Mianus April

Weather: [75 Deg, Sunny] Water Conditions: [Slow, Low, Clear] Fishing Activity: [Few guys out throwing a line. Starting above the gorge] Methods: [Uncertain] Insects Observed: [none] General Concensus: [Did not appear to active. Maybe a sight of caddis. Water sort stagnet above the gorge.] Was advised by land management they did not aprove of persons fishing withinn the gorge. They claim fisherman are causing errosion climbing down the banks. I would think most guys enter upstream of the gorge. Seems they think the slow upstream area by the Walk Bench is fishable. The water is soooo slow there how can you present anything life looking. The feeders inlets downstream were flowing water.

West Branch Croton

Water level fluctuates throughout day slightly. Little murky and sooty Fish are being caught. Still green caddis remain dominant. Early evening, twilight BWO S, 20. Hatches are spotty but significant. Few rainbow mix with browns.

West Branch Croton

Season is coming along. Lack of rains water level low last two weeks but now CFS has improved raising level a foot. Water been cold in clear.
Suckers been speeding eggs in shallows in all the brooks and streams, with Browns holding close behind feeding. Pale evening duns or Cahills started popping off a bit and green caddis midday. Those on target finding cooperative reservoir Browns, in rivers

E Branch Jan. 6 temps above normal

Weather: [50 degree, SW 5 ml, Sunny] Water Conditions: [ Clear, No spill, close to normal level flow 3.85 Ft., 180 DSF ] Fishing Activity: [ Only a couple anglers made the river midday with the mild weather conditions. ] Methods: [ Neither fisherman an seemed to have match the hatch fly in their box, so substituted with nymphing ] Insects Observed:[ large black midges] General Consensus: [Mid winter fish can be selective ]

Appears some of the Irene and Halloween blow downs have moved to the banks or pushed downstream. In any case the water is relived of most earlier obstructions.

Titicus Browns On High Water

Weather: [82 degrees] Water Conditions: [70 degrees and high. Some smaller local tribs maintain a steady level through the weeks an raised about 10 more inches after storms] Fishing Activity: [few stockie browns] Methods: [nymphing] Insects Observed: [caddis] General Concensus: [flood rains brought spill overs to high water levels. Streamers took some fish on the West Croton River. Nymphs took fish on the smaller tribs]

East Branch Croton River

Low water conditions. Little murky tint but clean. Not a lot of debrie. Leaves dropping in low winds, some litter around banks. Some nice fish holding. Not many bugs.

Croton River West Branch

Weather: [75] Water Conditions: [High clear and 70 degree] Fishing Activity: [slow at best...no action] Methods: [] Insects Observed: [few small caddis] General Concensus: [barbacue]

West Branch Croton River

Few Cahills are still popping off in the early evenings. Mixed caddis duns...olive seems most prevalent. Before the evening caddis hatch, Griffith Nat taking fish. An occasional rainbow shows.

Maine Winter Rivers 2008-9

Some local not so well know streams that had the opportunity to fish in Spring 2009. Mostly Brookies. Black caddis with and orange thorax in size 22 was the only fly that produced. After buying some local Umpqua flies I found that the local bugs were not all black. On the Androscoggin River a fellow handed me some of his own ties and right away I noticed they had the orange like the locals. It made the difference.

East Branch Wint 2011

East Branch Winter/Spring 2011 high waters. Rainbow haven

Croton Falls Wint 2011 Pics

Croton Falls Winter/Spring 2011 High waters

Mt Kisco Park Spring 2011 flood

Any question as to why the Croton Watershed levels were high this 2011 Spring here are some pics after the rain fall in Bedford NY. Mount Kisco Lenard Park was almost reclaimed back to the lake it once was. The river running through the park became a pond. The guess and ducks had a FIELD (?) day. It you liked, a Kayak to the ball field would have done well. You could have almost rowed to the drive thru parking lot at Friendly's

Croton Watershed 2010-11 Ice fish

Was it a cold winter, the bugs thought so. The Croton East Branch must have seemed so too. The river did not want to give up its normal take of rainbows for most of us. The spillway did not give us the normal heavy flow. Precipitation came to us more as snow than rain. The reservoirs did something not seen for a number of years, they not only froze, it happened early. Last few years we were happy with a week to a month of ice fishing. Unlike places like Maine that freeze over well by the first week of December, some of us here pray for some ice at all. Well this year we had are plenty as ALL the reservoirs did freeze. So we had some other use for our warm weather gear other than hunting or skiing.
Here are a few poorly taken pictures with my 10 year old digital, that kept freezing up its memory while out on the chilly ice. Again here this year I found young new comers braving the temperatures to get in on some ice fishing. The fellow in the plaid red jacket was the second place winner with a 11" Brookie only out placed by a 12" Brown in the Mt. Kisco NY youngster fishing derbie.

Croton West Branch

Henrickson's 14's have made a serodic appearence on the upper West Branch Croton.

Early Season On Amawalk

Weather: [50-60 mostly afternoon clouds slight drizzle] Water Quality: [Unknown temps. water high but fishable.] Fishing Activity: [A number of arrivals gave it a shot.] Methods: [The dry fly guys did not pull any fish but not all the nymphers got skunked.] General Consensus: [Considering the high water level you had to work for any action. Not everyone had a payoff] Insects Observed: [Blue Quills 14 - 16 Small BWo 18 - 20]

Stone Hill River Spring Stockies

Weather: [sun and clouds last week mostly around 60 degress. Water level ideal for this stream] Water Temp:[unknown but slight tinged with rain but not murky mud] Fishing Activity: [father and son team took 5 plus fish from one pool. Spin guys took about nine fish the following day] Methods:[caddis for the fly and wooly bugger and bead head streamers for the spinners] General Concensus: [Fish being stockies look for movement upstream so induced take paysoff] Insects Observed: [3 - 6pm black caddis 20 - 22 abound, mixed with some of the remainder of black stones 16 - 18]

Maine 2009-10 Ice Fish

Regrettably my antique digi camera had a memory freeze, while fishing Roxburry Pond in western Maine. Had taken many pictures of very creative shanties and the methods for dragging them out onto the ice. Some had wood stoves, cooking grills, turkey cookers, kerosene heaters you name it. The normal daily winds of 30-40 miles hour and all day temperatures of minus 25 degrees made for a lot of early ice.
The first week of December while pulling my hand arguer out and starting a hole, I attracted a crowd of enthusiast wondering what I was planning to do. Was I going to wait till March and see if the ice thawed or by then punch thru the five feet of shoreline ice. Feeling guilty showed I had a three day finishing license. They all nodded in acknowledgement, realizing then I was a not a local but a rookie to northern ice fishing. They all got a laugh as I earned sore hands, until someone dragged over their gas auger. They watched as I broke though, wearing low boots and was greeted by a guesser of ice water and a cheer, when pulling the auger back out in power.

Croton Falls Next Generation

This is a forthcoming pro fisherman. His attitude and knowledge was impressive. The high water at Croton Falls had discourage a number of regular anglers from wetting their lines this day. Not this kid, who if I remember right was about 11 years old.

When I offered one of my own tied flies, he claimed to venture with his own creations and nothing else. He later advised that he had attended TU camp. He held his own on and off the water and never faltered while wadding around the deeper holes of Garcia run. He did not talk as much as I might but was able to answer as confidently as his wadding ability, any question I posed to him. His guardian must have shared in that confidence, as he stood near the river banks in civilian attire. Apparently not concerned with having to make a splash retrieval. This kid was busy and I only wish he had the time for further questions. I was sure he had some tips and experience I would have been anxious to hear.

East Branch

Water Quality: [Low slightly tinted. Lots of long algae and dead leaves. Much wood with low conditions for snags]
Weather: [47 degrees Cloudy overcast. 0-5 ml. wind]
Water Temp: [About 45]
Fishing Activity: [Have not kept up with starting entries. Last week on Thursday through the rain, fished the lower Section from Rt 84 Downward to Rt 6. No Activity. Switched to the upper section for the last two hours before dark. Took a 19" rainbow with a nice hook jaw developing and a second rainbow about 13". This was moments after DEC had left the stream, after checking some equipment. They may have stirred up the bottom a bit and generate some feeding fish. The activity seems to shut down a 1/2 hour before sunset. Returned on Friday and landed a 17" female, very healthy with roe.]
Methods: [The stirred up fish were on scuds. Just seemed the thing to try, after the workers pulled out. The female rainbow was on a Black Headlamp wire rib midge. Black cased caddis and olive hard case wire body nymphs, small size 22.There are no real bug hatches per say. Almost anything is worth a try. Today used some green copper johns, scuds, cased caddis, olive HE, BWO emergers. No takers. ]
General Consensus: [In the last month the water level has gone from 80 DCF to 130 then down to 35 and up to 46 and now back to 35. Seems they are dumping water from Sodom, to later be able to hold water water back, while going though different phases on the work at Diverting. Even when the sun was out for the later part till dusk, no bugs on the water. It almost that time for the lonely macro midges. Another fisherman reported taking a few fish on larva. this fall season I've been holding out to see how long small nymphs a pupa's would hold the fish interest. There seems to be small windows throughout the day, that the fish turn on and success depends more on having a fly in the water at these opportune times. ]
Insects Observed: [With a spot of sun for about 1-1/2 hour some caddis popped off, maybe grey. Have not seen any of the black caddis reported the last week of October. Some black midges have made an appearance but scarce. Some real small BWO. Have not found any action on nymphs, similar in color and size]