Fredy
SAY MY NAME!!!
So the MadMan and I headed up to the Catskills on Friday morning at 4:30 AM :shock: 2 1/2 hours later we arrive in Hancock, NY and had breakfast at the Hancock House Hotel (we were staying the night there) Breakfast was great.
We stopped at the local Fly Shop for some advice on the current hatches and hot spots. After spending tooooo much money on flies (that I did not use) we headed to the river.
Fishing was slow in the morning only to see a couple Russian bait fishermen catching a couple nice trout. We work our way down stream on the West Branch to a couple beautiful looking spots, again no fish We broke for lunch at 1:30 and had a couple FREE beers courtesy of the fly shop owner, he gave us 2 token for free beer at Lydia's Bar, we ate some cheeseburgers that were tasty. After lunch we headed further down stream past the "Junction Pool" that's where the East Branch and West Branch merge. We arrived at our next location just up stream form the "Cemetary Pool" and it was ON! The hatches started at 2:00. Hendricksons, tan caddis, black caddis, and blue quills were covering the water and it looked liked large blankets of bugs everywhere... AMAZING!! The water started to boil with risers left and right, again... AMAZING!!! The rising trout were ONLY feeding on the hendricksons and we had to try and match the hatch.
We targeted rising trout, focusing on one fish at a time. At one point there were sooooo many risers that you needed to pick a feeding line and work it. It was almost impossible to see my fly amongst all the other flies on the water, so any rise near my fly I would set the hook... FISH ON! i had a couple LDR's with fish running down stream like locomotives w/o brakes :lol: and pulling off amazing acrobatics only to spit or break off my fly
Water temps on the main stem were 46* F and winds were blowing at 20MPH and sometimes even harder!! Line management was key. CFS were 246
Here are a couple of pics from Friday:
Hard to see but that is the MadMan way up stream from me:
So Saturday morning rolls around and we had a great breakfast at the hotel again. We took our time today since we knew the action really was not going to happen till the afternoon. We decided to fish the "No Kill" section of the upper West Branch. MadMan stuck to his guns and nymphed some nice runs, I was spoiled from yesterdays event that I was waiting for the hatch at 2:00 again So 2:00 rolls around and it was on again! :shock: The risers were not as crazy as it was on the main stem but fun to say the least. Winds were tough again and rocketing 60-70 foot casts were no fun. MadMan was the first to pick up one Brown that had amazing red spots on it. He then continues to hook in to a monster that went straight for the sunken tree giving Steve a great fight only to eventually break off.
Water temps on the upper WB were 39* F and winds were blowing at 20MPH and sometimes even harder!! Line management was key. CFS were 174
Here are a couple of pics:
What a great weekend! Thanks for reading
Fredy
We stopped at the local Fly Shop for some advice on the current hatches and hot spots. After spending tooooo much money on flies (that I did not use) we headed to the river.
Fishing was slow in the morning only to see a couple Russian bait fishermen catching a couple nice trout. We work our way down stream on the West Branch to a couple beautiful looking spots, again no fish We broke for lunch at 1:30 and had a couple FREE beers courtesy of the fly shop owner, he gave us 2 token for free beer at Lydia's Bar, we ate some cheeseburgers that were tasty. After lunch we headed further down stream past the "Junction Pool" that's where the East Branch and West Branch merge. We arrived at our next location just up stream form the "Cemetary Pool" and it was ON! The hatches started at 2:00. Hendricksons, tan caddis, black caddis, and blue quills were covering the water and it looked liked large blankets of bugs everywhere... AMAZING!! The water started to boil with risers left and right, again... AMAZING!!! The rising trout were ONLY feeding on the hendricksons and we had to try and match the hatch.
We targeted rising trout, focusing on one fish at a time. At one point there were sooooo many risers that you needed to pick a feeding line and work it. It was almost impossible to see my fly amongst all the other flies on the water, so any rise near my fly I would set the hook... FISH ON! i had a couple LDR's with fish running down stream like locomotives w/o brakes :lol: and pulling off amazing acrobatics only to spit or break off my fly
Water temps on the main stem were 46* F and winds were blowing at 20MPH and sometimes even harder!! Line management was key. CFS were 246
Here are a couple of pics from Friday:
Hard to see but that is the MadMan way up stream from me:
So Saturday morning rolls around and we had a great breakfast at the hotel again. We took our time today since we knew the action really was not going to happen till the afternoon. We decided to fish the "No Kill" section of the upper West Branch. MadMan stuck to his guns and nymphed some nice runs, I was spoiled from yesterdays event that I was waiting for the hatch at 2:00 again So 2:00 rolls around and it was on again! :shock: The risers were not as crazy as it was on the main stem but fun to say the least. Winds were tough again and rocketing 60-70 foot casts were no fun. MadMan was the first to pick up one Brown that had amazing red spots on it. He then continues to hook in to a monster that went straight for the sunken tree giving Steve a great fight only to eventually break off.
Water temps on the upper WB were 39* F and winds were blowing at 20MPH and sometimes even harder!! Line management was key. CFS were 174
Here are a couple of pics:
What a great weekend! Thanks for reading
Fredy