June 6th, 2009: The Black River with Bob's TU buddies

5:30 am. Bob and Karen's house. Good coffee. Nice Landscaping stones. Probably a little too early.

7:00 am. Boonville Burger King. Crap. Still too early. More coffee.

7:30 am. Bob's TU buddies are all on time, and it's on to the Black River. We drove down into Hawkinsville and took Edmonds Road to the closed bridge and impromptu parking/picnic area. It was here that Dave planned to set up lunch in the afternoon. Bob gave a quick rundown of the waters and fly strategy for the day as I sluthed the hatches and bug activity on the bridge. Bob wanted to hike up stream a half a mile and work our way back to the bridge. It sounded like a good idea, but I wish I looked at a topographical map first. I'm sure that the deer and imaginary mountain goats handled the trail fine, but I was petrified. Nothing like a 1 foot wide trail of sand and rotted wood on a 45 degree incline sloping down 50 or 60 feet to the river below. Mom? Thanks for buying me the "studded" Simm's Freestones.

By about the 1/4 mile mark the trail got off of the "cliff" and leveled out into a bog area. Although there were posted signs, there was also a public fishing sign among them. Naturally, we followed the instructions of the public access sign. Let me just say that this river is beautiful. And incredibly fishy.And very fisherman friendly in access, casting clearance, and even stream bed traction. It just made you want to explore all day, because around every bend was even more nice water. The day's statistics: air temps in the upper 60's to low 70's, water temps from 60 to 66, and the water level was low and clear. We found a smooth pool book-ended with some pleasant riffles with fish rising. I hooked up on one but found the fish to be all too picky. We continued down through the pocket water. Bob brought up a small mouth bass and lost a nice fish. I landed a few more small stockies and lost a few flies in the process. Despite the multitude of hatches, the key was skittering a bushy fly through the pockets. There really was too much nice water to cover and it was getting to be lunch time.

Lunch was great. Thanks Dave for cooking and organizing. Thanks everyone for all the food. If only we had some chopped onions to go with the burgers...

We decided to finish out the day at the pool below the bridge. Figuring out what they were feeding on proved to be difficult at first, because there were a few caddis and midge species about, as well as march browns, cornuta olives, light cahills, and quill gordons in various stages throughout the day. Once Bob got a rusty spinner on it was obvious what they were taking. I just want to go on record as saying that although I lost count of how many fish I caught, I really didn't catch that many ;)

As usual, a great day with the guys. The Black River did not disappoint today.

Muddler

May 23rd continued...

OK, so I got too wrapped up with trying to post the pictures and lost track of the actual story. Here's the recap of the day...

Bob had discovered this upper section of the East Branch of Fish Creek on a recon mission disguised as a rock quest for his wife Karen's landscaping projects. Bob is cunning like that, and he has a super-human ability of looking on a map and being able to visualize how nice a body of water looks. Too bad his telepathic powers don't allow him to get into the minds of the trout. It would've helped that morning. The East Branch of Fish Creek is beautiful, but the brook trout didn't get the memo that they were supposed to feed ravenously on what ever I threw at them. I'm sure it was a problem with the DEC home offices, because the brook trout on the upper West Canada Creek didn't get the memo either. I mean, they're brook trout for God's sake. They don't get as big and aren"t as hardy as other trout species (I know - they're actually a char and not a trout, but for argument sake stay with me). The only thing going for them is their vibrant colors and the penchant for eating any fly thrown in front of them. Stupid fish, jeesh....

So, Bob hooked up on a brookie and I had two hits but no takers. Time for an early lunch and then on to the upper West Canada Creek. Wow. Beautiful water...again. Stupid brook trout...again. Bob brought up 4 more. I couldn't even get a hit on a wooly bugger. Hmmm. Maybe I'm underestimating Bob's telepathic powers. Fortunately, the black flies were everywhere, making the experience even more enjoying. If it wasn't such a beautiful place and my favorite river, I might have gotten a little discouraged. OK...well.....how about the lower West Canada.....

We decided to try a few spots on the lower West Canada that had been mentioned in Paul Keesler's book. First spot? McDiermid's run. We followed the map in the book to the access trail. Wait.......no trail? Posted? Crap. OK.... well.......how about Powers Bend? Ah-ha! No black flies! smart stockies that hit most flies and strike indicators for good measure! Woot!! Both Bob and I scored doubles - meaning a fish on the indicator fly and one on the dropper fly at the same time. We both lost count of how many smart stocked browns we caught. Bob even got into a nice 16 incher.

We took a break to rest our backs, grab a bite to eat, and call the wives. Had a nice conversation with a guy vacationing in the area, and lost the pool to some spin fishermen that descended on the spot like raccoons to road kill. Oh well. We decided to finish out the day at the run below the Trenton Falls bridge. No other fishermen there - go figure. A Saturday night on Memorial Day weekend and we had it all to ourselves. We both got into some decent fish, including a 16 inch rainbow trout that slammed a golden stone nymph I was swinging through the run.

All in all, a great day. A little slow at first, but the good old West Canada Creek saved the day. Too bad about Fish Creek, but something tells me we'll be back. It looks too good to only fish once....

Tight Lines,

Muddler