Ramblings of a Catskill Flyfisher

Dance of the mayflies

Some years ago, my friend Roger and I found a good hatch of mayflies on one of our favorite rivers. It was Hendrickson time in the Catskills, with a good number of duns that were beginning to hatch, and right around 2 p.m. We had good sport that afternoon, deciding to call it a day right around dinner time. As we were getting ready to leave, I happened to look up at the late afternoon sky, just as the sun was sinking behind the mountains to the west. The angle was just right, and the fading light cast its last rays on thousands of glinting wings, as the Hendrickson and red quill spinners began their mating dance.

Caddisflies

In my circle of angling friends, the subject of caddisflies rarely comes up. That is, unless one of us happens to be on a river where caddis are actually hatching. Then there will be talk, most …

Deep-water nymph fishing

According to my fly-fishing diary, the last time I went to West Yellowstone, MT, was during the late summer of 2002. At that time, with the exception of late-morning trico hatches, most of the mayfly and caddis activity was over, and the eagerly awaited blue-winged olive hatches had not begun.

Water, water

I believe the summer deluge began sometime in July of 2021. Part of that phenomenon had to do with the inordinate amount of rain that we had in the western Catskills during that period. At the …

Early-season trout fishing

In those days, the teenage years, trout fishing was strictly a weekend affair. Except during summer, when on occasion my friend Tony and I had the rare opportunity for a weekday adventure. At the …

Quill Gordon

In the last three or four years, the years I’ve written about fly fishing for the River Reporter, there have been columns about most of the important mayfly species that hatch from Catskill …