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Fishing 2021

JimG.

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So my last day of skiing was Tuesday 4/6.

Went to the East Branch on 4/8 for my first day of trout fishing. Got to Brady's Bend and was happy to see the water was clear and not running too fast. But a quick temperature check showed the water was still very cold. So my strategy was to go downstream away from where any stocked fish would be and hope for a nice holdover trout in deeper water. This spot is one of those where if you don't know how to access it you get lost and hung up in brambles.
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It's a great stretch about 1/2 mile long with deep pools and clear water connected by fast moving riffles.
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Just upstream from that second shot above I hooked a very nice brown trout in a deep pool it looked to be about 15" or so. Lost it after a 10 second fight. Nice fish. The same pool is in the background of this shot.
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And just upstream from that shot is where I caught a 10" stocked brown, in this very nice pool along the undercut bank.
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Fished upstream from there about another 1/4 mile and caught a few more small browns, all stocked. So it was a good first day out. Plus I didn't take a swim in the cold water like last season.
 

JimG.

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4/17-Fished my stretch of Fishkill Creek. Beautiful day and a fun wade but I got skunked. Not even a bite. Water at a perfect level but still very cold.

4/20-Back to the East Branch. Followed the same plan I did on 4/8. The reservoir is totally full and the spillway is raging. At Brady's Bend the water was slightly higher but noticeably less frigid. So I had high hopes and was rewarded at the same pool where I hooked and lost a nice trout on the 8th. This time I got a solid hook in the corner of the mouth and landed this fine brown trout about 15".
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I continued upstream and caught 2 more decent browns about 12" each and 5 or 6 stocked trout. The next 2-3 weeks will be the best of spring trout fishing.
 

Nick

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I don't even know what this is but we rented a pontoon boat last week and caught like 5 of these in a row on the intracoastal. haha. I think it's a hardhead catfish.

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JimG.

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4/24-Got permission to fish a totally new section of Fishkill Creek near the bridge on route 52. That's a stocking bridge. Great looking water, hard gravelly and sandy bottom with shallow areas to wade that accessed deep pools and undercut banks. My host and I fished for about an hour or so I got to wade out on an island that allowed for many great casts. And we got skunked. Go figure. Gonna go back and fish it more carefully.
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4/28-First warm day of 2021 so Steve and I decided to get out on the boat at the East Branch reservoir. We rowed down to where the river enters the impoundment and upstream hoping to catch a few trout. Nothing. So we went back to the reservoir proper. It was warm, almost hot at times but the water was still pretty cold. I didn't think we had any shot at landing any bass. I was wrong about that too. We each landed a nice smallmouth to save the day. Both were of course released bass are out of season as well. Nice to catch great fighters. My favorite freshwater gamefish.
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JimG.

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5/7-Fished the special regulations stretch of the East Branch. Nobody was fishing at the bathtub some kind of construction going on, So that pushed all the fishing pressure downstream. Got to my downstream pool near the 84 overpass and encountered the first fisherman I've seen there ever. Saw him before I got too close so I spied him fly fishing with what looked like nymphs. Anyway that's a big fish or nothing spot so I moved back upstream to the main bend area.

I was lucky enough to fish from there to the run before the Phoebe hole before seeing another fly fisherman. And the trout fishing was good. Nothing really big but 4 of the 6 brown trout I caught were 12-13". All were really healthy looking and fat. This was representative of the nicer fish:

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One of the most beautiful and productive stretches of trout water close to home:

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JimG.

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5/13-Got out on Rye Lake for the first time this season. The first 2 hours of fishing were pretty good. I landed 5 decent bass, nothing huge. Steve had similar luck. Deep diving plugs were working great. But 2 hours in and the fish just turned off. Not a bite the last 3 hours out. But it got me thinking that bass season is around the corner and spawning bass will soon be in play.

5/21-Continuing the tour of NYC reservoirs we went to Bog Brook next to the East Branch. We have had good May action here in the past. We quickly started to catch yellow and white perch on plugs and spinners. Steve landed a nice smallmouth, turns out it was the only smallmouth we landed today:

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I got tired of small panfish and I remembered several days at Bog Brook I had good luck with plastic worms. I tied on a Gary Yamamoto 5" senko and quickly landed my nicest bass of the season so far, a fat largemouth:

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I'm using bigger circle hooks this season in an effort to prevent aggressive bass from swallowing my plastic worms. I landed 7 more nice largemouths and every one was hooked in the corner of the mouth so that strategy seems to work. Easier to lose smaller fish but that's OK:

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At this point Steve was fishing with a worm as well and the fishing action was good right to the end. I like fishing for and catching trout but there is no better fight in freshwater than with an aggressive bass. The next 2 months are going to feature some great fishing.
 

JimG.

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6/10-Headed to Pepacton reservoir in the Catskills for some hike wading. Pepacton is a big place so we got in about 5 miles of hiking to get to our fishing spots today. Arena was the ticket today water levels are high. Smallmouths were biting all day at our primary wading spot we would catch a few then wait for more to move in.

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The trout fishing at Mill Creek as it entered Pepacton was exceptional. I caught 2 nice rainbows on consecutive casts before lunch.

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Steve caught two brown trout in the same pool. Bass season officially starts on 6/19.
 

JimG.

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6/17-Good bass fishing on Rye Lake with Steve. Caught a variety of bass including largemouths, smallmouths and rock bass. Some of the rock bass were decent sized. But all of the biggest fish were smallmouths today.
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Fish were confined to specific areas in the sun with shallow water near shore and deep water access with weeds. Any spot that met this criteria produced 2-3 fish each.
 

JimG.

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6/25-Another good day on Rye Lake. Beautiful weather. Lots of bass to catch. We both caught over a dozen bass each. Most were decent in size but it took me until later in the afternoon to catch good sized smallmouth. Pretty much the same story for Steve. Big smallies make for good pics but lots of fish and consistent action is what makes for a good day on the lake. Next day out will be on Sunday 6/27 on LI sound fishing for sea bass.
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JimG.

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6/27-Headed out on LI sound from Clinton, CT with buddies Steve, Doug, and Mike.
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Steve and Doug bought this boat about 2 years ago and have just recently gotten competent enough to navigate about 10 miles out into the sound. Good range for stripers and blues. But this day was devoted to social fishing for sea bass. We fished about 6 miles from Clinton and the action was very good early as there was little wind and a slack tide so we were able to get our baits down to the bottom and the sea bass fishing was good.
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We kept 6 and they made for a great dinner. Mike caught the biggest of the day.
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By 4:30 or so the tide was moving out rapidly and the wind picked up making it impossible to keep our baits on the bottom even with a lot of weight. So we slowly trolled an umbrella rig back towards home. Outstanding day on the water.
 

JimG.

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7/16-Went to Bog Brook. Sunny and hot. Fish in general were not biting. After 3 hours the thunderstorms appeared on the horizon heading straight for us. We retreated to shore, had a few drinks and called it a day.

7/23-Went to the East Branch reservoir for the first time since late April. Today I made the effort to get out early and I was fishing at the little island by 6:55am. Clear and cool but no wind and the water looked scummy and green. No bites in my first hour. Then the wind started to blow and stir things up. I fished around the second island and then parked on the western shore of the little island facing into the teeth of the wind which was now around 10mph. Between 9-10 I caught 4 fish sitting in that same spot. Two were bass, a 12" largemouth and a 14" smallmouth.

So now I'm thinking the fishing is turning on. But so did the wind which was now blowing steady at 15 gusting to 25mph. I had to abandon the little island and fish the 2 big islands in the lee of the wind back to the boat spot. Fished the whole way back and caught nothing more. The dog days of summer approach.
 

JimG.

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7/31-Back to the EB. Moved around a lot and did some trolling and while I did boat a few nice white perch I was disappointed I caught no bass. Got to the little island at prime time (7-8pm). Immediately boated 2 pig smallmouths. I was alternating between a jointed shad rap and a 5" senko. Got to my favorite spot and pounded the area with the worm. Sure enough I got a take and when I set my hook I felt a heavy pull. My drag shot out and then the line was slack. Whatever that was it was big; tore that plastic worm right off my hook. I speculate a big smallmouth or a walleye.

Great day rowed a lot and weather was spectacular. Sometimes just hooking a big fish is enough to make the day extra awesome.
 
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ThatGuy

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Went to Lows Lake and Hitchins Pond on the Bog River Flow for three days. Usually aim for Trout but the Bass were great here. Used a artificial frog, hula popper, and a red daredevil. Frog had most success, landed 5 on it and had countless hits. Beautiful area of the Adirondacks with ample fishing opportunities.
 

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JimG.

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Nice! Adirondack ponds offer a lot of good fishing and rowing/paddling opportunities. Beautiful area.
 

JimG.

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8/5-Rye Lake with Steve. Cloudy early and fishing was good for about 3 hours. Then it cleared up and the fishing really died. I always prefer clouds to blazing sun and the fish seem to as well, especially in August. We did catch a bunch of decent sized smallmouths while the fishing was good.

8/20-Rye Lake again with Steve. Took 2 weeks off to avoid the recent heat. More clouds today and we pushed off wondering if we would be dodging rain and lightning. But except for some light drizzle the weather was great. The bass were concentrated at big weed beds bordering deep water. Every such weed bed we fished at produced a few nice smallmouths. Plastic worms were the ticket today. For about an hour the sun came out and the fishing immediately slowed down. But fortunately the clouds returned and fishing the weeds was excellent to the end. I caught a bunch of fat smallmouths; the bottom pic was my nicest smallmouth of this season caught right in front of our boat spot at the end of our trip; I hooked it right after Steve hooked another smallie the same size in the same area. Our first double header of the season. Great day!
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JimG.

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8/27-RL again. Same weather as last Friday. More good fishing. Even boated a decent largemouth today. September is often a good fishing month looking forward to it. Also enjoying the frequent rain. That also affects the fishing very positively.
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ThatGuy

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Went to Spy Lake via the Piseco outlet Friday and Saturday. Canoed about 2 miles down a stream that held some huge bass to enter the lake.

After a short portage to reach the water I landed a really nice bass.
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Continuing downstream provided more bass..
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After fishing for a while it was getting late so we had to head down the tiny outlet to the lake with our campsite.
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Next morning we got up early and caught a couple fish on the lake then proceeded upstream back to our car. Fishing was great on the way back as well. In particular I landed a great bass and my dad had a giant pickerel up to the boat but it got away before I could grab it.
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