Finally, after eight years of searching and hunting, someone caught Walter (that SOB).  If you don’t know who Walter is then refer to the movie On Golden Pond.  Eight years ago, we saw Walter sunning himself in the cool waters of the Current river in Montauk State park.  All we could do is watch him, amazed by his size. And then, just like that, he was gone.  We even named the section of water where we first saw him Walter’s Stretch, knowing that someday we would meet again.  Well, it finally happened.  Walter succumbed to the son of San Juan.  But more on this later.

Five intrepid FATC fly fishers took off Monday to fish the Montauk area – Larry Farrar, Al Blair, Jim Craig, Kenny Klimes, and Matt McClure.  Another FATC, Alex Zambrano and his friend, were going to meet us there as they were doing a little camping for a few days.

It was a cold morning with a lot of dampness in the air.  The weather report said it would get into the high 40’s during the day but it never did.  It was the kind of cold that chills you to the bone. The only thing that could warm us up would be if the fishing was good. And, it was!!  As Al Blair would say the fishing was “Great” or did he change that to “Outstanding!”.  Yes, the cows were spread out and feeding on the way up to the river.  Larry always reminds us of the “cow report”.

Kenny and Larry fished together starting at the top of the park.  It was good for two reasons. They haven’t fished together in a long time and well, the fishing was just that – good. Larry used his infamous WWF rig (that’s the Wacky Worm Farrar rig).  He used an indicator rig with a split shot followed by a pale pink chenille worm and a pheasant tail nymph (no bead head).  There was something about that rig that made the trout go crazy and he caught around 70% of the fish on the small pheasant tail nymph.  Kenny did some Euro-style nymphing and used several different nymphs.  All I can say is the trout were hungry.

Jim, Al and Matt fished a little further downstream and hammered them on the cerise worm. At lunch Al said he wanted to go home now because it can’t get any better than this – it did!! As the three stayed in the park for the afternoon, Kenny and Larry went and fished the Campground stretch to the closed off section of the river.  They too did well – very well.  You could here the sound of “BAM” every time a trout gobbled up Larry’s PT nymph.

Ok, let’s get back to Walter.  Jim Craig, who has been with the FATC for two years but has become addicted to the ways of the fly fisher, threw a son of San Juan into the dark waters of Walter’s stretch (where else would Walter live?).  A strike!! The fight was on. Jim’s first thought was how am I going to land this thing!  But he did and it was hanging half way out of his net.  An elderly couple happened to be near him to take some pictures. Al was downstream from him but all he could do was say, “Wow, Oh My!!”.

Well, the legend of Walter is not fictional anymore – Bigfoot is, Santa is, Lochness monster is but not Walter. We finally got him. So, Jim took him home to eat for supper that night – NO, I’M JUST KIDDING TO SEE IF YOU WERE STILL READING THIS!!  Jim released him back into Walter’s stretch so that the legend of Walter, that SOB, can continue.  The celebration of catching Walter was topped off by fellowship dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Sullivan – El Nopal (the cactus).