What a splendid day as six FATC brothers and one FATC candidate enjoyed the Montauk Park and Current River area. The weather was splendid, fellowship splendid and the fishing splendidly challenging on this glorious autumn day. We welcomed Al Harper on his first FATC trip and his buddy David Broder who met us at the park and, who is looking forward to the next Kenny’s class, along with Scott Payne, Steve Baker, Brian Yost, Dan Staggenborg and Mike Oldani made the trip. Dan was kind enough to show Al and David where to fish because both had limited experience fishing inside the park. In typical FATC fashion we all helped mentor David, because he did not have much experience fishing with a fly rod.
We fished the park in the morning where the water was extremely low and clear. Fishing was slow but, a few rainbows were brought into the net. We encountered a huge BWO hatch as we entered the water by the spring in the upper fly only section. Thinking maybe some dry fly action, but it was wishful thinking. Al did catch a couple on a dry fly after the hatch lifted. Flies that seem to bring fish to the net in the morning were emerger patterns, soft hackles, perdigon, and a surprise fly was an articulated wooly bugger. Scott said the articulated wooly worked well for him in the morning. King soft hackle Brian had a successful morning swinging an orange soft hackle that continued to work for him in the afternoon. Unbelievable, no action on the cerise worm in this section of the park. We did continue to see BWO hatches throughout the morning that might explain why we had some success with the soft hackles and emerger fly patterns. Again, the bite was slow for the majority.
We met back at the picnic table for our fellowship lunch. It was good to see FATC brother Charlie Trankler joining us for lunch but, had to leave after lunch for the trip back home. The discussion turned to our strategy for the afternoon fishing session.
The majority fished the afternoon below the cable. The fishing did picked up. We continued to see BWO hatches throughout the day and noticed the water level below the cable was the lowest that some of us has ever seen. King soft hackle Brian continued to slay the fish with the orange soft hackle. The majority of the fish brought to net were in the water riffles below the cable. Soft hackles and perdigons were the star flies below the cable. We were thinking with the low water conditions that oxygen levels were low in the water. Reason why the fishing was challenging. Dan, Al and David decided to go back inside the park to meet up with Scott & Steve at the boulders. Scott had a Sensei like afternoon bringing many fish to the net and helping FATC candidate David catch his first trout on a fly rod. Scott made an observation that he thought the trout were spawning and seen indications of redds. The flies that seem to work in the afternoon for the fly only section of the park were egg patterns and emergers.
We all met inside the park to caravan for fellowship dinner at Hicks BBQ. Try to get on the water to enjoy the autumn splendors. Tightlines everyone!
