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3. Today, the Prince nymph was king!!

Had a pretty decent day today on the Esopus R.; waded just upstream of Phoenicia. Got there around 9:30 and fished till about 2pm with an hour or so break here and there. All in all, fished about 3 1/2 hrs. started out w/ a #14 czech nymph as a dropper w/ a #14 copper john on point. No hits for about 1 hour. Watched other guys flyfishing around me and noone was catching anything. Eventually, started walking around the banks and started seeing some small Iso nymph shucks so, decided to tie on a Prince. Had a #14 gold bead head in my box so tied that on point and started casting, working my way further upstream. Eventually, got into some nice fish, landing 5 and missing 3, all on the prince nymph!Caught 3 rainbows, 2 browns and the ones missed were all "bows as well. Pretty decent action and fairly confident that for at least a 2hr winow or so, I solved the riddle and was able to figure out what they wanted!!

Nice! Prince nymphs are one of the more versatile flies out there, I think.

Great job! I'm happy you had a rewarding day. when I used to live in NJ I would fish the Esopus from time to time. But then I became addicted to the Delaware system and can't tear myself away to fish anywhere else except for two weeks every year in Montana.

Back in those olden days, right in Phonecia, there used to be a combination fly shop general merchandise store owned by twin brothers by the name of Fockert. They had only high end Hardy reels and cane rods made by Hardy, Leonard, and a few others. They used to tie, or have tied, exquisite examples of traditional woodduck divided wing dry flies and married wing wet flies. One trait that I always remembered about their dry flies that no matter what size the fly the head never ended right at the eye - there was always about 1/16" of bare hook shank showing. I've heard that is the way many early tiers tied their dry flies but I can't validate that one way or the other.

I do have one of their hand made trout nets that I was wise enough to keep over the past fifty years.

Wbranch, do you know if that flyshop still exists? I wouldn't mind checkin' it out next time I go to the E. to fish.

Common for old-time tiers to leave some bare shank at the eye....

Adirman wrote;

"Wbranch, do you know if that flyshop still exists? I wouldn't mind checkin' it out next time I go to the E. to fish."

I sincerely doubt it. Those brothers were in their late 50's to mid 60's back when I was in my early 20's. That was over 40 years ago. After I posted my response to your success I tried doing some research on the name Fockert but found only one mention in a comment made by Sparse Grey Hackle discussing some minor fly fishing topic.

I couldn't find anything else about the store or the brothers. The store was on the left side of the street if you were driving upstream towards the portal. I remember it being just a bit down from the creek that comes in from the right and goes under the road. You'd need to ask some really old timers in Phonecia or look into some archival data in the town offices.

Wbranch;

Ok, next time I'm there I'll ask around, thanks.