Fishing The Current This Week.

[Aaron Mills]

Well, My wife, dad and I are gonna pack up and fish the current below montauk this week.

I was hoping for some advice... flies to tie, spots to wade. we will likely wade from Tan Vat downstream until we get tired and come back unless someone has a better suggestion. definitely want to hear about what flies/insects we should be prepared to see and any spots people particularly like to fish. maybe we'll bump into some of you out there.

take care all

aaron mills

[3wt]

I usually fish from Baptist Camp, and usually go downstream. I haven't fished Tan Vat for a long time. A lot of guys do, and I think they like the upstream section better. Down from Tan Vat is a little slow until you get a little closer to Baptist. If you have a couple days to spend try both around Baptist and Tan Vat.

I like to use #8 olive mohair leeches, #8 olive bh wooly buggers, red san juan worms, crackle backs, you can catch a trico hatch, so little bitty <#20 trico spinners can catch them, but you'll have to work at it. People often use the crackle backs dry with a nymph or soft hackle as a dropper.

[Aaron Mills]

I usually fish from Baptist Camp, and usually go downstream. I haven't fished Tan Vat for a long time. A lot of guys do, and I think they like the upstream section better. Down from Tan Vat is a little slow until you get a little closer to Baptist. If you have a couple days to spend try both around Baptist and Tan Vat.

I like to use #8 olive mohair leeches, #8 olive bh wooly buggers, red san juan worms, crackle backs, you can catch a trico hatch, so little bitty <#20 trico spinners can catch them, but you'll have to work at it. People often use the crackle backs dry with a nymph or soft hackle as a dropper.

Thanks 3wt. do you dead drift your leaches under a split shot or swing em??? I've had a couple of people mention fishing leeches on that stretch. The only time I've fished at Montauk since I was a kid, I did get into the trico hatch. That was a lot of fun. I'll have to rig up my 4wt. I was lucky, when I was 4 or 5, my uncle managed the hatchery. He took me out a few times and I hooked my first trout there on a worm. still remember that. I'm excited to go back.

[flyfishmaster]

Aaron,

The bug activity has been fairly weak this year. There are not many bugs in the air at all. The last time down I only saw two fish break the surface for a bug. Your best to go subsurface.

IF you want to know what to use, do a search for the Current River and flies. About one month ago 10 guys posted flies that they use. There is wide selection and every one has there own favorites.

Later,

FFM

[anieman]

I was down two weeks ago and there were quite a few fish feeding on tricos. Tan Vat is a great place to fish steamers and nymphs, but if you want to fish the tricos then go to the cabin right below the park or go downstream a little ways from Baptist Camp.

[3wt]

It does sound like the trico hatch is back finally. I'd say a 4wt is perfect for this river.

As far as leeches the answer is yes. Both. Dead drift and swing as appropriate for the water. Get weighted olive mohair leeches to avoid using shot or soft weight. I don't like what they sell at the park. I don't know where you will find them in your area, but some of the places around Springfield should have them.

I like to swing them better, but let them get down - so cast just a little upstream and let them drift a bit before swinging. The take may be very suble this way. If you dead drift them under an indicator (also very effective) make sure you're deep enough to drag the bottom once in a while. Adjust the depth as needed. of all the fish I catch on the Current I'd say over 90% are on this fly.

Do search, there is a good thread with a lot of the regulars here sharing their favorite flies. Most of the guys go for more variety than I do (wich is a good thing), but you'll always find a few fish with the mohair leech.

[Gavin]

Toss em the groceries...trico fishing can be fun, but most of your catch will be dinks..Mohairs, eggs, worms, streamers, and big terrestrials with rubber legs seem to attract the bigger fish...by bigger I mean those over 15" or so...fish in the 18"+ category are always possible, but flies arent the best way to catch them (They usually fall for big minnow baits when the water is up). The water between the park and Baptist usually holds the highest numbers of fish because of all the nutrients that flow out of the park. It also holds the highest concentration of fisherman. Ginger Mohairs really work well up there, perhaps they look like fish guts. Carry some Brown, and Olive Mohairs too.

If you are on foot, go up or down from Tan Vat, or down from Baptist to Ashley Creek..Water between Baptist and Cedar Grove contains fewer fish, but its not as crowded. You can access on foot at Parker Hollow or you can rent a canoe from Jadwin and float from Baptist to Cedar. Great Scenery on that stretch. Canoes dont seem to bother them much down there. I've had many great days of fishing with canoes on the water, get on early and fish till they come, take hike or a nap till they are gone, then float on down about 15-20 minutes behind the mob. Cheers.

[Project Healing Waters]

I beg to differ.

I fished from Tan Vat down and upstream all last week. I always catch a lot of nice trout from TV down to Baptist...starting just below Tan Vat. The dead spot...if there is one...is about 1/2 way between the two where the river gets really shallow for awhile. Upstream from Tan Vat is also productive along the bluff-side bank below the big bend in the river below the cabins. Upstream from there to Montauk is well known and well traveled.

I caught a BUNCH of Browns and Rainbows between 15 and 20" on small mayfly nymphs 18-24" under a palsa foam indicator below TV and a fair number on size 14 parachute Adams. Best nymph was the size 16-18 bead head soft hackle red fox squirrel nymph. A size 16 bead head pheasant tail nymph was solid as well. Best fish of the week came in this section on a size 16 BH RFSN 20" under a palsa foam on 6X fluorocarbon tippet. It was a 20" Brown with hook jaw.

Upstream from TV, the action was great on size 12 Stimulators and size 14 Adams and Patriots in the evenings. I caught ZERO small fish and was pushing something like 40-50 trout over 16" on three evenings of this (1-2 hours per evening). Again, you must use small tippet or you just scare the fish. The water is very clear. The Stimulators were truly big fish magnets and the trout were ATTACKING them, not sipping them. Big, splashy strikes on the drift were common. I used a classic upstream presentation. And while this water is fairly slow, it gets a bit tricky and technical. So the straight upstream presentation was the most productive. Smallest fish I caught on the Stimulator was 17" and largest was 20". And mostly Browns.

I would always fish my way back downstream with a streamer that has produced well for me here before: sculpins, leeches, and buggers. I caught 2-3 fish TOTAL on the streamers. You need a really long cast and long leader to even think about being successful there right now on the streamers. The fish can see WAY upstream in addition to "hearing" you coming. And they get lock-jaw. Personally, I don't like to fish streamers on tippets smaller than 5X because of the break-offs. I did lose a few not counted in my total due to this...and I mean a FEW. None struck on the swing. Mind you, I have had excellent success on streamers in this stretch of the Current many times.

Hatches were coming off relatively constantly, but heaviest in the mornings. Tricos and other larger mayflies were the soup du jour. There were decent midge hatches late in the evenings. Tricos dominated. But some mid-sized brown/gray mayflies were very obvious in late morning.

Usually, when I spend 2 days or more fishing the Current, I spend some time downstream of Baptist. On this trip, I did not and I had my kayak. Why not? Fishing was too good upstream to abandon. Oh, I actually caught some sculpins on the small nymphs. LOL Based on what I saw, I'm going to increase the size of my sculpins down there from a size 8-10 to a size 4-6. And tie them in tan/brown combinations.