It was quite an afternoon on the lower Esopus Creek in the Catskills today. I used my light spinning rod with quarter ounce Al’s goldfish lures and had a bit of luck. In the first hour, I pulled out these two beauties. One trout was an 18-inch rainbow and put up a good fight, and the other was a much larger brown that came right to the net. After I caught the brown, I noticed fish spawning all around me, some only 6 feet away. I decided that it was not a good idea to disturb them, and moved further upriver. The water was not that cold. It had to be in the mid-’50s, and the air temperature was about 65 or 70. It was a cloudless and warm fall day. Crazy weather because just a few days ago, we had 6 inches of snow up here in Roxbury.
On my next visit to the Esopus a few days later I carried my Robert Meiser trout/steelhead spey rod with an OPST Commando intermediate sinking Skagit line, 10′ T8 Leader and 3′ floro tippet. I had very good luck and caught a couple of large browns on the streamer and big nymph, sorry no pictures of the fish.
I am trying to get the hang of the Skandi line but its taking a lot of time and I tend to prefer the OPST Skagit head because it is easier to cast out there. Next year I will put more effort into Skandi. The lines I have that were made by Steve Godshall.
Today, November 30th, was the last day of trout season on the Esopus Creek. Yesterday I made it over to the river just above the Ashokan Reservoir. The weather was spectacular, with temperatures in the high 50’s and sunny skies, it was one of the better days this fall.
Ted came along, and we fished small Al’s Goldfish spoons on a light spinner rod and reel setup. I am sorry to say we both got skunked, totally skunked, but some young kid pulled out a giant, 27″ monster. He had to show us all through walking up and down the shore several times, carrying the fish. It was a nice walk in the woods and a great day to end the season.
A River To Fish 
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