Father's Day Bass

There's nothing I would like more than take my son fishing for Father's Day, but we have at least a few years until that's going to happen. At seven months, he's mostly into steady naps- between brief periods of mayhem. I do hope to strap him into the baby bjorn and fish a safe, non-wading stream for a little while one of these days, just to see if it can be done. In the meantime, this Father's Day I settled for some solo fishing before joining the little guy and mom at home for the afternoon. I first had to make the difficult decision of where to go. I've had precious little time on the Croton streams so far, just one evening session that was short but sweet. I haven't even been to the Amawalk yet this season. I love it there, but I don't always catch fish.  And catching fish was definitely the goal this time. A sunny morning on a pressured stream isn't exactly a sure thing. In the end, I went for the closest thing to guaranteed action there is and took the boat out on Kensico to hunt for smallmouth bass. I've had a lot success this time of year drifting the shorelines and throwing poppers and streamers. It's tough to pass up a sure thing. And being able have a cooler of  beer within reach while fishing on a hot sunny day doesn't hurt either.

I set the alarm for 5:30 and was surprised to see the sun well on its way up already. I moved quickly and by 6:00 I was on the water and rowing to my favorite spot. I usually troll a streamer as I row, and right after I spotted something on the fish finder the rod bowed deeply- just like I hoped it would. This fish was putting up a strong trout-like fight- especially considering this was a 10 weight trolling rod. The ultimate goal on Kenisco, which I have yet to do, is to catch a big reservoir brown on the fly and I thought this might be the day. I was completely shocked when I saw the bright colors of a lowly yellow perch. A big one, actually, but not a brown. Oh well.

I made it to the shoreline where I usually find bass and started casting a big deer hair popper. I had a couple missed strikes, but the bass were mostly pretty elusive for the first hour or so. Finally I tried a streamer dropper, using the popper like an indicator and suddenly smallies started coming out of the woodwork. I didn't see them just cruising around like I have this time of year, they were tucked way into the overhanging branches and waiting to pounce. They went nuts for the black wooly bugger, completely ignoring the popper.  I didn't bother counting, I must have landed well over 20 fish throughout the morning. They were mostly little guys, but there were four bruisers that were a blast to tussle with, complete with jumps and deep runs at the boat. I had the security of 15lb fluoro tippet and an 8 weight rod that gave me the bullying power to get them to the net quickly. As I was fighting the largest one of the day, another big one swam over and followed it so closely I thought for a second I had hooked them both. After I let the first one go, I made another drift past the same tree and that second one came back to take a swipe at my streamer that promptly landed him in the net as well.  By now, I was feeling pretty good about my decision to fish Kenisco, I've never seen that happen on a trout stream. Eventually wind kicked up, like it always does on the reservoir, and the drifts got shorter and harder to manage. It was an easy decision to call it a day- the whole morning had been perfect and beyond satisfying. I don't know how long to wait to take my son fishing, but when he's ready I know we'll have a day just like this one.

Reservoir Smallies

In

After what seems like endless rain, the fishing options have been pretty limited for weeks. The streams are totally blown out- I checked out the East Branch while driving by and it's higher and more chaotic than I've ever seen it. But I wanted to fish.  So, Kensico it was. This morning was perfect reservoir fishing weather- barely any wind and a little overcast. I was able to take my time and row along the shoreline, tossing a popper at the occasional rises I saw. And unlike picky trout, the bass would usually hit the fly when it landed near them. The popper also got some refusals from the deeper dwellers- so I rigged up a streamer dropper and that was the ticket. I hadn't tried this before. Using the popper like an indicator made it easy to see strikes, though the water was so clear I saw most of the fish take it under the surface. Apparently smallies can't resist a black woolly bugger. I love the simplicity of bass fishing. I didn't have to change or adjust this rig all day and the action was steady. It's been a real disappointment to have the streams off the table for almost two weeks in prime trout time- but today made me really appreciate Kensico and the bass that thrive there.

Kensico Bass

Temperatures are high, as is the water on most streams- so I took a break from the trout and hit Kensico for some bass fishing this morning. It's known mostly for its trout fishing, but this reservoir is just full of largemouth and smallmouth bass and they are a blast to catch on the fly. One area in particular is the ideal habitat: flats, drop offs, submerged logs and lots of the rocky structure that smallmouths thrive in. I drifted along the shoreline here and threw a popper at any structure I could see in the clear water. The action was almost nonstop. Every few casts a dark shadow would dart out from cover and just smash the popper on the surface. Or some would leisurely inspect the fly for a minute and then pounce when I gave it a twitch.

Every fish was a scrappy fighter, but one almost took me into the backing. I set the hook and the bass just took off on an immediate, powerful run. I made the mistake of letting it go, thinking I was in deep water and in the clear. Nope. It quickly took most of my line and then just stopped. Naturally, it had found a log on the bottom and gotten tangled up. I rowed over and tried to free it, but it managed to break the tippet and escape with my favorite Orvis sneaky pete. I did get to see it briefly underwater- a football of a largemouth. Definitely would have been the largest fish of the day. Lesson learned. With the 4x tippet I had on, I should have put more pressure on and stopped that run. Those bass dudes on TV horse them in for a reason- bass always run for cover. All in all, it was a really fun morning on the water. If it wasn't so damn hot I could have stayed there all day.