Esopus..

[Duck-butt Chucker]

One of the older guys I fish with at WB Croton all the time invited me up to fish the Esopus tomorrow...i've never been there before nor caught a wild rainbow so i'm pretty excited about it...can't find a site that has river reports of the place (similar to like dryfly.com has them for Housatonic or farmingtonriver.com for the Farmington) so I wanted to ask you guys what I need for up there to fish on top, what size tippet I can get away with, is there likely to be any top water action, and just anything else you guys who fish there could contribute I'd really appreciate it...Thanks alot

-Mike

[frankm205]

The Esopus is low ,warm, and muddy thanks to the portal . Temps are mid 70s by late morning. the river is also running on the low side. Not a good place to head up to....sorry to be the bearer of bad news. This stream was an awsome stream to fish for wild bows some quite large, but due to the construction around some of the tribs , and the high temps this year has been rough.

[AaronJasper]

I second that. I was talking to someone today and they said the same thing in regards to the temps and the low water. I saw that it was 69.4 degrees in the morning.

Maybe head to the West Branch of the Delaware? Is that an option?

[Magnet]

Esopus is loaded with dydimo.

[Duck-butt Chucker]

That's really disappointing...nah it's the Esopus specifically apparently, I think one of the fly shops around here has a "Jamboree" or something up there every year this time of year and they have a barbecue and stuff like that and fish the river so that's why he's going there specifically and invited me along so even if it's bad that's where i'm going for the day...do you think streamers would be better to try and take fish than dries?...do you think I will run into risers at all?...I looked at catskill river report and it said for esopus literally "mud-unfishable" but that's the situation i'm dealing with for tomorrow so if you were in the same position how would you guys best approach it?

[AaronJasper]

Stick to the shallowest holding water, less than 18 inches in depth. There you should have adequate depth for enough light penetration to enable the fish to see your fly.

[Duck-butt Chucker]

Thanks man…went up yesterday for the first time…fished the stretch off of Mt. Pleasant rd. in Phoenecia….water levels were low and silty w/ about 2ft visibility which is definitely far from ideal but there were still some fish active in the deeper runs holding tight to the bottom even in the heat of the early afternoon (11:30-2:30) when I was there with a few brown 16 caddis hatching…The guy I was with picked up two 10in rainbows on a pheasant tail and I fished a size 6 heavy lead-eye olive sculpin pattern dead-drift letting it bounce along the small stones on the bottom and managed to dredge up a 15 inch wild brown…I wouldn’t recommend anyone go out of their way to fish up there in the current conditions as there are plenty of better options, but it’s also far from the “mud-unfishable” distinction it was given in the catskillflies.com stream report I read and I’m sure fishes far better later in the day

[frankm205]

That river had to be well over 70 degrees at those hours?

[Duck-butt Chucker]

[quote author=Frankm205 link=topic=4689.msg36599#msg36599 date=1281353151]
That river had to be well over 70 degrees at those hours?
[/quote]

http://www.orvis.com/fishing_report....ocationid=6803

...I don't carry a thermometer myself but keep in mind the one positive aspect of the silt is it doesn't allow the light to penetrate as deeply into the water column which in turn slows the rate at which it heats up

[Gregorygob]

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