A small FATC group decided to fish on Thursday 8-14-25. Bob Hassett, Don Varner and Steve Baker met up at the commuter lot at 5:45 am and made the drive to Montauk. The weather was in the low 70’s to start out and not expected to get above 90*. It was comfortable and we all decided to wet wade. After getting our tags and gearing up we all went different ways with plans to meet for lunch at noon.

Bob and Don headed upstream and I headed down to the boulder. There were 4 guys fishing slightly below the boulder so I went just above them. There seemed to be a hatch going on so I tied on a hopper pattern with a Griffiths gnat on as a dropper. This wasn’t getting any interest so I tried dropping a midge below the hopper and still no takers. I then headed downstream and tied a sparkle Caddis under the hopper. That turned out to be the ticket and I ended up catching 10 fish before lunch. Some on the Caddis and some on a Crackleback. I also got some takes on the hopper. When the fish go after the hopper you better be ready because they don’t hesitate. 

We met at the Stag tables for lunch and I found that Bob had similar luck using a blow torch, lwt [little white thing], hop [house of payne], p&p [primrose and pearl] midge. Don also did well using orange mop fly, rainbow egg pattern, cream San Juan worm, and a little white thing. We all noticed that the stream was fishing much better and that there were more fish with better size. 

We finished with lunch and got back to the stream for more fishing with plans to quit at 4:30 and call it a day. 

The afternoons fishing was even more productive for me. I had switched to my sinking fly line and started stripping a Crackleback and then a wispy. I caught a few up by the blue hole but then decided to go back to the boulder for the rest of the day. I ran across Bob and Don hogging the area by the boulder so I made my way past them. I continued with stripping the sinking line and ended up having a good afternoon. It’s nice to have different ways of fishing so you can stay interested. I believe that we all had a good day of fishing and when you consider the fellowship rewards you just can’t beat it. 

It seems as though by the time the end of the day comes around everyone is beat and it takes a strong effort to get ready to go and make the long drive home. But then all we have to do is focus on getting to American Taco and It’s all good. The day, the fishing, the fellowship and the food and before we know it on the way we are already talking about the next trip.