1st Time = Need Tips/advice

[BKB]

I am planning my first ever trip to the upper current. I consider myself a beginner flyfisher. I'm thinking that I will spend most of my time upstream and downstream of the Tan Vat access. Here are my two questions:

#1 What should I use this time of year? How about time of day..morning, afternoon, evening...? I am most comfortable fishing nymphs and dries, have never fished

streamers, etc...

#2 What is the river like now? Still up? Clarity? Wadability? I can see the USGS streamflow info and it looks high, but I have no frame of reference.

I appreciate any help to make this a good first trip to the current for me!

[TroutFearMe]

I was just down at Montauk last weekend and the water was a little off color but only because it rained every other day. I had my best luck in the morning drifting scuds through the riffles and woolly buggers laters in the day. I only made it outside the park saturday evening and did real well running 1/100 thread jigs about 3ft deep through the hole outside the park, but I wish I had some BIG chernobyl ants to run dropers off as soon as the sun started going down I just couldn't keep the fish off my indicator that I was using. The stream is in very good shape lost of down trees to hold lots of big fish, it is wadeable

[cnr]

The last time I fished the Current (below baptist camp access) about a month ago I had my greatest success with beadhead woolly buggers size 10 in white or olive. The water was slightly off color and made for great fishing that day. If the water is really clear you may want to go to nymph fishing in smaller sizes. I did a search of recommended flies for the Current river on this and other websites and came up with the list of flies attached. The list is unedited and will have repeats in each grouping of peoples favorite flies for the Current river.

Hope this helps,

CNR

(catch n release)

current_flies.doc

[bikehikefish]

Not sure if the trico hatches have started yet, but it is about the time of year for them to start. Fish them very early in the morning with very small trico imitations.

Later in the day caddis can be productive. Otherwise go deep with weighted hare's ears, wooly buggers, prince nymphs, etc.

Good luck!

[BKB]

Wow...Thanks guys....

So, the water is not up enough to change from "normal" tactics?

I've fished at Bennett a few times this year and the only thing that worked was huge jigs or glowballs fished on the bottom. I'm hoping the Current isnt up that much. I'm headed down Sunday, probably arrive around noon, fish till dusk, fish all day on Mon, fish Tuesday AM and come home.

[anieman]

I just fished the current last wednesday and the river is in great shape. The fish were hungry and the most productive flies were soft hackles, san juan worms, and mohair leeches. If you are a beginner fly fisherman I would recomend fishing by the first cabin outside the park.

Austin

[GloryDaze]

Wow!

[3wt]

Go now (water is at a great level, very wadeble, lots of fishable spots, more fish than I have ever seen in the water, bigger fish than I have ever seen in the water)

Afternoons were actully better for me

Mohair leeches, olive bh wollybuggers, san juan worms

[BKB]

My report:

Sunday 12:30-5:30

Got to TanVat access and was packed with swimmers! Waded downstream. Caught one rainbow right away in the riffle right below the access. Walked down to Baptist with a few hookups, but no catches. Turned around at Baptist and headed back upstream. That's a tough walk when your hot and tired! My legs are still sore! Caught two on the way back up in a nice looking hole with a lot of current and two big rocks in the middle of 5 foot deep water or so. All 3 caught on orange glowball.

Monday 11:00-4:30

Couldn't sleep in hotel, so didn't get up as early as I would have wanted. Headed upstream from TavVat. Had a great day.. lots of fun! Walked up to an area that I think I've heard called the Rock Garden on this board before. I found my new favorite spot! Current with boulders strewn throughout. Very picturesque! Caught 15 rainbows today with the largest being about 17" I had one on for about a minute or so that would have gone over 20 easily and it was fat! Broke my line after lodging itself under a rock shelf! Also saw one huge brown (I mean big!) that wasn't interested in anything that I had to throw at it. Caught fish on a variety of flies, the winner was a chartruse brassie followed by a size 22 black and white midge, and a size 16 tan scud.

My overall first time ever on the Current River thoughts:

Great river and scenery! Was a bit shallower than I had envisioned it. Not a lot of what I would call "fishy" looking water between TanVat and Baptist. Some decent looking spots, but many 1/4 mile long featureless one foot deep sand bottomed stretches than I care to walk through again! I'm sure some people love that, but not me. The stretch above TanVat had more fishy looking spots in my opinion. I certainly caught more there! Fish seemed to be picky, but if you got your drift and mend right, the bites were on. I will be back!!

BTW....Saw three water snakes right at the TavVat access...the swimmers had no clue!

[Project Healing Waters]

Between Tan Vat and Baptist is some terrific trout fishing, but you have to key on the structures along the banks, etc. The small deeper holes and runs associated with boulders, cutbanks, and deadfalls are holding concentrated trout. It is not uncommon for me to wade to one deadfall and pull 4-6 nice trout out of there, then wade down to the next one and do it again...and so on. Highly visible nymphs dead drifted as close to the structure as possible tends to do the trick. So will mohair leeches, sculpins, etc. on a sink tip fished with a quartering downstream presentation that swings the fly close to the structure/through the holding water. Ignore these shallow riffles in this section. Have fun.