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.

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

I fished with a tenkara rod in the upper Willowemoc Creek in the state land and its branch, Fir Brook yesterday.
The lower part of Fir Brook has a long pubic fishing right bank. It is a very beautiful stream and looks like a spring creek. The photos above and below are Fir Brook.
Both streams are brookie water and easy to access.

In the evening I fished in the Upper Game Land Pool in the West Branch of the Delaware.

Last two times here I caught only two small fish.
So for these picky trouts, I added no hackle flies in my fly boxes.
I had several good experiences with these flies which saved my day while all other flies failed.
But I haven't tied this pattern for a long time since CDC becomes popular, and it beomes my favorite material.

 

The no hackle flies did save my day yesterday.
When fish started taking sulphur mayflies on the water, I caught a 17-inch brown with a #18 no hackle sulphur fly.
Later when darkness almost covered the river, I caught one more brown with a hackle wing isonyshia spinner fly, the largest fly in my fly boxes.

I was happy that the no hackle flies worked for these picky trouts.   I truly had a memorable day.

 

Steve Farrar's Flash Blend Fly

 The top fly is last year's 8-inch yak hair  bunker  with EZ body head which weighs 5g.  The new ones (middle and bottom) weigh only 3g.

My new saltwater season will be coming in a week or two.      
I have prepared some new flies.
Since I am a budget fly fisherman, I don't use many kinds of material for tying.
But when I saw the video of the mullet fly tying with the SF flash blend in YouTube, I was very
impressed by this material forming the bulky body fly so quickly and easily.

I ordered several different colors of SF Flash Blend online to add to my few lists of the saltwater fly material.

This material is so light and voluminous that one can make bulky flies easily with less material.
These qualities are what I have been looking for.
In the YouTube video, eyes were glued to the body directly.
But I am not sure whether this way of attaching the eyes is durable enough or not.  So I use pieces of clear plastic as the eye bases and tied them on the hook shank.

Last year's early spring, I saw a lot of  bunker activities in the Little Neck Bay and it will be my early season striper fishing spot.
If bunkers appear again like last year, I will use this new fly.
Let's see.

Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River (No.2)

The East Branch of the Delaware River

The West Branch of the "D" is considered to be the best trout fishing river in the east coast.
One of the reasons is that there is quite a bit of possibility for fishermen catching 20+ inches trout with dry-flies.
Even though I didn't catch such a "big shot" last week, I have to say fishing here has better days than some good days in other rivers.

I'd like to talk about a funny experience I had fishing in the East Branch of the "D" with my wife several years ago.         

We were drawn by an article on Fly Fishermen magazine which said we could fish large trouts with dry-flies when a lot of Green Drake hatched during the two weeks period in spring time, and these large trouts would surface to eat them.

Green Drake Fly (tied several years ago) 

To prepare for the trip, I spent a lot of time tying fancy Green Drake flies.  

When my wife and I arrived at one of the pools of the East Branch of the "D", many fishermen (even from Canada) had already lined up from the head of the pool to the end - they probably read the same article. We had no choice but to squeeze ourselves to the end of the line.  All of us were waiting motionlessly for the Green Drake hatches and spinner falls till dark, but Nothing Happened!  Everyone was very disappointed. We were in the water for about two hours.  

I remembered hearing a guy said, "What the hell are we doing here?" while he was leaving.  We also left, so did other fishermen.

After this trip to the East Branch, I returned there a couple of times without much luck either.
On the other hand, fishing the West Branch is challenging, but I have great fun.

I have made one more video of last week's trip. Please enjoy.

      

                             

Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River

I fished the West Branch of the Delaware River for five days last week.
The weather was good most of the days except the first day which had some scatter shower.
But it turned out to be the best day for fishing as fish was the most active.
As the days went, fish became less and less active, so did the insects.
I had to spend the whole day wandering around the River and searching for rising fish, and yet not much luck.

In the evening of the second day, by chance I found a spot in the middle of a huge pool where decent size fish came up every evening after other fishermen had left, and I was the only one staying behind.
This spot saved my days. I could catch 2 or 3 around 15-inch fish there in the last half to one hour before dark.
I caught most of the fish in this spot than any other places.

The largest fish I caught there was a 17-inch brown with my iso dun, and it was also the last fish of this trip.

 My extended foam body Isonychia Dun and Spinner Fly:

 I especially tied these large flies for this fishing trip.
 Iso is supposed to be in season now in the Upper
 Delaware River.
 It took me a lot of time to tie each of them. Imagine
 I had to tie several.
 The point of these files are:  they are unsinkable
 because of their foam bodies.
 I must say my effort was paid off by catching the        
17-inch brown, the largest fish of this trip.

 Delaware Isonychia Mayfly