Northern Catskills Intel?

discomidge

discomidge

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2021
Messages
296
Location
Lewisburg
Over the winter my buddy moved north in the Catskills (to Bovina Center) and I'm heading up to his place for our annual spring fishing trip. Thing is, I don't know anything about the streams up there. He was in Roscoe for years before this and I've spent a lot of time on all those streams that everyone knows, but this year we'll be exploring new territory. Anyone have any thoughts on the upper East Branch/Little Delaware/etc? That's just us looking at the map and guessing. I assume we'll hit the upper West Branch as well, but there are plenty of state maps for that. If anyone wants to steer us in general direction it'd be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
greatwesterncatskills.com

Fishing the Rivers and Streams of the Great Western Catskills

It’s no secret that fly fishing in the rivers and streams is legendary among anglers. New York State has purchased fishing rights on miles of streams in addition to streams on public land. Look for the following access points with area for parking, which are clearly marked by roadside signs...
greatwesterncatskills.com greatwesterncatskills.com
 
Bamboozle said:
greatwesterncatskills.com

Fishing the Rivers and Streams of the Great Western Catskills

It’s no secret that fly fishing in the rivers and streams is legendary among anglers. New York State has purchased fishing rights on miles of streams in addition to streams on public land. Look for the following access points with area for parking, which are clearly marked by roadside signs...
greatwesterncatskills.com greatwesterncatskills.com
Click to expand...
Nice, thanks. Who knew obsessing over trout would lead me to obsess over parking.
 
It's the same... just a little further north. Check the maps, find them yeller signs and get to work!
My understanding is that both branches above the lake are pretty darn good but somewhat restricted access. Temperatures should be good now but warm in the summer.
Don't forget to toss the esopus in the mix. Good place to put up numbers.... and it's still a little early for the inner tube hatch so it'll be relatively relaxing.
 
Right on, that's pretty much the plan. It's been years since I hit the Esopus.... Could be a fun destination. After discovering the Neversink a while back I kinda only wanted to go there. Felt more like a home game.
 
The neversink is pretty far drive from where you'd stay, isn't it? Wish I would have gotten over there 20 years ago. It's great but I'm getting too old for that type of physical beating.
 
Yeah, sadly the Neversink is out of bounds from our new location. And amen, that stream kicks the crap out of me. Scary wading and all. I'm psyched to explore the north though. It's tough for me to get pumped about the Willow/Beaverkill/East Branch/etc these days. I never do that great on them.
 
discomidge said:
It's tough for me to get pumped about the Willow/Beaverkill/East Branch/etc these days. I never do that great on them.
Click to expand...

I've had cabins on all 3 for a couple nights in the past few years, and my party took skunks on each for late season trips. (Though I will readily admit the trips were a good bit more debauchery than hardcore fishing...).

I meet a lot of older folks up here who talk about the Esopus as all tiny fish that you should just drive passed to get to the real Catskills. I've got decent browns, I've seen decent rainbows pulled out, and I've consistently caught fish on multiple trips. I think the new management system might have changed the river for the better compared to past assumptions.
 
Oh wait, I'm selling myself short! I did get a fish out of the Beaverkill that trip. Only stalked it rising for 20 minutes...

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Besides the brutal wading, always a good chance of a point blank bear encounter or rattlerfest.

Esopus is filled with 6" - 12" bows.... filled with them. If you find the correct lie, bigger fish. Think the smallest brown I've landed was 15". Tightline or indi fish pocket water and you'll find those little bows. Fish will readily rise of you get a hatch.

I can relate to the debauchery. 3:45am and 2 very loud guys claiming that they want to hit the water at 6am to streamer fish. If you think I let them sleep in, you're wrong 😁. Dogs get loose 'by accident ' and jump on their beds.
 
discomidge said:
Over the winter my buddy moved north in the Catskills (to Bovina Center) and I'm heading up to his place for our annual spring fishing trip. Thing is, I don't know anything about the streams up there. He was in Roscoe for years before this and I've spent a lot of time on all those streams that everyone knows, but this year we'll be exploring new territory. Anyone have any thoughts on the upper East Branch/Little Delaware/etc? That's just us looking at the map and guessing. I assume we'll hit the upper West Branch as well, but there are plenty of state maps for that. If anyone wants to steer us in general direction it'd be much appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Fish between Delhi and Walton. Mid summer may be tough (July-August) but when it cools down, you can turn up both wild trout and holdover stockies. Fair amount of access. The NYDEC has access maps on line, where purchased fishing rights are available. They are not always marked by signs. This stretch is beyond where the 'summer people' tend to go. BTW, Andes is a cute little town.
 
discomidge said:
Over the winter my buddy moved north in the Catskills (to Bovina Center) and I'm heading up to his place for our annual spring fishing trip. Thing is, I don't know anything about the streams up there. He was in Roscoe for years before this and I've spent a lot of time on all those streams that everyone knows, but this year we'll be exploring new territory. Anyone have any thoughts on the upper East Branch/Little Delaware/etc? That's just us looking at the map and guessing. I assume we'll hit the upper West Branch as well, but there are plenty of state maps for that. If anyone wants to steer us in general direction it'd be much appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Check out the hallowed waters podcast he just did 4 episodes all about the Catskills I think there is like 8 hours of info probably everything you’d want to know.
 
Thanks for all the advice, all. Just got back and had a pretty good trip. We did a lot of exploring above the reservoirs - EB, WB, Little Delaware, Tremperkill, and some others. Some spots were really nice and appeared to not get much pressure - there weren't even paths along the stream a lot of the time. We also didn't see another angler, which was wildly different than my past 15 years of experience below the reservoirs. The weather was pretty raw and the wind was rough - 40mph gusts on Saturday made casting interesting (maybe why we didn't see anyone else). There were bugs around (MBs/hendos/caddis/little yellow stones) but not in huge numbers. But we got some nice fish. A few 17s and an 18 plus a bunch that were 10-12. Psyched to go back.
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I love, love, love the Beaverkill. I fished the west branch and the Beaverkill last Saturday. The wind was miserable and we hot blown off the west branch and went to the beaverkill to avoid it.
 
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