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3. Catskill weekend April 25-26

Got back from my first real weekend of trout fishing this year, or should I say the first weekend I didn't have to tromp through snow and cast around floating ice. Water temps in the 50* with a high of 52* today, air in the low 60's Saturday, a little colder today.

I fished hard yesterday for 3 hours, covered a lot of water and almost left the stream fishless. I had two good tugs early, one for a few seconds that left a garbage can lid sized boil before he broke off and one for just a fraction of a second before he shook me off. It wasn't until the last half hour that I finally landed one, a 10" brown and the first one with the Sage LL. I had high hopes of Hendricksons, but spring just wont start up there! The landscape still looks like January, very tiny buds on some streamside bushes but for the most part the woods are brown and transparent.

I fished streamers, or should I say one streamer, the Bumblepuppy in a size 6. This has always been a decent producer for me up there, especially in the fall so I stuck with it.

Sunday I tried a different section of the same water, but only for an hour. About 20 minutes into the event I latched onto a nice fish, he took the fly with a mighty pull and ran downstream over rocks and falls, me stumbling behind. I got him in some soft water and took a quick shot.

I am thinking next weekend might be the start of the hatches, I did find a few Hendrickson's during the weekend but I was lucky to see them. Some caddis were about, size 18's maybe and a few stoneflies too.

Next weekend...its got to start then!

First one of the year...
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Stonefly...
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Fresh Hendrickson...
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18" of wild Catskill brown...
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CJ

Well done, CJ! I skipped the opener due to cold (low 40s F) temps, wind, and most likely way too many tourists! Opener was very slow last year and it was much colder this winter, no hurry around here. Did see some swallows taking midges off a shallow pond today on a hike, might be a few on the streams. I'll check it out soon enough now that the "tourist hatch" is over for a few days...you guys see much traffic this weekend?

Jonathon

Beautiful fish, CJ. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who has a fish get the better of me at times. My biggest last outing was 17", but a larger fish bumped the fly out on a rock after about two minutes of fight. When you do land one like yours it sure makes up for the one that got away. Soon you'll have rising fish. Tight lines.

P.S. Looked up the bumblepuppy and found many variations. Which do you prefer?

I use this one, but on smaller hooks. You may have read some info on this fly, its an old one that has seen many variations. In later years it was simplified by using a lot less materials, but it still seems to work fine!

This is an early dressing, as stated by Gordon.

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CJ

John, nice fish, and again, sir, you tie a beautiful fly. Good to see some upright wings! Depending upon the day (temperatures) things here have been off the charts good. Grannoms in the AM and Hennies and Blue Quills in the afternoons.

Good to see some had success over the opener....Sat morning in Grayling 35 and spitting snow...The rivers are into the swamps in a couple places and the only bug about is the Baetis (Olives). Still looking for Hendricksons.

I like the traditional flies as well as the young man, Eric, showing off his new cane with a Henny resting on it...Wonderful!

You guys warmed me up and I've been freezing! :)

Thanks!

Spence

CJ: beautiful fly!! You both tie and photograph them so nicely.

Eric: nice Henny shot. I'm totally envious - see below.

Spence: we have mid forties and 20-25 mph winds today. Not ideal conditions, plus another half-inch of rain on the way. If the winds and the rains would give me a break, I'd go pond fishing. I heard that our streams were crowded this past weekend in spite of the crappy weather...good time to sit at the vice.

Jonathon

Wonderful report! Love your narrative of the fishing. Thanks for that. Gosh, I miss it.

Nice fly, John. Is that a Martinek hook?

Its an old Allcocks 1810, one of the hook styles Carrie Stevens used for her tying. They are pretty rare nowadays, I don't tye with them often. Thanks, CJ

Ah! Yeah, that's the hook that Mike's are patterned after. He also has a longer shank (8x) in size 1 that's the bomb for tying the Stevens style ghosts. I'll take a photo and post it. They're for show, though. Wished they came in sizes 2 but the truth is tandems hook & hold better so I probably wouldn't use them for actual fishing anyway. The longest I'll use are the 6x like yours.

Here's those Martenek hooks. These flies were tied circa '98 or thereabouts. The Brook Trout (8x # 4) took several tougue up to ten pounds and the Kennebago Smelt (6x #4) took many Salmon in the three to five pound range, which isn't bad for the modern era. As you can see, the old style flies hold up pretty good. The Black Ghost (6x #4) was a much better squaretail fly than it was a salmon fly for some reason. Lots of fond memories "pond" fishing in the Western Mountain Region out of Eustus in those years...

My current favorite for casting streamers is the Orvis 1511 #6. Great loop eye and wire just heavy enough to track well (a drawback with the 6x Martineks). Small barbs and the points are razor sharp, too. I'd love them in 4's And 2's as well but for a reason that escapes me, in those sizes they have a round bend akin to the TMC 300.

Very Nice Ento! Your quite the streamer man...not what I expected from a bug guy :) CJ

Thanks, CJ. Yeah, any fly style that's good for salmonids I like to tie and fish! :)