Opening march 1st 2019

[timsfly]

 

Water is in great shape, and should remain so up to march 1st, we had a great winter fishing season, plenty of nice sized trout were caught, several over 10lbs are still in the river and will be ready to catch on march 1st, these fish will make someone quite a story to tell.

Water is up a bit, but is pretty clear, should be a good day for jig fishing and fly fishing, of course the lure of the day for the first  30 minutes or so, will be a spinner of some type. 1/16 or 1/8, seem to work best early, usually dark colors are best, but I've seen plenty of nice trout caught on bright colored spinners right at the siren.

The hatchery is still continuing the work, on the hatchery, there will be plenty of trout, coming  in, in the next few days from Montauk State Parks Trout hatchery.

Around 40,000 trout will be transferred to R.R. in the next few weeks, that will be plenty for awhile.

If your fishing conventional tackle, plastic worms, and plastic eggs will be good all day, white eggs and yellow eggs are always good, and anything that imitates a trout pellet, (brown) will work well also.

Plastic worms in orange, orange/white, cheese yellow, white, and electric chicken are always good colors.

White jigs are always good on opening morning, as you can see the jig very well, and if jig disappears, you need to set the hook, as it usually means a trout has inhaled your jig, black/yellow, olive, orange, and black are also usually good colors, nothing beats the old Roaring River special, as it will work all day, olive is usually the best color.

Small crank baits are usually great at R.R. almost any small crank bait, 3" and smaller will catch trout. There have been some very big trout caught on small crank baits and spoons.

Water is clear, so 2lb line will work best, but most of us will start with 4lb just because you can get away with 4lb for the first hour or so.

Fly fishing was great all winter, lots of midges hatched almost everyday, so #18 and smaller Griffiths gnats were good most everyday, lots of nice B.W.O. hatches happened all winter long as well as the small winter caddis, (dark dun)  B.W.O.'s and caddis #16's and smaller.

Mega worms, mop flies, glo balls, Y2K's, a variety of san juan worms, all worked all winter.

Copper johns, pheasant tails, sow bugs, black, purple, gray and brown zebra midges were all good this winter, and they work all year long.

We have had good luck on soft hackles all winter, orange, green and pheasant tail soft hackles were all good.

Black, olive, white, brown, and black/yellow wooly buggers will also work well, they work all year long and will be good on opening day.

Water is clear so using dry flies, I suggest 9' 7X or longer leaders, and using nymphs, I use a 9' 6X most of the time, and when using buggers I use a 9' 6X or a 9' 5X usually .

Good luck on the river this year, should be a good opening, the good water will really help this year.

[Johnsfolly]

@timsfly thanks for the information. Should help a lot of guys catch some fish on the opener and beyond. Glad to see your post. It's been awhile. 

I've caught quite a few trout including my first RR brown on the Okuma reel that I bought from you a few years ago.

[Hwilli97]

Thanks for the advice, @timsfly! I'll be sure to stop by the shop with my friends before we hit the water.

[JestersHK]

Very nice and helpful of you. Thanks for the detailed report.  I'm sure it will create success out there for others.