The weather for Wednesday August 5, 2026 was looking good and had me thinking of a trip to Montauk. I posted the trip on the TeamUp Calendar hoping to gather a couple of FATC friends to join me. Don Varner and then Bill Byington were able to go and at the last minute, Glenn Haake got a reprieve from a chore he was working on. We met up at the commuter lot at 6am and made it to Montauk by 8:30. After getting our tags and noting that, they had stocked 700 fish the night before we were antsy to get out there and catch us some. The stream was very clear and the day was beautiful. There were quite a few guys in the stream both spinner and fly anglers.

The mornings fishing went well and all of us were able to put fish in the net using egg patterns perdigon and even a few on dry flies or terrestrials, and as usual, the time went by faster than we like. We had agreed on lunchtime at noon so we all met up back at the picnic table after a cooling dip in the stream. Swimming always wears me out and makes me hungry but all any of us really want to do is eat and then get back at the fishing.  

My intentions for the afternoon were to fish downstream from the boulder with a sinking fly line as I normally have good luck there. Before changing fly lines, I thought I would go ahead and fish a hopper dropper and had a little success with fish going after the top fly more than the dropper.  I then change to a hopper dry fly combo and that really paid off.  The Renegade and the crackleback behind a terrestrial worked really well so I stuck to that tactic the rest of the afternoon.  Going on 3:45 the sky started to darken up and sense we had decided to stop for the day by 4:30 to 5 plus there was some thunder in the area I made a B-line for the naturalist cabin hoping to beat the rain. Bill was just ahead of me crossing by the old bridge and. We made it back to Glenn’s truck and Glenn was already there.  As we were hurrying to get changed Don was just coming down the road to the car and he had to rush to beat the rain. Fortunately, we all climbed into the truck just about the time the rain came down.  

All and all it was a good day and we did not lose much fishing time. Everyone caught a fair number of fish and went home satisfied.  Our choice for dinner that night was J B Malone’s in Salem. They have a nice choice of food on the menu along with a good selection of really cold beer. Unfortunately, for some of us they do not serve pizza.  However, I am sure if you try hard enough you can probably smell Pizza Inn from there.

The drive home went quick and as far as I know, it was quite.  I am glad I do not have to listen to my snoring. By the way Glenn thanks for driving.

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Life is like a short putt, don’t miss it and don’t leave it short!