Submitted by:  Bob Palish

On a day when the temperatures were predicted to be 95 degrees, 3 retired guys decided that would be a good day to head to Montauk to do a little fishing, and enjoy the heat.  So, on June 11, 2026, Larry Mangels and Don Varner met me (Bob Palisch)  at the park n ride lot in Eureka at 6:15 AM and we headed out.  We reached the naturalist’ cabin around 8:45 AM.  Plenty of time to test out our skills! 

The park was a little more crowded than we expected, with many families also testing out their skills.  To my surprise, there were a lot of children and moms fly fishing, which I always like to see. 

We met back at the cabin for lunch and compared notes. Nobody knocked it out of the park in the morning, fishing was tough and the fish seemed to ignore almost everything we threw out.  That being said, nobody got skunked in the morning, we all caught fish.  The afternoon was better for fishing (catching) with fish biting on a lot of different flies – blowfly, mopfly, zebra midge and a few others.  We met up at 4:45 and compared notes, everyone did better in the afternoon with some double digit catches for the day. 

Also, the temperatures never got to 95, the day was mid 80’s with a nice breeze to keep us cool.  Also, the wet wading always seems to help on those really hot days.  We celebrated by going to a new place to most FATC members in Salem, the Yangtze Chinese buffet.  I know that I thoroughly enjoyed the buffet, which had plenty to offer – including some nice desserts.  We got back to the lot around 8:15 PM and headed home after a long, full day of fishing.  Fishing, friends and food; win-win-win.  We’d love to have you join us on the next trip.  Watch the FATC calendar and your email for such an announcement.