Prospector
Well-known member
Sunday June 20
================
Time Fished: 700am - noon
Weather: cloudy foggy 68 to sunny 80
Water: temp was 59 at 7am and 62 at 10am. actual cfs was 46 while the historical average was 63
Insects: midges, light cahills.
Never fished here so I went both upstream and downstream. Found midging fish in 2 slow holes and in the faster water there were fish waiting for a fly to be dropped into their lie. There was lots of action throughout the stretch. Best fly was a BWO. It brought up lots fish. Most of the ones I caught were in 10-11” range but some nicer fish too. I got 9 browns and a brook.
Monday June 21
================
Time Fished: 720am - 1pm
Weather Conditions: 68 degrees at 7am and 83 degrees at 1pm; Fog and overcast early then mid morning turning to sun
Water Conditions: Clear, decent flow, water temp was 64 at 1030am. actual cfs was 43 while the historical average was 68
Insects: midges, blue quill, white Spinners, ISO spinners, a few small BWO
We found a place where probably 25–30 fish were midging with some taking larger flies at times. I used midges and only got 5. Another fellow with me was using a blue Quill Dun and got 6. One brook and the rest were browns. When they stopped rising at 1030am we both went upstream. We found my father was working some rising fish too but they were mostly midging. I continued up and fished what became my 2nd favorite hole of the trip. Pretty deep, multiple currents but tough place to be right handed. You need to fish from shore along a high bank and cast across your body. Picked up 4 more on a BWO with one being quite thick and about 15 inches. There are 2 nice runs above this hole with very similar characteristics to the first hole and I could not bring up a fish in either of those spots in 2 days. Strange.
When I got back to the truck my dad relayed a story that he did the unthinkable and put on an ISO spinner at high noon and the fish wanted it. It saved his morning.
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 610pm - 750pm
Weather Conditions: 80 degrees and overcast with a thunderstorm arriving at 750pm
Water Conditions: Clear, decent flow. actual cfs was 43 while the historical average was 68
Insects: nothing noticeable but some fish were rising
We fished an area that was mostly riffle. On the lower end where the riffle was tailing out into slower water the trout were rising. Seemed to be mostly small bugs due to the sips but there were some big splashes for large bugs.
I left the rising trout to the old guys and headed upstream to explore the new water. It was mostly shallow riffle with some pocket water and quicker runs. It seems to be common here to have large boulders in the stream creating some depth and adding speed to the water. I spent extra time in those areas and skipped what at first glance appeared to be shallow riffle. I’m sure I walked past some good pockets, but I worked a number of good places and brought up 7-8 trout. The distant thunder made me fish through very quickly but I was fortunate to land 3 very nice, heavy brown 12”-15”. The amount of heavy Browns reminds me of the browns that filled Kettle Creek in the late 70s early 80s. I had not caught a wild brown in the Willowemoc yet, so the stocking program (whether state or local) must have excellent funding.
Tuesday June 22
================
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 700am - 320pm
Weather Conditions: 60 degrees with light rain until about 130pm
Water Conditions: 62 degrees, Very slightly off color, decent flow. actual cfs was 75 while the historical average was 65
Insects: Saw small dark mayflies and midges
The stream was up due to last night’s rain event. This was much needed to cool water temp and stimulate the brown bite. We arrived at the stream there was a light rain that would continue for hours. However the trout were rising regularly. My father and the 3rd guy in our crew decided they would fish dries through the rain. I opted to start with a streamer hoping the browns would be cooperative. If the stream would have been more murky the bite would have really been on. I did get a lot of chases and strikes but I only landed 7. There were some quality fish including a 19 incher. After 3 streamer passes I decided to try for the rising fish. I put on the BWO that has worked the last few days. It worked very well for awhile, especially while it was raining but as the rain lifted the sledding got a lot tougher. We called it quits after very long morning. I caught 10 more on dries.
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 530pm - 915pm
Weather Conditions: 56 degrees, overcast with wind gusts at times. Got calm in the last hour.
Water Conditions: 60 degrees, slightly off color, decent flow. actual cfs was 80 while the historical average was 65
Insects: midges, yellow drakes, cahills, large BWO, Small BWO, ISO Spinners
Midges were the ticket to start with. Got 7. Then ISO Spinners started so I switched to a fly I tied at lunch that I had high hopes for. It got lots of looks but no takes. The more I watched it the fly wasn’t floating directly upright. I need to tweak the design. However I did use these flies at dark and they worked well. I got 15 total....All browns
My father used a #14 ISO spinner and our buddy caught his on a #14 rusty Spinner and a BWO
Wednesday June 23
================
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 745am - 1020am
Weather Conditions: 46 degrees at 745am warming to 53 when we left. Sunny
Water Conditions: 54 degrees, clear, decent flow. actual cfs was 65 while the historical average was 60
Insects: midges, Small BWO, ISO Spinners, and another larger mayfly that I couldn’t confirm
Before taking to the stream our self imposed quit time was decided to be 10am, but a couple hatches were underway so we stretched that end time ever so slightly. I had lobbied for a noon quit but I was outnumbered and 10am seemed reasonable with a 6 hour drive ahead of us.
When we arrived at the stream there were some rising fish in the riffle and very little activity in the slower water. I was the furthest one from the riffle so I stood for awhile waiting for a rise. At one point I actually tied on a streamer but before I had a chance to cast another angler jumped into the stretch about 40 yds below me. That put an end to my streamer plan since I move constantly downstream when throwing a streamer and I didn’t want to lose my spot. By this time my dad and buddy had each landed a couple trout as the trout in the upper reaches were busy with the hatch’s first wave. Eventually enough insects were hatching to pass through to my location and the trout began feeding and as time when on the rising increased significantly. I alternated fishing a small BWO and an ISO Spinner. When the BWO stopped working I put on the ISO and then vice versa. The hatch just continued to improve and we had to leave a lot of rising fish. It was mostly small BWO Duns and ISO Spinners with at least one other mayfly mixed in. During the high point, there were at least 2 times where all 3 of us had a fish on at the same time.
My dad headed to the truck at 10am, our buddy at 1015am and me at 1020am and we all caught a fish right before we quit. As a group we landed 34 in a few hours and that was a nice way to close out the trip and made for some likely conversation on the long ride home.
Misc Thoughts from 5 days
===================
= None of us had fished in the Catskills
=Roscoe is a nice little town with everything we needed.
=We stayed at the Reynolds House which operates like a motel. They have a do it yourself light breakfast with instant oatmeal, pop tarts, cereal, coffee,...etc. Clean, quiet and convenient to the locations we focused on.
=We ate our 1 meal per day at the Roscoe Diner. A very comprehensive menu, generous helpings and a wide variety of desserts. We were especially pleased with the Catskill burger, Corned Beef and Turkey Club sandwich, Chicken Parmesan, Upstate Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Chicken basket and the Meatloaf.
You can easily walk there from the hotel if you need to.
=There was also a Greek and Italian Resturant in town as well but we never tried them
=Fly Shop fly prices. $3 per fly. I tie my own flies and sometimes buy a neat fly to use it as a pattern, but never for my own use. However since we were asking questions about the area and the shop was very forthcoming, I bought some flies (15). The bad news was those great looking flies rarely worked. I bought 2 types of small BWOs and never had a take in the Willowemoc during 2 different hatches; bought 2 types of Sulphurs and used those in the West Branch during a boiling 30 minute Sulphur hatch with no takes; used ISO emergers in Willowemoc and I did catch a fish on one and had another take. Also bought some cahills, stoneflies but never used them. I wondered later if those particular patterns were available in the shop because they weren’t working.
=Continuing the thought about buying flies, I was trying to buy something different than I tie, like parachutes which I never tie or use myself. I thought I might be pleasantly surprised with something new. What was apparent (and I’m just an average tyer) was regardless if my homemade fly was pristine or if it had imperfections from being eaten several times, it outfished the flies I bought by a wide margin. I caught 66 trout in 4 days with my flies and only 1 trout on fly shop flies but I also used my flies a lot more. Not really sure how to fairly assess this.
=Highway noise. The Willowemoc basically parallels RT 17 so there is a lot of typical highway noise. We found it to be a bit of a distraction. I’m accustomed to the sounds of nature far outweighing the sounds of civilization.
= Speaking of civilization, an odd moment transpired while my father was fishing next to a RT 17 bridge and a pigeon was hit by a car. It landed dead center in the creek (no pun intended) and floated away. He was curious if it was just knocked out but it never moved as it floated away for 100+ yards.
=Not many people fishing. We were surprised at the low numbers of anglers. Had most areas to ourselves
=River confusion. With several locations referred to as Junction Pool we were confused about what stream we were fishing. Took a few days but we figured it out.
=Regret that we didn’t find time for the Beaverkill. We actually thought we fished the Beaverkill on the first day but later we learned it was the East Branch.
= Nice parking spots along Willowemoc. We thought the state did a nice job with angler parking and angler access.
=Fish size in Willowemoc was very impressive. Lots of fat heavy Browns. Seemed like Kettle in the late 70s early 80s.
=Midges were in vogue again. I rarely get to dig into my Midge box but the fish here midged constantly. It felt great to throw the small stuff. I also realized I over tied many midges. My sparse ones worked best.
=Scissors in your vest. I trimmed many flies on this trip to shore up damage after a catch. Also made alterations to get a larger fly to fit a smaller natural.
=A couple thoughts about the flies below.
The Rusty Spinner looks terrible but it actually was just barely alive at the time of the photo. It still had some leg movement. That fly was collected in the morning and it stayed in my pill bottle for 5 hours. So Rusty Spinners were a player in the mornings. What I wanted to point out was that belly photo. The head is almost a dumb bell head shape, then a skinny neck, then a wider chest that slowly tapers to the back. Also note the yellowish color change near the end of the body. Some of the fish were really checking out the flies here in the obviously heavy pressure stream with super slow flows in place. Really paying attention to body shape and color differences on your flies might separate you from the pack.
The ISO Belly shot. Note the yellow legs. You might get away with a couple turns of cream hackle with an upright wing. I didn't tie any but after studying the photo, I wish I had experimented on that one.
Other experiments worked out pretty well. Take note of the details when the fish have seen it all.
================
Time Fished: 700am - noon
Weather: cloudy foggy 68 to sunny 80
Water: temp was 59 at 7am and 62 at 10am. actual cfs was 46 while the historical average was 63
Insects: midges, light cahills.
Never fished here so I went both upstream and downstream. Found midging fish in 2 slow holes and in the faster water there were fish waiting for a fly to be dropped into their lie. There was lots of action throughout the stretch. Best fly was a BWO. It brought up lots fish. Most of the ones I caught were in 10-11” range but some nicer fish too. I got 9 browns and a brook.
Monday June 21
================
Time Fished: 720am - 1pm
Weather Conditions: 68 degrees at 7am and 83 degrees at 1pm; Fog and overcast early then mid morning turning to sun
Water Conditions: Clear, decent flow, water temp was 64 at 1030am. actual cfs was 43 while the historical average was 68
Insects: midges, blue quill, white Spinners, ISO spinners, a few small BWO
We found a place where probably 25–30 fish were midging with some taking larger flies at times. I used midges and only got 5. Another fellow with me was using a blue Quill Dun and got 6. One brook and the rest were browns. When they stopped rising at 1030am we both went upstream. We found my father was working some rising fish too but they were mostly midging. I continued up and fished what became my 2nd favorite hole of the trip. Pretty deep, multiple currents but tough place to be right handed. You need to fish from shore along a high bank and cast across your body. Picked up 4 more on a BWO with one being quite thick and about 15 inches. There are 2 nice runs above this hole with very similar characteristics to the first hole and I could not bring up a fish in either of those spots in 2 days. Strange.
When I got back to the truck my dad relayed a story that he did the unthinkable and put on an ISO spinner at high noon and the fish wanted it. It saved his morning.
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 610pm - 750pm
Weather Conditions: 80 degrees and overcast with a thunderstorm arriving at 750pm
Water Conditions: Clear, decent flow. actual cfs was 43 while the historical average was 68
Insects: nothing noticeable but some fish were rising
We fished an area that was mostly riffle. On the lower end where the riffle was tailing out into slower water the trout were rising. Seemed to be mostly small bugs due to the sips but there were some big splashes for large bugs.
I left the rising trout to the old guys and headed upstream to explore the new water. It was mostly shallow riffle with some pocket water and quicker runs. It seems to be common here to have large boulders in the stream creating some depth and adding speed to the water. I spent extra time in those areas and skipped what at first glance appeared to be shallow riffle. I’m sure I walked past some good pockets, but I worked a number of good places and brought up 7-8 trout. The distant thunder made me fish through very quickly but I was fortunate to land 3 very nice, heavy brown 12”-15”. The amount of heavy Browns reminds me of the browns that filled Kettle Creek in the late 70s early 80s. I had not caught a wild brown in the Willowemoc yet, so the stocking program (whether state or local) must have excellent funding.
Tuesday June 22
================
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 700am - 320pm
Weather Conditions: 60 degrees with light rain until about 130pm
Water Conditions: 62 degrees, Very slightly off color, decent flow. actual cfs was 75 while the historical average was 65
Insects: Saw small dark mayflies and midges
The stream was up due to last night’s rain event. This was much needed to cool water temp and stimulate the brown bite. We arrived at the stream there was a light rain that would continue for hours. However the trout were rising regularly. My father and the 3rd guy in our crew decided they would fish dries through the rain. I opted to start with a streamer hoping the browns would be cooperative. If the stream would have been more murky the bite would have really been on. I did get a lot of chases and strikes but I only landed 7. There were some quality fish including a 19 incher. After 3 streamer passes I decided to try for the rising fish. I put on the BWO that has worked the last few days. It worked very well for awhile, especially while it was raining but as the rain lifted the sledding got a lot tougher. We called it quits after very long morning. I caught 10 more on dries.
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 530pm - 915pm
Weather Conditions: 56 degrees, overcast with wind gusts at times. Got calm in the last hour.
Water Conditions: 60 degrees, slightly off color, decent flow. actual cfs was 80 while the historical average was 65
Insects: midges, yellow drakes, cahills, large BWO, Small BWO, ISO Spinners
Midges were the ticket to start with. Got 7. Then ISO Spinners started so I switched to a fly I tied at lunch that I had high hopes for. It got lots of looks but no takes. The more I watched it the fly wasn’t floating directly upright. I need to tweak the design. However I did use these flies at dark and they worked well. I got 15 total....All browns
My father used a #14 ISO spinner and our buddy caught his on a #14 rusty Spinner and a BWO
Wednesday June 23
================
Willowemoc
Time Fished: 745am - 1020am
Weather Conditions: 46 degrees at 745am warming to 53 when we left. Sunny
Water Conditions: 54 degrees, clear, decent flow. actual cfs was 65 while the historical average was 60
Insects: midges, Small BWO, ISO Spinners, and another larger mayfly that I couldn’t confirm
Before taking to the stream our self imposed quit time was decided to be 10am, but a couple hatches were underway so we stretched that end time ever so slightly. I had lobbied for a noon quit but I was outnumbered and 10am seemed reasonable with a 6 hour drive ahead of us.
When we arrived at the stream there were some rising fish in the riffle and very little activity in the slower water. I was the furthest one from the riffle so I stood for awhile waiting for a rise. At one point I actually tied on a streamer but before I had a chance to cast another angler jumped into the stretch about 40 yds below me. That put an end to my streamer plan since I move constantly downstream when throwing a streamer and I didn’t want to lose my spot. By this time my dad and buddy had each landed a couple trout as the trout in the upper reaches were busy with the hatch’s first wave. Eventually enough insects were hatching to pass through to my location and the trout began feeding and as time when on the rising increased significantly. I alternated fishing a small BWO and an ISO Spinner. When the BWO stopped working I put on the ISO and then vice versa. The hatch just continued to improve and we had to leave a lot of rising fish. It was mostly small BWO Duns and ISO Spinners with at least one other mayfly mixed in. During the high point, there were at least 2 times where all 3 of us had a fish on at the same time.
My dad headed to the truck at 10am, our buddy at 1015am and me at 1020am and we all caught a fish right before we quit. As a group we landed 34 in a few hours and that was a nice way to close out the trip and made for some likely conversation on the long ride home.
Misc Thoughts from 5 days
===================
= None of us had fished in the Catskills
=Roscoe is a nice little town with everything we needed.
=We stayed at the Reynolds House which operates like a motel. They have a do it yourself light breakfast with instant oatmeal, pop tarts, cereal, coffee,...etc. Clean, quiet and convenient to the locations we focused on.
=We ate our 1 meal per day at the Roscoe Diner. A very comprehensive menu, generous helpings and a wide variety of desserts. We were especially pleased with the Catskill burger, Corned Beef and Turkey Club sandwich, Chicken Parmesan, Upstate Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Chicken basket and the Meatloaf.
You can easily walk there from the hotel if you need to.
=There was also a Greek and Italian Resturant in town as well but we never tried them
=Fly Shop fly prices. $3 per fly. I tie my own flies and sometimes buy a neat fly to use it as a pattern, but never for my own use. However since we were asking questions about the area and the shop was very forthcoming, I bought some flies (15). The bad news was those great looking flies rarely worked. I bought 2 types of small BWOs and never had a take in the Willowemoc during 2 different hatches; bought 2 types of Sulphurs and used those in the West Branch during a boiling 30 minute Sulphur hatch with no takes; used ISO emergers in Willowemoc and I did catch a fish on one and had another take. Also bought some cahills, stoneflies but never used them. I wondered later if those particular patterns were available in the shop because they weren’t working.
=Continuing the thought about buying flies, I was trying to buy something different than I tie, like parachutes which I never tie or use myself. I thought I might be pleasantly surprised with something new. What was apparent (and I’m just an average tyer) was regardless if my homemade fly was pristine or if it had imperfections from being eaten several times, it outfished the flies I bought by a wide margin. I caught 66 trout in 4 days with my flies and only 1 trout on fly shop flies but I also used my flies a lot more. Not really sure how to fairly assess this.
=Highway noise. The Willowemoc basically parallels RT 17 so there is a lot of typical highway noise. We found it to be a bit of a distraction. I’m accustomed to the sounds of nature far outweighing the sounds of civilization.
= Speaking of civilization, an odd moment transpired while my father was fishing next to a RT 17 bridge and a pigeon was hit by a car. It landed dead center in the creek (no pun intended) and floated away. He was curious if it was just knocked out but it never moved as it floated away for 100+ yards.
=Not many people fishing. We were surprised at the low numbers of anglers. Had most areas to ourselves
=River confusion. With several locations referred to as Junction Pool we were confused about what stream we were fishing. Took a few days but we figured it out.
=Regret that we didn’t find time for the Beaverkill. We actually thought we fished the Beaverkill on the first day but later we learned it was the East Branch.
= Nice parking spots along Willowemoc. We thought the state did a nice job with angler parking and angler access.
=Fish size in Willowemoc was very impressive. Lots of fat heavy Browns. Seemed like Kettle in the late 70s early 80s.
=Midges were in vogue again. I rarely get to dig into my Midge box but the fish here midged constantly. It felt great to throw the small stuff. I also realized I over tied many midges. My sparse ones worked best.
=Scissors in your vest. I trimmed many flies on this trip to shore up damage after a catch. Also made alterations to get a larger fly to fit a smaller natural.
=A couple thoughts about the flies below.
The Rusty Spinner looks terrible but it actually was just barely alive at the time of the photo. It still had some leg movement. That fly was collected in the morning and it stayed in my pill bottle for 5 hours. So Rusty Spinners were a player in the mornings. What I wanted to point out was that belly photo. The head is almost a dumb bell head shape, then a skinny neck, then a wider chest that slowly tapers to the back. Also note the yellowish color change near the end of the body. Some of the fish were really checking out the flies here in the obviously heavy pressure stream with super slow flows in place. Really paying attention to body shape and color differences on your flies might separate you from the pack.
The ISO Belly shot. Note the yellow legs. You might get away with a couple turns of cream hackle with an upright wing. I didn't tie any but after studying the photo, I wish I had experimented on that one.
Other experiments worked out pretty well. Take note of the details when the fish have seen it all.
Attachments
-
WC Little BWO streamside.jpg -
WC BWO Measured.jpg -
WC BWO Profile.jpg -
WC BWO Belly.jpg -
WC ISO Measured.jpg -
WC ISO Profile.jpg -
WC ISO Belly.jpg -
WC Rusty Spinner Measured.jpg -
WC Rusty Spinner Profile.jpg -
WC Rusty Spinner Belly.jpg -
WC Old Guys in Heaven.jpg -
WC Brn1.jpg -
WC Brn2.jpg -
WC Red Spots1.jpg -
WC 19 inch.jpg -
WC Native.jpg -
WC Chunker.jpg -
WC successful hatch.jpg -
WC Doe Fawn.jpg
