Jim Craig and Glenn Haake decided to see if it was possible to practice good hygiene and social distancing while fishing at Montauk on Saturday, April 4th. They drove separately, meeting at the conservation shack around 8:30. As they arrived, there were a few others on the water, who seemed to leave within a couple of hours. Jim did begin “channeling” Kenny Klimes trying to recruit a couple of guys from Ft. Leonard Wood (from a distance).
The river was high, a bit murky, running fast and empty of people and seemingly fish (stocking stopped over a week ago). You didn’t see groups of fish collected in the poos. Jim did very well all-day euro-nymphing a pink worm, while Glenn struggled in the morning, catching one on a wooly bugger.
After fishing through a cold rain shower, the duo broke for lunch, eating on the porch of the conservation shack to get dry and warm up. After lunch the weather dried and warmed by a couple of degrees. Glenn decided to try his luck with a soft hackle in shallow fast-moving water and had a blast many in the net and having several others he should have. Jim continued to kill it with his pink worm.
Toward the end of the day they went below the bridge and put a few more in the net. At 4:30 they called it a day, waived to each other from a far and drove home separately.
Most fish were caught on either a pink worm or a soft hackle, with a couple falling for a black or brown wooly bugger.
It was a strange FATC trip, if you’re careful you can fish and stay safe at the same time.
