High Catskills

Sunrise, and my first cup of coffee is waking me to action. I’ll find some breakfast momentarily, and then that second cup will finish the job. I have packed a special little bamboo rod, waist waders, my tiniest CFO reel, and a single small box of dry flies. A long span of years has passed since I have ventured toward any of the smallest waters for wild brook trout, and the High Catskills are yet an unexplored arena.

It was a pleasant drive on a bright morning, winding higher after leaving the Quickway behind, and I met my friend Chuck on one of those winding mountain roads as he reconnoitered the stream. We had chosen this one with the kind advice of Ed Ostapczuk, Catskill angling sage and author whose fifty years haunting these falls and hollows gives him a treasure trove of knowledge. Ed treasures the High Catskills and the lovely wild char native to these sylvan glides of bright water.

I am yet to get my stream legs, even least my mountain legs, and quickly found the challenges of angling in the thin flows which June provided. It has been nearly twenty years since my last brook trout fishing along Pennsylvania streams, and though I enjoyed the tiny six-foot perfect bamboo rod Tom Smithwick made for me two years ago, I erred in assembling the right leader. The 14 to 16-foot leaders I fish on our tailwaters have no place here, and the short leader I had put hastily together proved lacking a proper taper. My presentation suffered.

A dumped dry fly upon inches of water fools no wild trout, and I didn’t. I did enjoy the company and the scenery. Scrambling up the rocky banks, we took a break after a while to hike back to our cars and enjoy our sandwiches. I chose to head down from the heights and try the lone upper public access on the Neversink, while Chuck decided to stay with the highlands where he found success later in the afternoon. My luck failed to improve, as the lone public access and parking near Claryville was mobbed beyond capacity, with fishing impossible.

I drove on down and homeward, while my friend enjoyed the charms of our lone native trout.

I hope our Catskill Summer will feature greater gifts of rainfall than these past few, and we will enjoy another chance to visit the High Catskills with better flows! I’ll be sure to fashion a couple of short dry fly leaders which suit these environs, and tie half a dozen Fox Squirrel fur dries that fit perfectly here. We would love to find the day these bountiful caddis cases release their occupants to the profit of beautiful and hardy little trout, the true natives of these historic Catskill rivers!