Ah, the tricks those Red Gods love to play upon helpless anglers! I received a call from my friend Dennis Menscer yesterday to ask if I was going fishing. Of course, I was. He then asked me if I would mind taking a buddy along. He did not feel up to going fishing himself, and as usual he has a lot of work in the rod shop.
I was happy to meet Kevin, feeling confident that a friend of my friend was a good angler and a good guy. Kevin was on the last day of a visit from his home in Massachusetts, and as the day evolved, we found we had other people and other rivers in common.
Before I drove over to meet him, I had tied half a dozen of the dry flies that had brought results the previous day. I had already tied several to add to my boxes while editing my column for the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild Gazette. I was hoping to meet the same hatch I fished on Wednesday and wanted Kevin to enjoy his last afternoon of fishing in the Catskills. I did mention that the winds where we were headed were forecast to be out of the North/Northwest and 10 to 15 mph, adding that the reach of water ran East/West. Sometimes forecast is a dirty word.
Kevin and I got along very well, talking as we walked along the riverbank. Conditions looked reasonable upon our arrival, and we took a few moments to cast each other’s fly rods and continue our conversation while we awaited the hatch. I carried a vintage Thomas & Thomas Paradigm, and Kevin a Dennis Menscer rod I was not familiar with. We shared our praises for both of these fine bamboo rods, and Kevin mentioned he “knew those guys” at T&T, as the company is more or less in his backyard.
It wasn’t too long after our casting session that the winds began to build, and things got out of hand very quickly. At one point, we were sitting on the bank talking for half an hour or more, while those winds continuously blew big rolling whitecaps upstream. It looked quite impressive on that normally quiet pool, at least if you are surf fishing.
I learned that Kevin is the guy that Dennis designed his eight-foot two weight rod for. I have mentioned that rod before and how the fellow who ordered the first one fished schoolie stripers with it, and yes, Kevin confirmed the rod is still going strong.
The wind did calm somewhat later on in the afternoon. There were some mayflies coming off then, but the trout decided they had better things to do than hunt the mayflies on the surface intermixed with all of the seed pods, leaf litter, etcetera that the wind showered the river with. We both gave it a try, casting to a one-time rise here and there, even though it was clearly not a fishing day. I even hung in there a little later after Kevin waved and headed back to Massachusetts.
I have attempted to fly fish in winds in excess of fifty mph more than once. I can recall a spring day chasing steelhead on Elk Creek near Erie, Pennsylvania where one gust pushed me backwards right to the brink of falling backwards into a deep, fast, bouldery steelhead run. Hey, we’ve only got so many days.
If you notice a guy standing in or along a Catskill river, laughing at windblown whitecaps rolling up stream, that just might be me. Wave before you use the sense God gave you and head back to your car.
Bright Waters Catskill 