Trout on Top!

Well...I did just like I promised!

Jonathan and I fished the Oatka creek yesterday afternoon. We started out at a section that receives a good amount of stocking in the spring. I thought it would be a great place for Jonathan to get his first trout on the fly rod this year. Well, I was wrong. As we drove along the Oatka trail we saw cars everywhere. They were even parking on the road because the DEC parking lots were full. We fished hard for an hour with no body catching anything! We moved upstream a bit and finally got one nice brown on a nymph. That ended up being the only fish we saw in an hour and a half.

We then moved to the "no-kill" section of the stream. Even here at this section we found a lot of people. But, at least there were lots of trout. And wild trout!!!

We both started nymphing and I found several nice trout holding. But none of them were willing to take a nymph. We also watched some Hendricksons come off the water. And we started to see some trout rise and take the mayflies off the top. We even saw a trout come completely out of the water after a Hedrickson! Amazing to watch. So I tied on a #14 hair wing Hendrickson dry. I then made several casts to where the rising fish were and sure enough my fly disappeared in a swirl. Fish on! Our fist fish on a dry for the year.

The hatch was sporadic. But when the hendricksons were coming off, they came off in good numbers. Not great. Good. And that made the dry fly fishing worth it! With the continuing warm weather we should start seeing better hatches.

We then moved downstream below the old cow bridge and landed one more trout on a dry before we headed out for the day. We had a lot of fun together, even if Jonathan didn't get that first fish all by himself. Today was about sharing some time on the water and working together to get those trout we did catch.

Brian