# Fishing 2019



## JimG. (Jun 3, 2019)

And the sun has set on eastern ski season 2018-19



Time to fish. April and early May were pretty brutal; lots of rain and out of control flow rates on rivers and streams made any trout fishing with waders almost impossible. Tried on 5/17 but the Esopus Creek had other ideas. Even with a 4.5 foot wading staff I found trying to stand in the strong currents uncomfortable. And the flow caused the trout to dive for the depths and stay there. Steve's fishing cabin near Woodland Valley Creek was very inviting and cozy though



After being driven off the Esopus we headed west to Pepacton reservoir. After bushwacking about 1.5 miles in to a nice gradual point we landed 7 or 8 decent smallmouths. Waders are great for wading into cold river water but not so comfortable bushwacking in humid 75 degree weather. Pretty hot, but also good tick protection.

Got out on the East Branch on 5/27 had a nice row. Yellow perch were biting on the troll. Caught a bunch of small and largemouth bass including a lot of small males. Good sized smallmouths were tucked up on shore and only casts that were thrown almost on to shore were productive. Any onshore cast near fallen wood triggered surface bites. Exciting and frustrating at the same time, many fish get away, tough to hook them. Hooked a nice 4 pounder that got off.

Hit Rye Lake on 5/31. More surface action, the fish were more aggressive this day and we landed a few nice ones but nothing special. Great weather and good fishing. Looking forward to June when bass season starts. Happy hour on Rye Lake



No fish pics yet waiting for the big boys to wake up. Trout fishing might be good in June if the rain stops for a while.


----------



## ScottySkis (Jun 10, 2019)

Nice Jim g
My great friend.


----------



## JimG. (Jun 10, 2019)

Scotty looking to buy a Belleayre pass for next season. Nice.


----------



## JimG. (Jun 10, 2019)

Got out on Rye lake last Friday 6/7. Warm hazy sunshine made me think that plastics would be the ticket. Rigged up a Gary Yamamoto 5" senko and never looked back. My buddy Steve used a crankbait for about 10 minutes and switched to the worm after watching me catch 3 bass in 10 casts. We caught a good selection of small and largemouth bass including many nice ones. These 2 hog largemouths were the biggest of the day:




Bass season officially opens on 6/15.


----------



## 180 (Jun 10, 2019)

nice


----------



## deadheadskier (Jun 11, 2019)

I might contribute a bit to this thread this year.  We moved to a place along a river that supposedly has decent smallie fishing.  I'm picking up the activity again after a 15 year absence to teach our four year old.  Have him signed up for the town youth fishing derby this Saturday. 

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app


----------



## ScottySkis (Jun 11, 2019)

Yes absolutely going be at Bellaire a lot this winter.
Living in Middletown again makes going places much easier me
Living in Sullivan County west south Catskills is beautiful area but lacks mass transit big time
Thanks to your my Jim and Bob and Phil I get to out and some great hills
This winter my first time at Greek and
NY lake snowy hills on south Adk s Mountain was sweet
I forgot got the name
And I ski Bellaire few times with you
And some sweet days at plattekill this winter with Dan, Phil and Bob
And Gore
I got lovely 12 days in I think.
&#55357;&#56843;&#55357;&#56836;&#55357;&#56867;&#55357;&#56867;&#55357;&#56845;&#55356;&#57275;&#55356;&#57275;&#55356;&#57279;&#55356;&#57279;&#55356;&#57279;&#55356;&#57279;&#55357;&#56835;&#55357;&#56836;


----------



## JimG. (Jun 11, 2019)

deadheadskier said:


> I might contribute a bit to this thread this year.  We moved to a place along a river that supposedly has decent smallie fishing.  I'm picking up the activity again after a 15 year absence to teach our four year old.  Have him signed up for the town youth fishing derby this Saturday.
> 
> Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app



Good for you dad! Kids love fishing.


----------



## ScottySkis (Jun 11, 2019)

*Mc Cauley Mountain Ski
Wow awesome hill


----------



## JimG. (Jun 23, 2019)

They call it fishing because you don't always catch fish. 

Went out on Rye Lake 6/21, good fishing for the first 2 hours but no big fish. Then the wind started blowing and the fishing just died. Went out again on the East Branch yesterday 6/22, same SW wind still blowing hard and never saw hide nor hair of a fish. Nothing. Fish do not like strong winds or the pressure gradients associated with that wind. 

Oh well, good rowing anyway, yesterday especially was a good work out.


----------



## bigbog (Jun 24, 2019)

Nice pics JimG....  Had the same type of May with lots of rain & higher water but healthy hatches which should make for a nice summer.

*Will see what pics I took May-June...will upload later...


----------



## JimG. (Jul 1, 2019)

Got out on the East Branch Friday 6/28 with my youngest son James. Fishing was better than a week previous but not great. Lot's of fun though we caught about a dozen 1.5-2 pound largemouths. All of them were plenty fat:



Best part of the day was early on about 45 minutes after we shoved off. I spotted a carp wallowing near shore on the first island and told James to cast over to it. It was his best cast of the day as he dropped his worm right on top of the fish. Even more amazing was that he snagged it on its' dorsal fin (which I have seen happen several times before with other fishermen). A 10 minute battle ensued until James tired the fish out enough to get it along side the boat. This was an enormous carp, easily 25 pounds. I think we were both a little astounded and our momentary admiration gave the carp the last opportunity to thrash and get off the hook. Just as well, what a fight!


----------



## JimG. (Jul 6, 2019)

Hot and humid yesterday 7/5. With Mike and Karl in the boat rowing was an amazing workout. Sweated buckets and drank a lot of water.

Fishing was good. A real pan fish fest. I caught a dozen bluegills, 6 decent white perch and a few yellow perch. Mike caught a half dozen 1-2 lb. largemouths. Karl caught some pan fish too and hooked his first good sized smallmouth. I was disappointed I did not hook any bass until I caught this very nice smallmouth at the end of the day:



Worth the work.


----------



## JimG. (Jul 14, 2019)

Hit Rye Lake about 3:30 7/12. Not only was it hot and humid there was also a strong NW wind to deal with. Whitecaps forced us to take a perpendicular tack and we wound up at a southeast facing cove with about 300 yards of great looking shoreline; lots of rocks, boulders and deep water access. Nice and shady too. We rowed down to the end of the cove and let the nice breeze blow us back along the cove.

We immediately started catching bass both large and smallmouths. Several were good sized. When we got to the end of the cove we rowed back against the breeze and repeated the same drift. And we caught a few more bass. Rinse and repeat. Stayed in the same spot for the next 4 hours. The bass were super healthy:



We headed to a few other spots on the way back and caught nothing. At least the wind was now in our favor. Got back to the boat spot at 8:30. Awesome when you find where all the fish are biting.


----------



## JimG. (Jul 21, 2019)

Brutal weather on 7/19 at Rye Lake. Temps near 95, high humidity and zero wind. We were tortured by stable flies the entire time we were out. Adding to the hatch was the hot weather which supercharged the fly activity. Little bastards somehow know that staying low and biting ankles make it hard for slow humans to swat them. I worked up a drenching sweat trying to kill them. Wound up soaking my long sleeve tee and wearing it wet which was an improvement in temperature comfort. I adapted to the flies by ignoring them as best as possible.
Fishing was pretty good. No big fish to photograph but we each caught a few decent bass in the 2-2.5 lbs. range. Drank a lot of water and avoided happy hour until after the sun set.


----------



## JimG. (Jul 29, 2019)

Another good day on 7/26 at the EB. Another hot day too. Spent my day rowing in the shade.

Caught a few nice smallmouths at the old weedbed on my way out. Then spent the next 3 hours everywhere else catching nothing until I realized I should have stayed at the old weedbed. So I cut short my fruitless casting at the small island and returned to that weedbed. Caught a few more smallmouths until dark. 

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.


----------



## JimG. (Aug 5, 2019)

The doldrums of August are upon us. Got out on Rye Lake 8/2. Same deal as the past few weeks, a couple of bass for each angler, nothing special.

Weather was very nice.


----------



## JimG. (Aug 10, 2019)

Got out on the East Branch with my son James on 8/8. Aside from the usual August catch of a few decent bass each, James continued his habit of hooking into a rarely seen lake creature. This time he hooked something huge at the boulder. It was so big it was impossible to reel in with the rod. So I grabbed his line and handlined whatever it was to the boat.

 What appeared was a large disc shaped object. Only when it started thrashing its' flippers did I realize that James had hooked a snapping turtle. Decent size too, probably about 45 lbs. Hooked it right in the jaw. We had to lift the turtle into the boat. James held it by the shell while I carefully removed the hook with pliers. It was a clean removal and release.
Don't want to mess with pissed off snapping turtle jaws!

Hit the EB again on 8/9 with similar results. Steve and I each caught a few decent bass. But unlike the day before when James and I were chased off the water by thunderstorms, the weather was calm, dry and cool. We stayed out until 9 or so until the fishing action died. A great evening happy hour!


----------



## JimG. (Aug 17, 2019)

EB fishing again on 8/16 with Steve. 

More typical August bass action. Looking forward to September.


----------



## JimG. (Aug 31, 2019)

More of the same on 8/30 but at Rye Lake. Stuck in the afternoon-dark routine, heading out again early morning tomorrow.


----------



## JimG. (Sep 1, 2019)

On water at 7am, reversed my usual route and trolled right out to the small island. By 8am Mike and I had caught and released 4 very nice bass:





Fished from 7-noon. Not every good spot produced a fish but we continued to catch nice bass right up until 11:45 when we headed back to the boat spot:



In terms of numbers and quality fish my best day at the East Branch this season. September is magic! 

Soon we ski.


----------



## JimG. (Sep 15, 2019)

Did a repeat on Friday 9/13 solo. Conditions very similar except for one thing...the wind. Instead of being directly from the east it was northeasterly. The northern component made it colder (I wore a jacket most of the morning) and it was blowing at a faster speed. Whereas on Labor day the worm was the ticket, today it was useless. All fish caught on lures. The boat was usually moving too fast for worm fishing.

So I did a lot of rowing and trolling. Finally found some white perch, caught a nice one trolling then stayed in the area and caught a few smaller ones on a #2 silver fox.
That was it until the end of the old weed bed where I was able to park the boat against some exposed rocks and cast. The rocks are part of a wall that extends out and down from shore. My first cast that lined up with the wall on retrieve got me a nice largemouth:



That was my last fishing spot of the day and I headed back in. I left at 12:30 with the distinct impression that the fishing was turning on.


----------



## JimG. (Sep 23, 2019)

Decided to go to the Catskills on 9/20. Steve and I hiked/waded Pepacton reservoir which was as low as I have ever seen it. That made for long hikes to get to open water, not a ton of fun wearing waders. Seemed like being in the desert with the heat and blazing sun. And the fish were not biting.

Lost the waders in the afternoon and stuck to wet wading. More comfortable for me, but it did not inspire the fish to bite. Saw a few small fish but I caught nothing. In fact, we were skunked at the reservoir. Only fish we caught were a few trout at a private stream we had to trespass on to fish. Lucky to not get caught.

Last few days have been like mid-summer. Hopefully we are done with that after today.


----------



## JimG. (Sep 30, 2019)

Back to morning action at the EB on 9/28; out at 7:30 and the small island was active. Bass were hitting the surface about 30 feet offshore all around the island. Started out with a Rapala but changed over to a medium crawdad Big-O that had better float. Finally enticed a largemouth to bite, then got another hit on the retrieve on my next cast and landed this fine smallmouth:

Landed another smallmouth and headed to the boulder where I caught 2 more largemouths. First 2 1/2 hours pretty phenomenal and then the fishing just died. A misty and cool morning gave way to high clouds which then burned off and the day turned clear, sunny and hot. Fished from shore on the second island at the old weedbed, ate lunch, drifted the old weedbed and called it a day at 12:30. 
Will probably fish another 2 times or so and call it a season.


----------



## JimG. (Oct 13, 2019)

Last day on Rye Lake for 2019 on 10/5 with Steve. Cold and windy to start out but turned sunny and warm. Fish were lazy and not biting with gusto. Lost a lot of fish including the biggest ones we hooked.

Last day of 2019 today 10/13 on the East Branch. Hooked one small fish all day. Had fun rowing around and fishing with my oldest son David. So much for fishing 2019. 

Time to ski.


----------



## bigbog (Oct 15, 2019)

Nice bunch of fish JimG....sorry to be out of touch for a while.  Also forgot my camera on a short trip up to Eagle Lake in late August. HA...the one long trip I take this year and I remember my flyrod & gear but forget my camera..... I catch my two biggest landlocks(salmon, 5 & 6.5lbs) that I've ever caught in addition to some nice woodland pics I would've gotten = the Uh-Huhs never stop for me:lol:.   

Ditto on the Time to ski...8)


----------



## JimG. (Oct 17, 2019)

The last 2 seasons I spent getting better using my depth/fish finder.

This season I spent getting more informed about weather conditions fish do and don't like and the solunar forecast. Because I've learned that just because I can now see the fish that's no guarantee they will bite.

Next year's fishing toy purchase will be a pedal kayak.


----------

