9/29/2023

Apparently, I’m not the only one that gets the urge to fish and makes it happen all in a few days.  I posted the trip on Monday and by Friday I had nine guys ready to join me on the trip.  Jim Craig, Jim Franke, and Scott Payne would meet at the commuter lot and ride together as did Bob Hassett and Vernon Preston.  My plan was to pick up Don Varner at his house and drive out highway 100 to I-44 to the St. Claire commuter lot to pick up Bill Byington on our way to Montauk.  We would also be joined by a new FATC member, Ryan Young,who would drive himself since he needed to return early.

We all eventually met up at the Naturalist Cabin with tags in hand ready to hunt down the 300 newly stocked fish plus existing trout that survived through the weekend in the stream.  The weather promised to be perfect starting out in the low 60’s and reaching into the upper 80’s in the afternoon.  As has been the case for the last couple of months, the water level was very low and gin clear.  Which told us the order of the day was to be stealthy and to use small flies.

After gearing up, several of us migrated to the boulder area, everyone’s favorite honey hole lately.  Scott was above the boulder and was immediately catching fish, I’m sure, on his favorite Egg and HOP rig.  Ryan was just below the boulder, and Jim and I were fishing the near side across from the boulder.  Jim had on a Walt’s Worm and I had tied on a Duracell Fly with a Perdigon Dropper, one that is becoming a favorite for me.  The action started out good with all of us netting a couple of fish.  We noticed fish coming to the surface and I switched to a dry fly as did Ryan.  We both got a few hits but didn’t get any to the net.  I found myself staying in one area too long and was about to move, but decided it was close enough to lunch and headed to the picnic tables.

At lunch everyone reported catching at least one fish on various flies.  Crackle Backs, Egg with the Hop Dropper, Walt’s Worm, Perdigons, and Crain Fly Larva were used with various other flies.  We all went in separate directions after lunch with the plan to meet back at the cars at 5pm.

I decided to work my way up stream with the intention of not staying in one place too long and trying a variety of midges, eggs and San Juan worms with no action at all.  I ended up just above the cut bank where I came across Bill.  His luck wasn’t any better and as I looked up stream, I could see anglers spaced out all the way to the blue hole.  In order to keep moving, I got out and walked up to the spring and found I had it all to myself.  Crossing over to the riffle where the spring meets Pigeon Creek, I was rewarded with a nice rainbow and had a couple of good misses before netting one more there.  I moved down through that run and past the riffle to the blue hole.  Tying on a green Perdigon under the Bennett Spring Killer, I managed to catch a couple more fish.  Before I knew it, it was almost 5 o’clock and I had to give it up and head back to the car.  I found everyone else already there and in the process of getting ready to leave.  I quickly got out of my gear and put my stuff away.

The plan was to drive to Sullivan and eat the Fellowship dinner at Rich’s Famous Burgers.  This is where I dropped the ball in not planning ahead and realizing that it’s Friday and every restaurant will be busy.  When we got to Rich’s we found we would have a 45 minute wait.  We decided to just go across the highway to El Nopal.  Ha! They had an hour wait!   At this point, we decided to just head home.  My apologies to all the guys for not being able to enjoy the best part of our trips. Lesson learned.

The drive home was easy and the conversation in my car was about what we could find to eat when we got home.

Thanks to all the guys who came on the trip, hope you enjoyed the time on the water.