Esopus Creek

[paulsoncall]

So I've only been fly fishing for a couple months, but I thought I'd share a really productive day I had today. Took the day off of work, rented a car (I live in NYC), and drove up to the Catskills to fish Esopus Creek. Didn't see any fish rising at 7 am so I took out the euro nymphing outfit and hooked into a small rainbow on my first cast. I was fishing the really fast water that was strewn with boulders. Within 2 hours I had around 10 fish - by far the best day I've ever had. Most of them were small rainbows and a decent size brown.

Love the colors on this one:

I ended up walking a few miles upstream and kept tossing the dual nymph rig into every pocket I saw as I went along. I hooked into a fish in nearly every place I thought would hold a fish.

Exciting day for me, but I lost 4 tungsten bead anchor flies under in the pocket water after getting snagged on a few boulders. Is that par for the course in this type of water or am I doing something wrong?

I didn't see one fish rise all day, but there were some big mayflies hatching. I caught one and measured the body and it was over 1.5 cm, black body, black translucent wings. Also saw some good size sulfurs.

Tried fishing some streamers at the end of the day, but no luck. Picked up the nymph rig on my way out and caught one last rainbow.

Anyway, thought I'd share.

 

[WBDluver]

Nice, thanks for sharing.

 

[FIN-ITE 34]

Good deal. Glad to see that there are the numbers of smaller fish, should bode well for the future.
My guess is that if you hadn't lost those flies, you wouldn't have caught any fish. Yes, if you are down in those pockets where the fish are, you will be losing flies. You might have a little less loss of point flies if you go to a jig hook, but that's no guarantee.
If you get back up there this fall and we ever get a little rain, you might want to give the streamers another shot.

 

[lightenup]

that is a nice looking little rainbow........:thumb:

 

[paulsoncall]

Thanks guys.

FIN-ITE 34, met some local guy while I was eating lunch up there and he told me to head back up in October if I want my chance at some big fish. He said they all head up river from the reservoir to spawn.

 

[cocopelao]

He said they all head up river from the reservoir to spawn.

The browns do, the rainbows spawn in the Spring but they eat each others eggs so it can get pretty active.

 

[mtthwnvk]

Thanks guys.

FIN-ITE 34, met some local guy while I was eating lunch up there and he told me to head back up in October if I want my chance at some big fish. He said they all head up river from the reservoir to spawn.

Yeah, it's a good time up there in autumn, and nice that it stays open a little later than most of the surrounding rivers


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[NJFred]

So I've only been fly fishing for a couple months, but I thought I'd share a really productive day I had today. Took the day off of work, rented a car (I live in NYC), and drove up to the Catskills to fish Esopus Creek. Didn't see any fish rising at 7 am so I took out the euro nymphing outfit and hooked into a small rainbow on my first cast. I was fishing the really fast water that was strewn with boulders. Within 2 hours I had around 10 fish - by far the best day I've ever had. Most of them were small rainbows and a decent size brown.

Love the colors on this one:

I ended up walking a few miles upstream and kept tossing the dual nymph rig into every pocket I saw as I went along. I hooked into a fish in nearly every place I thought would hold a fish.

Exciting day for me, but I lost 4 tungsten bead anchor flies under in the pocket water after getting snagged on a few boulders. Is that par for the course in this type of water or am I doing something wrong?

I didn't see one fish rise all day, but there were some big mayflies hatching. I caught one and measured the body and it was over 1.5 cm, black body, black translucent wings. Also saw some good size sulfurs.

Tried fishing some streamers at the end of the day, but no luck. Picked up the nymph rig on my way out and caught one last rainbow.

Anyway, thought I'd share.

Nicely done! Sounds like you had a great time. As far as losing those nymphs... you want your flies right on the bottom just "ticking" it. You will lose flies but as someone said here, this comes with catching fish. I do love those Tung Head Beads. Learn to tie and you can fill boxes with nymphs. Many are very easy to tie.

 

[paulsoncall]

Thanks Fred. That's up next!

 

[moosekid]

Well done.

I was up there this weekend as well. My first time fishing the Esopus in over a year. I did well in the pool upstream from cemetery pool with an RS-2. Took 5 bows up top. I found fish working up top in the evening but they were mad selective for being juvenile fish.

I hooked into some wild browns in the pocket water closer to town. Same dance. Once I had the depth dialed in, every likely lie seemed to produce a fish. Nothing over 13" but the wild browns in there are very pretty.