Upper Big D New York float trips, 5/8-9/14:

[AndyS]

DAY 1: Floated with a guy that I never went with before, primarily a fly fishing guy ( which 95% are up there) and we got an early start, 11am ! You would think he would cater to a spin fisherman by getting an early start, but no. By the time he gets done fudging around with the boat and bs’ing with every person he met, it was going on noon when we finally got on the river. We put in at Long Eddy and took out at Callicoon. The weather forecast for the day was to be mostly cloudy, which it was until we got out on the water, the sun broke through the clouds and now we were fishing in a bright, high sun and gin clear water.
Prior to our trip he gave me a run down of what lures to bring, I brought none of them. I showed up with my box of jigs and tried as hard as I could to make a believer out of him, but it wasn’t to happen, not today.
Down the river we went and I started to pick a few smallmouth here and there. Finally got a nice rainbow in one of the fast runs but that was going to be it for the rest of the trip. This trip was blown out twice already due to a number of different circumstances and the reason I like to go up there as early in the season as I can is because of what happened on the water that day. Have you ever seen a BLIZZARD HATCH ? Well low and behold it happened that day. Bugs in my ears, nose, mouth, eyes, bugs EVERYWHERE. ! This is a fly fisherman’s wet dream. Sure fish were rising all around us, I don’t fly fish, but I did get into a lengthy discussion with the guide about fly fishing and how the whole thing works, ok, I get, will I try it, probably not. I have had double digit days with my jigs up there before and I’m not losing hope, just put it aside for one day. By days end the water’s surface was thick with dead bugs and the casing from which they hatched.
A fine gentleman who has been guiding up there for better than 20 years, paid him the balance at the end of the day and I went back to the hotel for a nice long nights sleep since I had to get up and do it again all over the next day.
DAY 2: CRACK, POW, KABOOM, it’s 4am and I get blown out of bed by the sound of thunder. Some heavy rain too. My guide for the day is Evan, the son of the guide I usually use.. We get an early start at 8am, the tribs are muddy but the main stem is clear. Low clouds and light wind as we put in at Buckingham. I felt like I was in good hands with Evan since he worked doing Grand Canyon tours and rowing 800lb. rafts down class 5 rapids. Went back to my jigs again and starting getting a few smallmouth. Not much later I got a really nice rainbow. Some of the most beautiful and hardest fighting trout you will find anywhere. The rainbow was perfect, right down to the white on the tips of the fins. A slow go again for me but I can’t help going deep with jigs on that river as some parts almost seem bottom less. Evan scored a nice brown on a Rapala. Buckingham to Long Eddy has less fast water but seems more remote. I kept deep dropping even with fish hitting the surface. Never saw another boat the entire day as everyone was behind us.

Got up there late Wednesday. Can’t say enough about Smith’s Colonial Motel, they left the key in the door for me so when I got there I just went into my room. The NO VACANCY sign was up and the lot was packed with cars and drift boats too. It’s big time trout fishing up there with some 50 registered guides in that one area. I heard the West Branch looked like opening day of trout season in New Jersey.
With the gin clear water I was able to look down and see schools of large shad, soon they will be in the East Branch and lower Beaverkill. Those shad I saw were some 300 miles from the ocean. We did get a few Susquahana salmon also (very large creek chubs)
I have done back to back canyon trips and back to back offshore sea bass trips, this was my first back to back float trips.
If you have never taken the 2 hour drive to go trout fishing up there I highly recommend it. You can also float for lights out smallmouth fishing in June and July and charter a trip up there for monster walleye in the fall. If you need any info please feel free to ask, I can steer you in the right direction. Had to go back to one of my photos from last fall, but please, please don’t feel over whelmed by going up there and fishing the BIG water. I LOVE big water.