Fishing Report April 24th

[Ted Calcaterra]

I had a great day fishing the fly only zone at Montauk this past Monday. The weather was absoulty perfect and the fishing was great. I will tell you that the conditions are a little tough and you need to be prepared. The water is low and clear. I had many more takes on 7x tippet than 6x with my overall leader about 12ft. The fish were rising all day and my buddy and I caught too many to count. I was using Renegades all day in about a size 16 & 18. I started with a size 14 and didn't seem to have as many takers. Going down in size on both tippet and fly size was the ticket. Later in the evening I fished a size 16 tan elk hair caddis and caught a few before leaving about 5:30pm back to STL. Bottom line if you plan to fish Montauk in the upcoming week:

1- Use a long leader (12 ft)

2- Use as light of tippet as you can get away with. Early morning and 6x is fine but when the sun gets bright, switch to 7x.

3- Carry some small dry flies. Nothing beats catching fish on top. Renegades #16, griffths nats #18, or elk hair caddis #16 will work fine.

It worked for me. Hope you find this information useful.

[mcp633]

I was down last weekend and had some success, but it was slow. I had my best success in the flat water, mid-morning fishing on the downed trees on the lodge side of the stream. I caught about ten total, however, I didn't fish really hard, or anywhere else but the flat water. Just a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday morning. I was fishing 6x Frog Hair tippet and glo-balls for the most part. I was impressed with the size of the fish I caught. Most were 13-15" and looked healthy.

Kyle