Amawalk Browns

First Amawalk Brown of the day

Sometimes you just need to be spontaneous.  After a rather long week at work and the fact there is finally a weekend on the family calendar without any major obligations, I decided at the last minute to head up to Westchester to fish a favorite stream of mine...Amawalk Outlet.  This stream is part of  New York City's water supply system and is regulated under "artificial only" rules.  To get there required getting up at 5am and driving an hour and a half from Long Island.  But it was worth it.  I managed to have large stretches of the stream to myself for several hours, not something I would often enjoy on Long Island.

Amawalk Outlet downstream of Woods Street Bridge

Caught a couple of browns right near this rock

In a "nutshell".... it was a pretty nice morning.  I managed to bring a half dozen healthy looking brown trout to hand and had a few LDR's.  All of them were taken on a size 14 Killer Bug.  On this stream, as well as a number of other streams in Westchester and Putnam counties, a Killer Bug is just about all you will ever need.    I did fish a couple of sakasa kebari, with a few bites and hook-ups here and there but the Killer Bug was the hands down winner.

      

In addition to the browns, there were a number of other stream-side residents present.  There was an abundance of midges and mayflies hatching, especially in the sunny patches.  Spring peepers could be heard in many areas along the stream.  Mallard ducks were swimming in several places and evidence of others that passed during the night could be seen everywhere.

Deer tracks

 In my opinion, a few hours stream-side is all I need to recharge my "batteries."  What better tonic could there be for stress relief than being able to stand knee deep in a cool mountain stream and hold such a beautiful work of Nature?

One That Will Haunt Me



Amawalk Outlet-Muscoot River

Well it's been a little while since my last post.  The family and I have been on vacation enjoying time with one another and relaxing.  Claudia and I took the girls to PA for a kid oriented trip.  We had a great time visiting Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster and Chocolate World in Hershey.  Then we spent a few days just relaxing at home by the pool.  I even managed to spend most of my birthday fishing a small stream in Westchester County just north of NYC.  The Amawalk Outlet-Muscoot River is a small stream that runs almost three miles between two reservoir's that are part of NYC's water supply system.  This stream gets some stockings during the spring but has a well established population of wild browns and some brookies.



One of the most productive pools for the day

I fished roughly 300 yards of the stream but only seemed to come away with any fish in a section about 20 yards long.  I had been there most of the morning without a nibble and was becoming dejected until I reached this one promising looking pool.  Two or three casts with my Tenkara Iwana and WHAM!  I thought my rod was done for sure but it held. for several heart pound minutes I shifted and maneuvered to keep it close then I got a view of him.  Now I know there are bigger trout out there and other anglers have landed bigger ones but this guy was 16-17" and would have been, for me, a personal best for a trout.  The key words being....would have been.  I had the line with one hand and was within inches of grabbing him with the other when...Snap!  And just that quick he was gone.  I spent the next hour in a fruitless effort trying to catch him again.  To add insult to injury he sped off with the only olive Bubble Kebari I had brought with me.  I managed to have a good time despite the loss and brought a number of 8-10" browns to hand.  It was just nice to be out on the stream but for days I have not been able to shake myself of the sight of that large brown speeding back off into the depths of that pool.  I guess it gives me a goal to reach for the next time I return.

   

A little Brown taken on a #12 green Brassie Sakasa Kebari

 The last couple of fish were taken on one of my favorite flies a #12 Royal Sakasa Kebari including this 10" brown that put up a great fight.



The pool where I caught most of the trout.



I Couldn't Resist



Amawalk Outlet-Muscoot River

 This past weekend I was making a solo day trip upstate to visit a friend who was home preparing for his wedding at the end of the month.  We decided to hang out for a few hours and he wanted a little Tenkara demonstration to determine if he would like it or not.  There is a nice size pond in his parents backyard filled with largemouth bass and bluegill and we figured it would be ideal.  His step dad even told me of a neighbor who has a rather large pond on his property that he stocked years ago with lake trout, man would I love a crack at them!  Anyway, I knew my trip would take me within a couple of miles of my last trip to Amawalk Outlet and the Muscoot River.  This was more than I could resist and I wanted to take another crack at that large brown I lost at the end of June.  The pool was an excellent one and I figured there was a good chance he would still be there.  When I arrived I was greeted by a white-tailed doe standing in my path about 25 ft from my jeep.  She didn't seemed too concerned by my presence as I was busy putting on my wading boots.  I kept a sideways glance on her but only turned my head for a split second and then she was gone without a sound or any kind of sign of her presence.  I have always been amazed at the "ghost-like" qualities of how deer move through the woods.  One second there, the next gone without a trace.  I thought it was a good beginning to the day.  The stream was running a little lower and clearer since my last visit but still looked to be in great shape.  I worked a little up and down stream of the pool and unfortunately failed to find that brown again.  However I did managed to get a few smaller trout including the guy below.

I thought this guy looked a little familiar.  There is a nice line of red spots running in an almost perfect line along his lateral surface.  Sure enough when I checked a photo from the last trip I had an identical fish.  I had caught this guy in the exact same spot also.




Brown trout from last trip



Brown trout from this trip

I took him on a Killer Bug and had several LDR's from this section of stream as well.  Even though I didn't catch that big brown I did get another surprise.  I caught almost a dozen bluegill.  I have never caught a bluegill in a stream before.  All of them were taken with two different sakasa kebari.  The first fly was my latest experiment the Coxing Kill Kebari and the other was another excellent kebari called the Blue Poison Sakasa Kebari.



Blue Poison Sakasa Kebari

This was a fly I swapped for from fellow Tenkara angler Karel Lansky.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the this fly in action as I went back to the jeep an accidentally left the camera there before I went back to the stream.  Suffice to say, the bluegills could not get enough of this beautiful little fly. I look forward to using this fly again and get a nice picture of it hanging from some trouts jaw.  As with most trips, there was no disappointment at not meeting that one particular brown trout again. Time on any stream with the sights and sounds of wood frogs, deer, birds, flowers, running water, buzzing insects and trout can only help me to reset my mental clock and appreciate what are the most important things in life.