1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Fishing Reports
›
3. Catskill Slam

Got my second hat trick last weekend, 3 species on the same stream. The conditions up there are remarkable for this time of year as the freestones still have high 50* water in the morning and flows have been consistently good all year.

A couple shots...

< />

< />

< />

< />

The bugs are scarce but the fishing still has been good.

CJ

Nice work, especially for this time of year!

Very well done!! Always fun to catch a variety. What did you get them on? Looks like bead-heads?

Jonathon

nice John! good to hear everything is staying fishable up there.

Yea Johnny, almost everything on #12-#18 BH hares ears and PT's. I have really trimmed down my fly selection this year and have been focusing on putting standard flies in better places on the stream. I am starting to think the fly isn't really a factor [on the freestones I fish anyway] as much as getting it where its supposed to be.

I know that sounds a little generic, but its taken me this long to actually do it! CJ

Everything has been fantastic up there all year so far. I was just talking to some guys the other day that I have not seen a "low water" condition all year [so far!] CJ

CJ, I did my first "hat trick" way back in my formative years, we're talking 1990 here...one night on the Maple River in Emmet County, MI (near the University of Michigan Biological Station, where I was doing Masters research for the summer), I got one of each, and if memory serves me they were all on a #10 Royal Wulff. This fly continues to serve me to this day in various sizes (see my last two posts)...anyway, I was thrilled, they weren't big (10-12" if I remember correctly) but catching three very different looking fish in the fading twilight of a summer's evening was pure joy. And I went to the local bar (Hoppie's) afterwards and celebrated on the dance floor with my fellow biologists!

"I have really trimmed down my fly selection this year and have been focusing on putting standard flies in better places on the stream."

My approach exactly! Except I am primarily a dry-fly fisherman, but like you, I have pared down my selection over the years to those patterns that consistently produce for me over the long run. Sometimes I get caught off guard and run into a hatch that I have a hard time matching, but it's ridiculous how well an Adams will work in such circumstances (as I did with Red Quills for Little Black Quills this spring on the Rifle and Pine). The streams that I fish are not fly-pounded, more likely worm-drowners and hardware slingers, so I do not run into "extreme hatch-matching" except perhaps during Hendricksons in spring or Light Cahills or hoppers in summer. Just give them something good-looking and they'll take a whack at it! Maybe that's why Wulff patterns work so well...

Jonathon

Things are good here as well. Fished a yellow drake hatch tonight. Plenty of flies. I was thinking of coming up for summerfest this weekend. Maybe I'll bump into ya?

If you do decide to go, and you go on Saturday you will in fact bump into me, whether you like it or not! I am working the bridge taking donations, so I see every single patron who comes by! Hope you go man! CJ