Catskills Humble Pie Fall Jam 10/2 - 10/9

[krayfish2]

update / full disclosure due to less than favorable conditions:

I know that there's a good dump of water currently but I also know how things can change up there. We still plan on going and will adapt or travel if necessary.

You may want to:

* Bring a spinning rod in case we go to bass / pickerel pond

* Bring golf clubs if you're a gopher

* Be ready to change fishing plans and some traveling may be involved

 

[afishinado]

Pickerel Pond?!

Spinning rods?!! :roll:

Golf Clubs?!!! :-o


Just drive a little ways down the MS, grab a heavier FLY rod, and there are plenty of big, bad smallies hitting the poop out of poppers....

Full disclosure...I sometimes drive all the way up there without my trout stuff, and actually go to fish for SMB's...:lol:

 

[DaveS]

All this worry and fussing over fish and water or lack there of. No one has mentioned beer, relaxing, shooting the breeze and having a good laugh. Do you think the fish are worried about if we'll show up, hoping for the grip and grin photo ops?

 

[krayfish2]

Oh, I'll have fun in beautiful surroundings. No question about that. I'm just worried about you Yinzer guys driving so far for crappy conditions.

 

[AFISHN]

I should be able to do Tuesday October 4 through Saturday ,October 8th evening.
I will be sleeping in my Excursion in my friend's driveway on the WB(he's in CO for the next few weeks).This location will also give me great access to vg water, since he's about 1.5 miles below the the Lower Game Lands and about 200 yds above the Mud Flats.

Since I will be going up alone(at this writing),if anyone wants to fish with me there, let me know.
Food wise:I can bring up killer chili(Tom's #3 Chili).Just need to
know approximately how many people I will be feeding.

 

[krayfish2]

Tom,

Welcome aboard. I'm guessing that 5-6 people will be eating including yourself. I have reason to believe we will be met with releases from the dam of 225-300cfs. Wallenpaupack is scheduled to drop the lake 5' which will take 4 weeks. This means that no water needs released from Cannonsville to keep Montague gauge up. Fishing might be brutal but the beer will be cold.

 

[pro4mance]

Andy, we will definitely have a good time, I'll be leaving Sunday morning it's about 6 hours. If anybody needs my pontoon let me know otherwise I'd rather just leave it home.

 

[wbranch]

If the Capra Inn is all booked up you can try the Colonial Motel on Route 97 in NY about one mile past Bard Parker. There is also a B&B on the left side driving out of Hancock on 97. I forget the name but you might be able to locate it on the Hancock web site or Google it.

I have been up to the WB twice in the past two weeks for a total of three actual fishing days. The other days were spent floating the main with my wife and wrapping nine trees with wire cloth to deter/defeat the beavers that have been chomping on my trees.

Both trips the river was at least 1070 cfs and this past trip it was 1350 cfs. Absolutely zero dry fly fishing but excellent streamer action. I landed eighteen browns on streamers of which eleven were 16" - 18", and one was 20".

 

[krayfish2]

Matt,
We ran through the streamer box to get the 3-4 fish we netted. Night colors, neutral colors, white, olive, black, yellow, orange. Tried heavy heads, deer hair heads and tubes. We tried intermediate, 4ips and 7ips lines. Lots of chases, flashes, follows but few takes. I actually thought it was kind of slow on the streamer bite considering we had perfect conditions.

 

[krayfish2]

Ok, without getting too excited, the current 7 day forecast is pretty appealing. I still think it will take an excess of 1.5" to make things right but then we may be forced off rivers with crazy flows of chocolate milk colored water.

Low is to develop and be cut off from jet. Those usually linger of several days. Hopefully it's got some decent rain with it. Temps should have turned and stabilized over the last few days. Chasing fish in 6' of water is far more user friendly than chasing them in 6" of water so.....let it rain.

Still keeping Esopus, Beaverkill, Neversink, pickerel / gemmie ponds, Lehigh and others are still in the mix if conditions don't fall into place.

Here is an option I'll throw out there for you to mull over....... Susky. For Yinzer crew, you're looking at 6 - 6.5 hours drive time one way. If things kinda cool and there's enough water in the Susky, head back my way. 3:15 minutes to my place and about the same to Yinzerville. Shouldn't be more than 20-30 minutes longer than straight home drive and we can chase big smallies fattening up for winter.

 

[pro4mance]

Should I pack my tent for your yard > lol

 

[krayfish2]

If you like sleeping on grass, no. My yard is 80% dead. Mud patch. If there's such thing as a Jewish Rain Dance, get to dancing Norm! We will have a good time as long as we stay out of the gorge. Lol. Don't fall victim to Mike's story of "It's not that bad"......it is. Your knees will hate you if you go.

 

[mkerr]

I swear it not to bad!

 

[krayfish2]

No that bad......Like a root canal without novocaine ? Our knees are 15-25 years older than yours. If we were to train to do splits for 6 hours in waders, yeah, it wouldn't be that bad.....but we don't. Knees, ankles and groins were beat into submission. LOL. If it doesn't rain, we might end up in the gorge at some point. Heading to church to light candle and pray for 2" of rain to make the gorge unfishable.

 

[pro4mance]

I do have a tent cot, which keeps me above ground. I can always sing and do the Have Some Tequila Song and dance #Lchaim

 

[mkerr]

Don't worry, I read an article that said clove smokes help aid ones balance on snot covered rock while at the same time they deter bears!

 

[krayfish2]

Just received a phone call. Daddy Frank called into work so he is out. That's too bad because I always look forward to seeing him, quite a character

 

[wbranch]

I went up to my place on the WB yesterday. I was planning to fish Tuesday, Wednesday, and leave for home on Thursday morning. It was a very nice day. A lot of mist on the WB until a bit after 9:00 a.m. Very good conditions to be throwing a streamer. I didn't arrive until 8:45 so I decided not to throw for just a few minutes.

The WB had a very good flow, I think around 570 cfs. Easy to wade but not so low that the fishing is tough. The water is not clear just a light stain. I never saw a single bug of any kind and only saw one fish rise twice.

I drove down to Stockport and walked all the way up to the tail of Lake Lenore. There is hardly any water in the main stem. I think the flow was about 790 cfs yesterday and today it is 811 cfs. If anyone plans to float it be prepared to be pulling it through the shallows all the way down to Buckingham.

I broke the tip of one of my 9' #4 Gatti lining up the rod! I walked all the way up from the car, never made a cast, and then promptly broke the rod. Haha. Shame on me. Walked all the way back to the car, got all sweated up, went back to the cabin and had a tall Cuba Libre, flayed the water for an hour, got bored, jumped in the car and drove home. Done for 2016.

 

[krayfish2]

Trying to formulate a plan for this event is futile at best. They dump the lakes, they shut the water off, the water temps soar into the mid 70's and then drop into the 50's. I've been able to come up with a foolproof plan...........

Show up and drink cold beer on the porch. I'm positive that will work. We can wade, float, travel or whatever is required to find fishable water. We will have fun and we will put fish in the net, no matter what mother nature and ACOE throw at us.

Rain update: Based on conversation with DRC late yesterday, they had ZERO rain aside from a 5 minute drizzle that wasn't able to make the pavement wet. It appears that they have finally seen steadier rain this morning. Rain looks to continue and be pretty steady all the way into Saturday morning. The area around the Lehigh received 2.5" but head due north to the Castkills and it only dropped , 0.10".

Below are clips showing current radar, radar model for 3pm and the dreadfully low water conditions on the EB / Main. The WB clip shows the up / down releases which continue to plague the system.


Report from the DRC this morning.

Delaware River Report / Conditions September 30, 2016
Sep 30, 2016 No Comments by Jeff White 10:30 am update.

Weatherunderground has increased our precipitation forecast to 1/2?



And we wake up to another ridiculous move. Someone finally realized that the forecasted rain wasn’t going to increase the flows enough to meet the downstream targets so the release from Cannonsville has been raised to 589 cfs. The Mainstem flow at Lordville hit an unbelievable low of 553 cfs. For years we have watched them prematurely drop the releases counting on rain to meet the Montague target and for years we have watched the yo yo release increase when that rain misses us. Nothing has changed.

 

[pro4mance]

All In