Catskills - Willowemoc River, June 4-5, 2010

Went on my annual fly fishing weekend w/ the crew from GartnerGroup.

We stayed in a set of rundown cabins, run by the most eccentric woman. The up-side was that she owned a very large and private stretch of the river!

Throughout the two days, I caught several native brook trout and some stocked browns. The brook trout were mostly small, but fun and difficult to catch.

The most productive setup was a bright orange stimulator, w/ a nymph dropper, some bead-headed, some not. Several nymphs worked well, all of varying sizes and colors. The ones w/ green flash did best. The bigger ones worked best in the fast riffs, although smaller nymphs were productive, too.

The biggest fish was a 13" brown, caught at dusk on an emerger. I decided to switch to the emerger after noticing several fish swiping at the stimulator in close succession and missing, assuming that an evening hatch was taking / about to take place and the fish were moving to feeding positions on top. Emergers can be very productive during these times.