West Branch & the 75

I was up there this past week and ended up being quoted in the NY state report on the fishing quality in the new no-kill section. I have taken bigger fish but never a larger fish in the rush of fast deep pocket water. The highlight in the pocket water was a 19" brown struck mid river with all the associated turbulance of fast pocket water. This was a beast who bent the hook to near ruin and failure.

 

I also managed to find and fish 2 new brooks one of which was prolific including a 17"+ brown (had to be stocked). The other one held a Heritage Strain of natives, one which went a full 16" and was the beast this side of Labrador.

 

Finally getting timing down to the point where i could cram all this into my 2-3 solo personal days a year and culminate all this with ending on a flat riffle that holds a ludicrous number of fish on the ride home.

I hit the riffle at 5 pm. The water was barely wadeable, 3 days eirlier I could not even drop in along the margin. I started with a a #12 puffy EHC. Twenty+ fish later i switched to a Picket Fence and went with out a bump for about 6-8 minutes. I quickly switched to an Ausable Wulff (tied by Fran himself). After about 50+ fish tried to get a proxy on the count (although i knew this would be a night for the books, i find it hard to keep count after 5 or 6 fish anyway). So i counted 12 fish in a 20 minute period and this seemed about right compared to the every cast or every other cast catch rate. Yes i have read John and others who say it is not possible... Well i have nothing to prove and no one really cares but over the 4 hours this rate works out to about 150 fish, even if you discount the liar factor and 8 minute fishless period well from 5-9 i took well over 100 trout mostly rainbows (about 6 to 1 over browns) and 1 Chub. most fish were in the 12-14" range but I also had one decent fish a brown that went about 17".

The night was big by any standard and yes i could have been more like Nick Lyons and left afteran hour (we don't need to catch them all) but i stayed and likely would stillbe on the river now (but i "had to go" after 4 hours, and yes i bagged it out).

The highlight was not the catching, but rather "knowing" that it was going to happen like the old guy in "Old Guys", i knew this day, weather, temperature, timing and water level was going to hit big and planed to be there at zero hour and that was fun.

June is a magic month up north, this trip made up (almost) for only being out 3 days this year.

Favorite brook

I was up at 4am and on the water before 7am. I took 3 fine fish by the first pool and by 9 am I put in just above where i usually end my day. Initally i fished a lot of empty water or perhaps I just did not hit my lines. After about an hour & 1/2, I had reached the farthest point i had ever been. The river here drops into a flume and just above it consolidates and flows into a plunge pool by a large erratic. I tried it several dry flies all with no luck.

After a while I switched to a bead prince nymph (not my best fly based on the past), but i highsticked it through the pool, at first too high. I was afraid if i showed the stick it would spook the pool. Turns out i did not have to worry the water was so foamy & turbid.  On the next cast i sent it upstream into the falls and it got caught and sunk quickly. The result was a good fish with real weight for this river and after a short but good fight i landed the 2nd biggest fish from this small water, it was 11.5" or slightly better. A male with bold colors and perfect fins, his mouth was oversized (even for a borrkie) and filled with the gluttony of a spring male. He had (in addition to my prince nymph) 2 of the largest millipedes I have ever seen.

The general rule is one such fish to a pool but I gave it another flip Just-in-case. This time the line just stopped as though caught on a rock or stick. As i reached over the bolder i saw the fish was 3" + over the size of the male and perhaps even more. I was sure fine sport was upon me but unfortunately the fish just resisted, but she (it was a female) did not run. I eventually swung her around the back of the bolder and held a fish that went a bit over 15", which made this my 2nd best native ever and it was a 2nd fish from the pool.
As i headed up to move on to the next pool i could not help but to want to see how fecund the pool was and shortly flicked back into the falls. By now i had the rhythm and depth down. A fine male took and raced up the short pool and dove as far as he could. In the end he too was a bright and bold male with colors ablaze. Unfortunately he was the runt of the litter and came in about 10.25" or so. This was the first time i had taken 3 - 10" plus from this river in a single day, let alone a single pool and while my top fish still stands ( i hope he always will) taking these 3 made for a very satisfying day.

I started my way back down by 1 pm had reached the mid point, by 2 an old fellow passed with a sad knowing look, rough day?

Not really but, "Yes" was all i could say...