opened up and I took one of them. Once in the water, I could see tons of fish feeding on the surface. I hooked into a few using Caddis, but didn't land any of them. The caddis started multiplying and before we knew it, there was a pretty desent Caddis hatch. I hooked into a few small 9" - 10" stocked trout and missed quite a few. It appears that these trout are already trained. The reason I love Cairns pool is not only because the trout always rise, but because of the challenge it is took hook into any of them. They come up fast and nudge your fly with their noses. Some of them follow your fly back then nudge it. That's what I love about flyfishing.

After a while, Andre and Trig left. I told them that when they left, the place was going to explode. Of course I was just busting there chops a little bit however, when they left, the biggest caddis hatch I've seen in 15yrs started up, and the trout were rising like wildfire. I missed a few on the caddis, but for the most part of it, they wouldn't even look at them. I had the body color right and the wing color right, but couldn't figure it out. A guy slightly downstream from me started catching fish left and right. What was this guy using. Well, here I go changing my fly again. The guy asked me if I had any Quill Gordons. I thought, Quill Gordons? I don't see any Quill Gordons. I think I saw a total of 5 Hendricksons. Needless to say, nope, no Quill Gordons, but thanks for the tip as he caught another one. His wife must have felt sorry for me and offered me a Quill Gordon. Hmmm. Ok, sure... Thank you. It was a catskill tied Quill bodied fly that resembled a Quill Gordon, but was much too small of a Mayfly. My hunch is that they were taking Paraleps. Needless to say, I tied on my new fly. First cast, bang... I landed a 9" trout. Second cast, bang... landed a 15" trout. Then it was too dark to see the fly. The only quill bodied fly I had in my box was a Red Quill. I tied it on, but it was too dark. I left it at that and walked off the stream. On the way out, I tried to give the fly back but she wouldn't take it so I offered here some of my newly tied Quill Gordon Compara Dun's which were pretty innefective however, I'm sure they'll come in handy at one point in time.

This past Saturday was a blast. I had a good time with Andre and Trig. Next week, I'll try for the Mainstem. Hopefully the water levels will be acceptable for wading.