Spreading good things

A good friend of mine always wanted to learn how to fly fish but his busy schedule and a baby never allowed him to do so.  His wife is traveling with the baby which gave him a rare window of opportunity to explore my favorite creek with me this Saturday.  It was a bright sunny day but finding shaded pools wasn't a problem for us.

My friend used to compete in freestyle frisbee championships.  As a result, his heightened hand and eye coordination helped him tremendously to understand and learn the principal of casting .  After a quick lesson, he was swinging the rod with tight loops. 

My friend did the most of fishing but watching him improve and actually CATCHING was exciting enough for me to suppress my urge to swing the rod.

With the willing trout, we had a blast but more than anything, sharing good thing with your friend always is a moment to cherish.

new fishing tool

Today,  Patty and I took a drive out to Pennsylvania to see a teardrop trailer I've been contemplating to get. Having this trailer will help me cover greater fishing area and a tad more civilized camping experience for Patty. 

I will most likely place an order next week.  :D

Lucky bastard

As Patty becoming more of a outdoor person, she's been asking me to go on a camping trip.  Car camping is not my ideal camping but who am I to say no to a little bit of camping and whole lot of fishing. 

Covered bridge over Willowemoc Creek

Fortunately for us, our campground was relatively empty for the weekend.  This particular camp does not allow any loud noise which why I chose to camp out here. This campground is enjoyed by many anglers for its ideal location

We chose our campsite right at the creek bank.  The sound of running water was sure to be soothing to our ears but I was glad to bring my ear plugs...

 This is my first time fishing the upper willowemoc and the scenery precedes its reputation. From the campsite, you can hike miles upstream without running into posted lands.

I've caught this brown right by our campsite.

Nothing beats good ole steak dinner when camping.

The temperature dropped to 45 degree at night and Patty made herself a cozy setup.

Next morning, we started our weekend fishing excursion with one of small creeks in the catskills.  This is a brook trout water.  It's a small creek full of eager brookies and biting insects.

From our first cast to the last, the creek provided us with enough brookies for us to be fished out for the day.  

The Beaverkill was our next stop.  This is Patty's first time fishing the Beaverkill and upon arriving, she said "This is my kind of water".  As for me, this is where I learned how to fly fish.  There were a lot of anglers fishing the river, almost shoulder to shoulder in certain pools. We primarily fished between pools whenever we found empty pull overs and able to avoid the crowd.

Off the bat, Patty hooked this wild brown and many more after that.

I wanted to throw in a little spey casting session so found a pool relatively wide enough and able to improve a bit more than the last time.  Tied black nose dace fly at the end of the line with no intention of catching fish but to my surprise able to catch a small brown at the end of the swing.  It goes to show you that you can have an ugly casting yet still catch fish.

My first catch on spey rod!

The most of these large browns were caught with caddis fly.  Surprised to found them in somewhat fast running water. 

Caught this wild? brookie near one of tributary creek.
My first time catching brook trout in Beaverkill

I can definitely see myself doing this kind of trip with Patty more often as she doesn't seem to be bothered by biting insects and other critters she used to be scared of  and more than anything she now enjoys every aspect of being an angler. I am a lucky bastard!!!

The River of Sand

Due to our busy schedule, Patty and I haven't been in our cabin for awhile and decided to check out the house for the weekend.  As always, took some time to clean up the house and finally able to enjoy what the Adirondack had to offer for the rest of the day.  Tranquility.... 

We've been exploring a lot of small creeks in Adirondacks but rarely ventured out to other famous large rivers in the Adirondack so we decided to explore the Ausable river.  

Next morning, we got up early and drove up to Wilmington where the Ausable Two Fly Shop is located and able to get quick crash course about the river from the owner of the shop Tom.  A super friendly and knowledgeable person who was very eager to help us to find what we want.  Trout!

The street of Wilmington was filled with fly fishermen. Never seen so many anglers in one setting. I guess the word "famous" has it's reason.

After a quick Q & A, Tom realized our fishing preference and suggested  a section of the river which requires a bit of hiking but should provide relatively solitude fishing experience for obvious reason.

After a short hike, we were able to find this beautiful grass lined river bank with the river full of slippery boulders. There weren't much insect activity when we arrived so we started out with a black nosed dace and immediately had results.

As we waded down the river, the water level was getting deeper, so we switched to heavier wooly bugger and this brown took the bugger hard on the swing.  It was a mixed bag of wild brown and brookies and occasional stocked browns.

You couldn't ask for better day to fish.  We ran into only one other angler on the way out so despite the popularity of this river, I guess it is possible to find a great spot if you get in good graces with the local fly shop owner. : ) 

One of tributary creek

Negotiating through slippery boulders were bit too much for both of us so we only fished for a few hours and spent the rest of the day relaxing by the river bank just listening to the river and it's surroundings.

been a long time

Its been a long time since I got out fishing. So long that it took me while to figure out what i need to pack for the trip. Wobbly legs, poor casts, and a lot of missed hookups.  Still it was great to get out.  I used to think strange about people who fish a lot and stop for long times... I guess life does that to you sometimes.  It took me a while to even write this, finally settling at the Zurich airport as I wait for the transfer flight.  I miss my friends on the water, I miss the time out away from the city.  Soon, more, see you friends.