Against The Wind

Day One: Sometimes you can plan all you want and then nature reminds you who is really in charge. Despite a significant amount of rain on Friday, I had plans to fish this weekend and that was that. Since the Amawalk was a little on the low side last time I figured a little rain might actually improve the situation. So that's where I went on Saturday morning. The second I stepped out of the truck a sound not unlike a waterfall greeted me. Oops. Guess I should have checked the flow online. I decided then that this would be more of a research day (aka getting skunked) and figured I'd hike around and see more of the stream than I have in the past. As I walked along the steep hill that hems in the stream I had a great bird's eye view of the rushing water. I've read many tips that recommend doing this before fishing, but I've never had the patience to not just get in there and start flailing away. Now I see the merit of this approach. This view from above provided such a clear sense of the water and where there might be trout on a normal day. And then, tucked into a tight bend where the water slowed, I saw the broad side of a nice brown as it flashed out from under a branch. It was steadily rising. Whoa. Of course, I scrambled down the hill , rigged up a dry fly and started plotting my approach. I'm not building anything up here- I did not catch this fish. He was deep within some low hanging branches and the various currents made it pretty hard to get anything to drift in there in a natural way. But I gave it a shot. And it might have even worked if I'd thought about it more before I rushed in,  but my efforts soon put this fish to rest from feeding. Still, I liked this spot and decided to nymph for a little while before moving on. I won't go into great detail about the two stockies that I managed to catch, but it was great to bring a couple fish to net when I really didn't expect any at all. And I walked a little more and found some future spots I'll return to for sure. I think this is becoming my favorite stream.

 

Day Two: I've written about my intentions to catch a trout on the fly on Kensico this year and Sunday was my first chance to give it a shot. The weather forecast looked good- cold, but low wind in the morning. I packed up a few rods and my boat gear and got on the water by 7am, which was probably on the late side for Kensico. One thing I've learned about reservoir fishing is that you really want to be there at dawn. There was already a slight breeze in the air, which was a really bad sign. By 8:00 it was officially windy. This was not supposed to happen, what about that forecast? I rowed around a bit, trolling a streamer on sink tip line, but it was just plain unpleasant. The wind was biting cold and I was pretty sure my streamer wasn't even close to being deep enough. I decided to admit defeat and come back another day. I saw a lot of other boats out there,  looking determined and surely cursing the weather channel as they rowed into the wind. Oh well. It's only April.