The humidity vanished and the day feels comfortable, a beautiful Catskill Summer day! Stalking early, but not quite at dawn today, there was no fog and I was searching for some movement. Very much a contrast to yesterday, when I could see little as I made my entry into the river.
Yesterday threw me a curve and I had to make do without the right fly. The river dealt an honest surprise: moths. These critters were vibrating while spread eagled onto the surface, making the damnedest fish call I have seen on a Catskill river. They appeared to be aquatic, emerging from below, but very few seemed capable of flight. I guessed that chilled fog was responsible. When a moth floated over a serious trout… kaboom!
I had nothing to match these things, not even close, so I dug out the few caddis flies I had in my vest. I took a small brownie, and missed a couple like sized fellows, but that was early before the show began. My Trout Bug took a nice fish early as well, but my best idea was to tie on a size 18 tan CDX caddis and twitch around one of the splash zones after a big boy ate his moth.
I twitched over a number of these guys, but that 18 wasn’t fooling fish busting moths with about a size 14 body and big, wide wings. I tried other flies, figuring excited fish would take a meaty terrestrial, but that wasn’t working either. It was the CDX or nothing.
Why a size 18 caddis? Well, this fly has taken many very large trout, and it doesn’t take a full blown caddis hatch. I am talking about trout well in excess of twenty inches. The fly is so good, I kept it a secret for more than fifteen years, sharing with just two friends who were sworn to secrecy.
So, with nothing to come anywhere near a match, I kept fishing that CDX. One big blast too many perhaps, but I stayed with the program… and it worked. The Leonard laid the little fly out fifty feet, just above the last blast blown in the quiet surface… twitch, twitch…kaboom!
That 55-year-old bamboo rod got a workout! The LRH screams, and then I crank, screams again, I crank again… and eventually twenty-four beautiful inches of wild Catskill brown trout resides in my net!
I spent a long day on the river trying to repeat that with my little caddis, but I guess lightning prefers singular strikes. When I got home, I set out to tie half a dozen flies to imitate those moths. I had no idea if that would be a one-time frenzy, or if I would walk out of the river this afternoon feeling like I was the greatest fly fisherman in the world. Those flies looked great, but Nature has her ways.
There were some moths around. Not as many, and the explosion rises did not come. Some trout ate moths, though usually with a normal riseform. I took a hard fighting 22-inch brownie on my moth pattern. My best brownie of the day was right between that one and yesterday’s, and he took a size 17 Grizzly Beetle after ignoring several casts with the moth. I do wonder if I had had those flies yesterday, when the trout were crazy for them. Maybe some other year in the future I will get to find out, at least if I remember to be certain a few are in one of my summer boxes.
Bright Waters Catskill 