Beaverkill TR

Treked on up to NY from Va on thurs morn. I had a number of concerned
online fishing friends warn me of the river levels but I had been
watching the levels drop and drop and drop so off I was. The Beaver
fishes nicely at 500-600 cfs and at the peak of the Ivan visit the
gauges were recording 46,000 CFS! I couldn't imagine seeing something
like that. We camp about a mile up a feeder brook so our campgrounds
was pretty much spared, access to the upstream portion of the brook
was gone but camp we did. The other campgrounds along side the Beaver
had major damage and lots of campers were washed downstream. It seems
every shop-owner we encountered during the long weekend had his/her
tale of woe. The fishing: Normally, we fish a few stretches awaiting
the typical hatches but we knew that this trip was going to be
different. Grabbed some Iso's, some wooley and into the water we
went. I managed to "accidently " hook up quite quickly in the rapids
just above Cairns. (My fly got caught on a back-cast, waded ashore,
untangled, threw said fly into a runoff, waded back out, went to pick
up and had a fish on!) I'm somewhat of a rank amature so this was
somewhat typical for me when nymphing. That fish wsa the ONLY fish I
saw landed on the Beaver during 3 full days of fishing. Angler
traffic was way down of course but there were still enough skilled
anglers astream to reassure me of "if they're not hooking up, my lack
of success isn't due to skill or knowledge". During the three days on
the water, I saw maybe 1/2 dozen insects over the water. The last day
I did spot a $hitload of tiny nymphs on the shore and just off-shore.
3/8 inch up to maybe 5/8ths. My entomology is not up to snuff so they
will remain unidentified. One final observation: Typically wading is
somewhat tricky due to the slipperyness of the rocks. This trip there
wasn't any slickness to the rocks. Was wondering if the river was
scoured of most if not all insect life.
Bill in Va.

Bill McDonald wrote:

(My fly got caught on a back-cast, waded ashore,
untangled, threw said fly into a runoff, waded back out, went to pick
up and had a fish on!) I'm somewhat of a rank amature so this was
somewhat typical for me when nymphing. That fish wsa the ONLY fish I
saw landed on the Beaver during 3 full days of fishing.

Sounds like you needed to reproduce the "tactic" that worked! It would be
interesting to say the least.

But MAYBE there was something about the way the fly was presented when
you threw it into the stream or the spot where the fish hit was a good
type of water or you were just lucky. Sometimes it does pay to try and
reproduce what happened when you got a "lucky" fish.

Willi

On 27 Sep 2004 07:46:56 -0700, (Bill McDonald) wrote:

snip
One final observation: Typically wading is
somewhat tricky due to the slipperyness of the rocks. This trip there
wasn't any slickness to the rocks. Was wondering if the river was
scoured of most if not all insect life.
Bill in Va.
Bill,
I appreciate the quick report. I had planned to leave tomorrow morning
to pass through Roscoe headed north but the wife is not up to snuff
after getting her new knee last month so the plans were scrapped.
Your lousy fishing success makes me feel a little bit better about my
failed trip. Thanks.G

If you fish mountain streams in the spring you will find the rocks
have been sandblasted by the solid material carried in the spring
runoff and wading is wonderful but in the summer/fall with fresh algae
growth the wading can be very tricky. It's perfectly normal.
In 1995-96 (if memory serves) the Rapidan suffered through a 100 year
storm that took out the post office and a few houses downstream at
Graves Mill, then another storm in the summer slammed the upper
section, took out both bridges (you can still see the steel girders
wrapped around rocks downstream) and washed out many of the brookies
there (I don't think it has fully recovered even yet). In the fall
when we fished it I frightened one trout the whole weekend, got no
hits, but was astounded at the tremendous amount of insect activity.

I think the bugs will be fine on the Beaverkill as they can usually
find a place to get out of the flow but I suspect the trout population
may have gotten beat up a bit.

Kiyu