Tenkara Fishing the Mountain Pond and Fly Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware in the Catskills

I caught many brookies with a tenkara rod in the above Catskills mountain pond yesterday morning.

Whatever flies I used, the fish took them.

I got so many brookies in this pond that I probably caught more than the total I got in the mountain streams so far this season, though most of them were small.

In the late afternoon I went to the Upper Game-land Pool in the West Branch of the Delaware.
Today only several  fishermen were there.  After 7 o'clock, I was the only one left.
The big pool was all mine.

When I first arrived, there were not many bugs on the water or rising fish.
Later when I was alone, I spotted a good size fish rising a little downstream from me.
It was the only good size fish rising within my sight.
I presented a few kinds of duns, then I threw a #16 pheasant tail floating nymph which a 17+ inches brown took.
Well, that was it!
Even more bugs were drifting on the water in the late evening, I saw no more good size fish rising.

                         When I was leaving, the super moon was rising above the Catskills Mountains.

Exploring Mountain Streams and Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware in the Catskills ( IV )

Yesterday I took my usual weekend fishing trip to the Catskills' mountain streams and the West Branch of the Delaware.
I fished the Mongaup Creek in the state land with a tenkara rod.  It is one of the branches of upper Willowemoc Creek.

I caught some browns in the lower section and brookies in the upper section of the stream.

 

There is a state campground in the middle of the mountain, so the traffic on the road along the stream was busy yesterday. Even though the stream was beautiful, the noisy traffic took away my feeling of solitude of fishing in such a mountain stream.

I started fishing in the West Branch a little earlier than usual, at around 3 o'clock.
The cool and cloudy weather brought more insects hatching on the water, and this brought more fish rising.

Last week when I fished with no-hackle flies, I got a 17-inch brown.
The wing material for those flies is Shimazaki Flywing III. But it doesn't last long in the water, so I look for some strong material that can also be easily obtained.
My wife gave me a sheet of white and a sheet of lilac mesh material from her craft drawer.
They seem to be stronger than the Shimazaki, so I make aluminum wing burners to shape the wing of this new material. The finished flies look good to my eyes, but they didn't attract any fish yesterday. They probably need some refinements.

In the early afternoon, I couldn't catch any fish though they were rising.
At dusk they seemed to become less cautious, and a 17-18" brown took my CDC sulphur dun.
The fish in the West Branch are very strong. I had quite a battle with this brown of so-so size in this river.