3 day trip to NY 4/20-4/22 report: - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

AndyS · #1 04-22-2012, 11:06 AM

DAY 1 : I bagged out of work Friday and took the quick 2 to 2 ½ hour drive to Roscoe NY, aka Trout Town USA, first stop Roscoe diner. Got on the Beaverkill around 8:30 am or so, I by passed Junction pool and Carins pool and went down a bit, 1st stop, nothing. A quick drive down old Rt. 17 and I got in on the Sunoco pool where I scored a big fat 18” rainbow trout. Bugged outta there and went to a spot above where the Beaverkill and East branch meet, got 3 “football” rainbows out of that one spot. I moved down further below where the 2 rivers meet and couldn’t find any love. Lunchtime in Hancock, drive thru Micky-D’s and I was off to Deposit. Got on the West branch and it was like ice water compared to the East branch. Walked and walked and had a hard time finding any water, any small pools were already occupied by fly fishermen. Went and checked in to the motel in Hancock and took a break around 2pm. Wilson got to the motel not too much later. We got our stuff on and tried the lower East branch behind the motel in the late afternoon, the wind was honking !! I got a nice rainbow and Wilson got a brown. Dinner at the Circle E diner in Hancock is a must !

DAY 2: Met our guide and got a game plan, float a 10 mile stretch from Buckingham to Long Eddy on the main stem, we were floating by 8:30am. First fish I think was a big shad (some 300 miles from the ocean)
The rest of the 8 hour float was tough, LOW WATER. Some of the bigger runs where we get most of our trout were about 10 inches deep, normally they are 3 or 4 feet deep. We fished as hard as we could. Some of the deeper runs yielded some rainbows but mostly smaller ones. We had A LOT of follows and most of the day we saw fish “sipping.” We ended up with quite a mixed bag. I got too many big fallfish (aka creek chubs) than I care to talk about. We had some chunky smallmouth, and I got one large mouth. A few times we had to get out and push the drift boat, and some spots were a good 20 feet deep, walleye country !
Towards the end of our float the skies got dark and it went from 70* to 50* with a little rain mixed in and the wind was cranking. No complaints from me, I love doing float trips up there. Back to the Circle E diner for dinner again in Hancock.

DAY 3: Poor Wilson got the brunt of my snoring from midnight to 3am, I slept fine. Both of us up at 6 am with sore arms from the day before (casting non stop for 8 hours) Went outside and it felt like a balmy 45*, windy and raw. Decided not to give the West branch a try since the water was so low and the weather so miserable , we split for home.

Highlights from the trip : My PB shad, rainbow trout that when hooked shoot a good 3 ft. out of the water and look like flying fish when you actually hook one, stream side lunch with a good sandwich , pickles and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Floating and fishing while the guide does all the work and you get to relax and just fish, I love it. Booking my next trip for October.

If anyone wants any details on a great guide just send me a PM, he is one of the VERY FEW that spin fish the upper Delaware river, all others are fly fishing.