Dr. Gonzo
Stuck in my cabana, livin on bananas and blow.
Salve Citizens!
I have here another report recounting my fly fishing travels. On Saturday October 4th, I met up with 2 fellow NEFF members, Jamiep and Lufcus to explore fishing history in the pools, runs and riffles of the Beaverkill River.
Being the intrepid fishermen that we are, we decided to leave in the middle of the night. Jamie picked me up at my place at 2:30am and we headed over to Newark to drag lufcus out of bed and into the car. Following a Brazilian grilled ham & cheese we headed for the highway up to Roscoe.
Arriving in Roscoe at approximately 5:15am we checked the chalkboard outside of the Beaverkill Angler and headed out towards the river. Unfortunately, the woman who lives in Jamie's GPS unit has never been to the Beaverkill so she led us around in circles for a while before I began navigating by the maps in the "Flyfishers Guide to New York" (Easier said than done my friends!).
After a brief jaunt on Route 17 back to Roscoe, we ended up at Barnhardt's Pool at around 6am. It was still very dark, and very foggy. We decided to move downstream a bit to Cairn's Pool and wait for it to get light enough so we could see what was going on. Upon arrival we geared up and headed to the water to have a look around.
We couldn't see any insects, but the fish were rising to something so we began searching. There was a lot of fish activity until about 10am but we couldn't figure out what they were rising to and they didn't go for anything in our fly boxes - we tried just about everything.
As the fish stopped rising we moved upstream to fish the pocketwater under the bridges upstream of the pool. Under the the second (upstream) bridge Lufcus hooked into a fish and after a 1-2 minute fight landed a beautiful brown. He's very worried that people will see these pics and think it's Jamie's fish, so just to preempt any nascent controversy, it's lufcus' fish not Jamie's
. Jamie was just helping to net the fish.
We worked our way further upstream but without any luck. Aside from a hole in the waders and bruised knee (climbing over dead trees to get to pocket water didn't work out so well) I didn't catch anything.
We took a break for lunch and decided to head into town to check out the Beaverkill Angler and determine our next course of action. We bought some flies and joked around with the owner, who, like Jamie and myself is from Brooklyn. He was a very nice guy who helped me avoid impulse-buying wading boots without trying them on first. I was ready to pull the trigger and he said no - to come back later and try them on to make sure they fit. What a guy! I can't afford wading boots but was about to buy them anyway. Fly fishing gear and crack - what's the difference? None.
Following the shop owner's recommendations we headed down past Painter's Bend to fish. We didn't see much activity in the pools so we tried fishing the riffles and pockets to no avail.
We fished for a while and tried some other spots, Ferndon's Pool, Painter's Bend and other places along the river. No action, so we decided to stop for our second lunch and head back to Roscoe. Jamie and Lufcus got sandwiches at the grocery store - where someone asked us if we were cops - and we headed over to Catskill Flies to see what all this Beaverkill Angler vs. Catskill Flies fuss is about (More about that later).
We bought some more flies, chatted for a while about places to fish and when to fish them, fly tieing and law school. After a bit we headed out to Barnhardt's Pool to await the afternoon bite.
As the folks at Catskill Flies had predicted, fish started to get pretty active around 4pm and really started rising in Barnhardt's around 4:30-5:00. We could see some tiny cream colored midges in the air, and an occasional Caddis, though based on the lack of success with caddis patterns it seemed that the fish were rising to the midges.
Lufcus was having a hell of a time in Barnhardt's. One particular fish would wait til his fly drifted past and rise next to it, taking something else each time! A change of fly scored him a couple hits but no hooked fish. Jamie had more success matching the hatch and after persistently casting to a large brown, finally got the fish to take his fly - a 22-24 cream midge. The first time, the fish shook off the hook. The fish returned to his spot and jamie cast to him a few more times before he rose again, taking the fly. This time he broke the leader.
At the peak of fish activity a beaver swam through the pool, spooking all the fish. We stuck around and waited for the fish to return, which they did just before dark, but the mood (of us and the fish) was different and the fishing wasn't nearly as good.
Shortly after dark we packed up and headed to the Roscoe Diner for some french toast and coffee before the ride home. All in all it was a great trip. We made new friends, saw some beautiful stretches of river and had a great time. It made up for me getting skunked. Next time I will prevail!!!!
I have here another report recounting my fly fishing travels. On Saturday October 4th, I met up with 2 fellow NEFF members, Jamiep and Lufcus to explore fishing history in the pools, runs and riffles of the Beaverkill River.
Being the intrepid fishermen that we are, we decided to leave in the middle of the night. Jamie picked me up at my place at 2:30am and we headed over to Newark to drag lufcus out of bed and into the car. Following a Brazilian grilled ham & cheese we headed for the highway up to Roscoe.
Arriving in Roscoe at approximately 5:15am we checked the chalkboard outside of the Beaverkill Angler and headed out towards the river. Unfortunately, the woman who lives in Jamie's GPS unit has never been to the Beaverkill so she led us around in circles for a while before I began navigating by the maps in the "Flyfishers Guide to New York" (Easier said than done my friends!).
After a brief jaunt on Route 17 back to Roscoe, we ended up at Barnhardt's Pool at around 6am. It was still very dark, and very foggy. We decided to move downstream a bit to Cairn's Pool and wait for it to get light enough so we could see what was going on. Upon arrival we geared up and headed to the water to have a look around.
We couldn't see any insects, but the fish were rising to something so we began searching. There was a lot of fish activity until about 10am but we couldn't figure out what they were rising to and they didn't go for anything in our fly boxes - we tried just about everything.
As the fish stopped rising we moved upstream to fish the pocketwater under the bridges upstream of the pool. Under the the second (upstream) bridge Lufcus hooked into a fish and after a 1-2 minute fight landed a beautiful brown. He's very worried that people will see these pics and think it's Jamie's fish, so just to preempt any nascent controversy, it's lufcus' fish not Jamie's
. Jamie was just helping to net the fish. We worked our way further upstream but without any luck. Aside from a hole in the waders and bruised knee (climbing over dead trees to get to pocket water didn't work out so well) I didn't catch anything.
We took a break for lunch and decided to head into town to check out the Beaverkill Angler and determine our next course of action. We bought some flies and joked around with the owner, who, like Jamie and myself is from Brooklyn. He was a very nice guy who helped me avoid impulse-buying wading boots without trying them on first. I was ready to pull the trigger and he said no - to come back later and try them on to make sure they fit. What a guy! I can't afford wading boots but was about to buy them anyway. Fly fishing gear and crack - what's the difference? None.
Following the shop owner's recommendations we headed down past Painter's Bend to fish. We didn't see much activity in the pools so we tried fishing the riffles and pockets to no avail.
We fished for a while and tried some other spots, Ferndon's Pool, Painter's Bend and other places along the river. No action, so we decided to stop for our second lunch and head back to Roscoe. Jamie and Lufcus got sandwiches at the grocery store - where someone asked us if we were cops - and we headed over to Catskill Flies to see what all this Beaverkill Angler vs. Catskill Flies fuss is about (More about that later).
We bought some more flies, chatted for a while about places to fish and when to fish them, fly tieing and law school. After a bit we headed out to Barnhardt's Pool to await the afternoon bite.
As the folks at Catskill Flies had predicted, fish started to get pretty active around 4pm and really started rising in Barnhardt's around 4:30-5:00. We could see some tiny cream colored midges in the air, and an occasional Caddis, though based on the lack of success with caddis patterns it seemed that the fish were rising to the midges.
Lufcus was having a hell of a time in Barnhardt's. One particular fish would wait til his fly drifted past and rise next to it, taking something else each time! A change of fly scored him a couple hits but no hooked fish. Jamie had more success matching the hatch and after persistently casting to a large brown, finally got the fish to take his fly - a 22-24 cream midge. The first time, the fish shook off the hook. The fish returned to his spot and jamie cast to him a few more times before he rose again, taking the fly. This time he broke the leader.
At the peak of fish activity a beaver swam through the pool, spooking all the fish.
We stuck around and waited for the fish to return, which they did just before dark, but the mood (of us and the fish) was different and the fishing wasn't nearly as good. Shortly after dark we packed up and headed to the Roscoe Diner for some french toast and coffee before the ride home. All in all it was a great trip. We made new friends, saw some beautiful stretches of river and had a great time. It made up for me getting skunked. Next time I will prevail!!!!
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