Schroon River May 21

I fished the Schroon with Alec tonight from 7:30 till almost dark.  It was stupid.  Stockies rising every where and taking everything we threw at them.  I fished a black ADK Ugly Bugger on the swing for a while with good results but I just couldn't resist all the rising fish.  On goes the elk hair caddis & let the good times roll.  I love skating the caddis.  A little animation make the stocked fish go crazy.  17 in an hour.  Alec had nearly the same.  Nothing big but just fun to catch.

The water is about 60 degrees and I did see a few Light Cahills coming off right at dusk.

Be careful wading.  The river is still up pretty big.  I only had a few inches of free-board on the waders tonight.

Sometimes ya' win- Sometimes Ya' loose

I spent the last two nights fishing with Alec who is home from Montana for a brief stay before returning to his summer job at The Trout Shop in Craig.  The first night we hit Starbuckville Dam.  The bite was pretty slow for me until I tie into a fair size Landlocked Salmon.  I was nymphing with a 5x tippet.  ( I guess you already know where this part of the story is going ).  A heavy fish of about 18"+ inches, he made 4 fantastic jumps while heading for the swiftest current of mid river.  I was into my backing faster than I have ever been before.  I turned up the drag one notch and against better judgement; put my hand ever so gently against the spool to temper the drag a bit more.  He made his last jump and everything went slack.

Night two was redemption.  Alec and I headed for one of our usual spots.  The water was up and the caddis hatch was thick.  We spent the first part of the evening with Alec scoring all the hook ups.  I decided to put the new Orvis Access to work and pumped out a 50' cast to mid-river, made a heavy mend to pop the fly off the water for a split second to give it a bit of animation.  Just as it bounced back to the waters surface, I saw the telltale flash and I was on. A good size brown with lots of fight in him.  He bulled the drag hard and tailed up trying to rub the hook on boulders and timber in the river bottom to no avail.

Sometimes Ya' win- Sometimes Ya' loose.  That's fishing.

West Branch of the Ausable

I fished along route 86 this morning without so much as a tug.  All the anglers I spoke to were in the same boat as I.  Not much of a surprise, Hurricane Irene really  flushed the river but good last fall.  I spent most of my time looking at water and searching for fish.  No rises even though there was a pretty good hendrickson hatch as the morning sun warmed the river into the noon hour.  Route 73 was closed along Cascade Lake this morning so I didn't bother to go to the Iron Bridge.  I guess we will have to wait for the state to bring the goods this week.  

I stopped at Schroon falls on the way home and managed to hookup with a 10" landlock.  He was a bit camera shy but I managed a quick snap shot before he spit the ADK Ugly Bugger and took his leave.