Esopus

[Lipripper]

For sure ncman.Iwas there last night and manged a couple on a parchute adams 16 just above five arches.all stockers all browns biggest 11in. threw the works at em and im guessin they couldnt really see looking around but then became suspended closer to surface at that 730 pm time making it easier for them to make out the surface activity?. before for that 6-730 nuthin and tried like hell covering alot of water.prob better today but storms tomoorow so back to dirty again.Nice river when it clears up.fish it often as well as the housy in ct.

[northcountryman]

I agree, when the E. is cleared up (as much as it can!), its as good as ANY catskill river IMHO. But with this water clarity issue, conditions are very tough, to say the least. Glad to hear you got a few though!

[northcountryman]

Went today in the am, water temp was 70!! Terrible, water also, as usual, very discolored. Very poor conditions for those trout. I'm worried.

[catskill flyman]

atleast the limit is getting changed on the river. its going from 5 a day any size to 2 a day 12inches or larger, i beleive this starts october 1st. as for the color and temperature i cant say much its just disappionting. i do most of my fishing on the esopus but i havnt done much this year due to the color and temp.

[AaronJasper]

Hey that's a giant step in the right direction! It will be fine. That river is resilient to say the least. As far as the color, it could still be from some flood damage from last year.

[Patrick]

Esopus below Portal still a mess. Much disgust among anglers I spoke with. A couple of guys were fishing behind the restaurant by the Portal, apparently hoping a decent trout would travel upstream to see what's up before returning to the Yoo-Hoo.

Further up, on the approx. two miles along Old Route 28, fishing was just barely feasible Sunday. I walked up the streambed from the very first pull off all the way up to the the third pull off (heading west). There are about half a dozen deep runs and holes that harbor some decent trout. They will hit a Stimulator as dark falls, and a Copper John.

Water temps in the shady areas aren't horrible. Not great, either.

Monday morning was overcast and combined with overnight air temps in the upper 50s there was a little more activity in this stretch.

I hated to leave today, which is cool and rainy now that Isaac is bringing some relief. Here's hoping for a half-decent fall season.

A guy I met on the river said the Scoharie reservoir is nice and clear, so I don't know what is happening between there and Allaben. But these discharges have effectively rendered the bulk of the river null and void, unless your idea of fishing is chucking something big in the murk and hoping to bang a trout in the face.

[Patrick]

^ I should note there was a recreational release over the weekend, but when I left Tuesday morning the river was still discolored to the point of being unfishable.

[northcountryman]

Hopefully it will settle down a little with cooler temps; do they usually reduce the flows a little when temps come down anyone know or is it more a water level/volume thing that they want to maintain, both in the river and the sch. reservoir?

[Lipripper]

so a few things about the esopus. the water volume from the portal has nothing to do with water needed in the river,temp.control or better enviroment for the trout and its pretty sad. the only reason the flows on average change is to supply the ashokan res. with enough water for the new york city public water supply and no other reason.at times discharge has been high due to maintaince at schor.res.the res may look clear but is loaded with a silty bottom and very little structure from where the portal extracts it water hence the color coming out. also in phonecia thee is a trib called stonyclove/chichester creek that has an enormus clay bank fish exposed fromhurricane irene. and when it rains forgetta bout it! even as far up in big indian there are clay boulders/balls? that were depoisted in the river.solid red clay at times in excess of 6 ft across that bleeds when it rains. two things try fishing above portal especially if lower e continues to be like it is as the browns will start comin up from the res. another nice place which is almost always clear is woodland valley.it was stocked with about 400 fish in the 2-4 yr range in the fly fishing only section.done good on small stimis ants caddis patterns and garcias mini hots. several springs in the area and shade keep it cool enough and a decent waterfall.try it.it is different and a few wild fish too. new regs state 5 fish any size yet only allowed two over 12 in starting oct 1st.im mostly catch and release other than a few 12in. and other i take for the smoker throughout the year.it's good for the river. i remember a guy who in 2008-2009 season he took over a dozen trout in the 22-27 inch range outta that stream. times that by a fewmore goons and it could seriously hurt over time. thats what hurts a fishery not flood.cornell univ. did a study the past few years and found trout within a 50 yd,distance from where they were putback then after irene. fish are more resilient to natural disaters than man-made ones.

[Patrick]

If you go to the fly-fishing section of Woodland Valley please consider contributing to the Woodland Trout Fund. Send me a PM and I'll tell you how.

The section with the yellow signs is indeed stocked twice a year, by private individuals, and access is allowed for fly-fishing purposes only. I learned how to fish in Woodland Valley.