9-12 report

[Johnsfolly]

After an agonizing summer of floods, work, and other obligations, I was finally able to get away and fish the Current. I haven't fished the blue ribbon section of the Current since Jan 2013. It felt good to be back on the water even during a holiday weekend. Apparently Montauk was having a fall tagged fish event and the trout park was absolutely packed, but I just kept driving downstream. I was still planning on going further downstream to stay ahead of potential canoeists, but pulled into the Tan Vat access just after 7 am to see what was going on and there were 8 cars with guys in various states of river fishing preparedness. I figured that Baptist access would also be full and didn't bother to stop there. I pulled into Parker access and there were no vehicles at all. Still in the back of my mind there was going to be a bunch of people eventually hitting the river. Because of that thought I decided against making a 2-3 mile trek downstream to begin fishing. I would go just far enough downstream of the better runs and pools and then fish back up stream until I was out of the productive water. Then I would proceed down to the next favorite spot and repeat the process.

I was fishing with spinning gear using a variety of baits. In the first deep run, I had one brown that just got hold of the bait and then let go then had another jump and throw the bait. There were a couple of weak follows. So I moved up to the deep hole above the run. No fish were showing themselves in the lower or middle sections of the pool. I made a long cast to the fast water coming into the pool. I cast the bait into the main run and had one fish flash on the bait, another small fish grabbed the bait but dropped it as I went to set the hook. Then as the bait was heading just out of the current and over a gravel bar, a 17" brown hit it hard. I got the fish landed and a couple of under water pictures it was back out into the flow.

I love the fall colors of these fish. I fished a couple of more spots and ended up fishing a big deep hole. I landed a small brown and a 15" rainbow on a Johnson thinfisher blade bait. There were lots of minnows that looked different that what I had caught this year. So I switched out the ultralight reel and 2# P-line and microjigs and nymphs to fish that same hole for minnows. There was a undercut tree that I had to cast to with a 1/125 oz white microjig and landed and released this 12" rainbow.

I did end up catching at least one new minnow species, a striped shiner, and another minnow that is pending ID work (see the variety pack thread for picture of the shiner). Over this hole was a massive cloud of mayflies and the picture doesn't do it justice since it only captures about 20% of the cloud. Maybe because it was midday, there wasn't a lot of surface feeding.  

With the holiday weekend I didn't know what to expect in terms of crowds both in and on top of the water and how that would affect the fishing. I never saw another fisherperson and it wasn't until after noon that the first kayaker went by me. Even after that I was only passed by 6 boats before I left at 2:30. I spent nearly 6 hours by myself on the river during a gorgeous fall day. I caught seven brown trout and two rainbows without really fishing an extensive stretch of the river. I caught  several minnows and added at least two new fish to my 2015 total. It was great to out on the river and I can't wait to get back out again.

[Fishingmill]

Nice report. I haven't been to the Current at all this year. Hoping I can take a day off of work to fish for some big browns at least one day in October. 

[cmoore03]

My partner and I hit the Current Sunday morning around 8:00 for our first visit this year, not a car or fisherman at Tan Vant. There was a car at Baptist but no fishermen. We went back to the cable and had a dozen 12-14" Rainbows midging along the rock bank for 2 hours. We didn't bring many dries and finally figured they were taking emergers. San Juan's, zebras, and copper johns brought a dozen in before heading back to Baptist after lunch. Once again, no fishermen to be seen. Cousin Mike was able to land an 18" Brown and a few Rainbows followed. It seemed like the world stopped, one of the prettiest streams in the country and yet no fishermen on a perfect late summer day. Just wish every trip would be so enjoyable.  CM