Trip to Esopus Creek, NY

[Hookmanski]

This weekend I went up to a campsite near Esopus Creek, NY with a couple longtime friends to do some trout fishing. We got up very late on Friday, went to sleep and woke up at 6:00 to drive to the river. The campsite was about a half hour away from the start of the upper stretch of this river, so after eating quickly we drove up and got there right at 7am.

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

The first spot of the day proved to be the best spot for me. I quickly got into a nice brown, my personal best brown for sure and the first i have caught in a long time.

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

Shortly after I caught a small rainbow that looked wild to me. I know that this river has both stocked and wild fish, and i'm leaning towards the brown being a stockie, but I'm not sure about this bow. It was small, but a beauty!

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

Next spot, I hooked and lost another small brown and got a crazy amount of follows, but they we're being very finicky and i didn't get another hit. We did see something really cool at that spot though; two browns actively courting each other to spawn. Swimming in a circle, the male was vibrating and rubbing up against the female, such a cool sight!

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

We fished hard all day and covered a lot of ground. Shout out to AKoop for hooking me up with the pdf maps of the area and putting me in contact with Todd at Esopus Creel, who i emailed back and forth for a bit to get some more information about the area before going up there. Halfway through the day we stopped for lunch and a brew at a local brewery, which just happened to be in the same plaza as Todd's shop, so we stopped in and i introduced myself and thanked him for the advice he had given me. Awesome guy, and very knowledgable about the river!

Next spot was great, both of my friends were able to get on fish! One fishes sometimes, and the other almost never, so it was awesome to have everyone in the group catch a fish. My bearded friend Brian caught a very small wild brown, and another larger brown that we didn't get a picture of cause Brian dropped him out of the net while trying to cross a deeper pool for a picture And gavin caught the largest brown of the day on a plug. We fished almost entirely plugs and spinners as they seemed to be getting the most action.

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

We hopped around a bunch more spots and had follows and hits at most of them, but couldn't seem to connect with anything else. Didn't really matter to us though, we were out in some beautiful nature and nobody got skunked. I call that an extremely successful outing!

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

My friends had to leave early Sunday so I helped them pack up the car before heading to the river, so a much later start. Cloudy, colder and rainy unlike the gorgeous clear 60 degree day the day before. I went solo and explored some spots we didn't go to and went back to some of the ones we did, but cam up empty handed and headed home t about 1:30 when the rain really picked up. Definitely a weekend to remember! Tight lines!

https://www.njfishing.com/forums/att...1&d=1571674784

[AndyS]

Glad the trip and the weather all came together for you. Next on the list will HAVE to be the East and West branches of the the Delaware river as well as the main stem up there. You can hire a float guide or just wade in at many locations. Love those NY waters packed with trout !

[thmyorke1]

Nice report! The creek looks swell and plugs were a good choice to throw.

[bigfishy]

Nice report!!!looks like the E was its usual milky color

[FASTEDDIE29]

Beautiful pics man! Gods country for sure! Being up there with friends and catching some fish is just awesome. Those fish have a lot of heart!

[oelgnal1]

Nice outing with your friends and the weather couldn't have been better. Back in the late 60's we would go on opening day below the portal to try to catch the big rainbows on their spawning run and something I never saw anywhere else were guys fishing with long fishing poles, about 15' in length with an equal length of line and drift their bait in pockets between the rocks where it would be impossible to cast to.

[JDTuna]

Awesome dude. Looks like a great trip. Exploration paid off.

[akoop]

Glad it worked out for you. Looks like a great time!

[Esox Luciano]

Looks like a nice trip! Some pristine looking landscapes in those pics. Cool that you were able to get your buddies on some fish & bag some too! Nice pics and great report bro.

[icebadger]

as already said great photos and to have good friends to share the time with PRICELESS.well done.