Prospect Park Lake

Back to the boat house today for some more fall fishing at the boat house.  Number 14 size
flies were the ticket for catching fish. I used a zug bug.

Again, fish were under the deck at the boat house.  Nothing seemed to be active off shore.

Loeb Lake in the pink

I returned to fish Loeb Lake.  This time I used a different fake bait.  It was pink to
resemble lunch meat.  You can see it laying on the pectoral fin in the photo above.

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Just to show that I am human I tried to walk on water today.  I slipped on a rock and the next thing
I knew I was in the lake, up to my groin area!  Quick foot work and a forward lunge towards a big rock prevented me from falling face first into the lake.  My shoes are made from gore tex so I was not
completely wet.

I have been using Rio LT trout fly line.  The result of using this weight forward line has been impressive.  It allows me to roll cast and use single rod spey casting technique where there is heavy coverage.  I used a 7 wt fiberglass fly rod and one of my Franco Vivarelli semi automatic fly reels.

I don't know what caused this carp to bleed but I was able to return it to the lake as quickly as I could

Almost no wind as the afternoon wore on.

Loeb Lake fishing with "Pop Ups"

After three days of dropping chum ( oatmeal, breadcrumbs and corn) into the lake, I began my fall 2017 carp campaign.  This has been a"go to spot" each fall for me.

I like this spot because it is quiet and there are not too many people.  The air temperature
has stayed in the seventies and the algae has dissipated.

I lost one, long distance and foul hooked another on fake corn.

Here is the chum I used.  It is just corn and oatmeal held together with bread crumbs and lake water

If you look closely you can see the corn "pop up" I used to catch carp.  I even caught a catfish on this set up.

Prospect Park

It was mid afternoon when I picked up my rod and headed to Prospect Park Lake.
In the fall, fish can be very active at this time of day.  Sometimes Golden Shiners,
Yellow Perch come to the party.  Depending on the rig I am fishing ; I can catch two fish at
a time.

Things were different this afternoon.  Fish were not holding in their old spots in front of the boat house.  So i dropped bead head nymphs down, straight down, from the deck.  Fish, even big bass like to hold under the deck at the boat house.

A drop and a very slow elevation of the nymph will get an aggressive take from
whatever is in the area.  This afternoon it was blue gill.  I had my forty dollar fly rod, from ebay
and the Ghost semi automatic fly reel from Spain.   I have had great difficulty dealing with the vendor of this reel.  The reel has an unusual method for setting the drag.  I do not recommend that anyone, unless you live near the shop, buy this reel.  The drag DOES NOT WORK and the vendor only supplies a picture of where the drag is and a tool that does not adjust the drag .  I think a video
might be helpful but there is none.

I finished the afternoon catching several fish and practicing my casting.

Hudson, New york

I went to a spot that I have fished for a number of years.  I caught my first stripper here
on a big flat wing fly at midnight.  This area is a contributory to the Hudson River.  Late at night, after a new moon, Stripe Bass follow prey into the fresh water to eat.  It is eerie fishing because it is pitch black and all I could hear was the sound of my fly rod moving against the wind in the darkness.
Every once and a while a big stripper splashes as it swims past.

But today I was here to chase big carp.  The owner of the boat launch, feeds corn, every morning to a big group of carp the come for breakfast.  A few years ago I managed to hook a monster that snapped my tippet like a tooth pick as it swam into the vegetation.

This day I saw only a group of bass and suckers.  In the past I would fish here in the spring.  At the end of the day I did find two carp lurking in the weeds. 

Mill pond

Wet wading at this time of the year is almost unheard of but with the air temperature
above 70 F; I stepped into the Mill Pond.  This pond is stocked by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.

There are a variety of fish in the pond.  The pond is covered in vegetation but it can be fished.
A friend had told me that carp were active.  It appears that the pond is less than five feet deep and the bottom was firm more than thirty feet from the shore.

Me, knee deep in Mill Pond.  The water was surprisingly warm for it to be fall

I walked the entire circumference of the pond but saw no fish and it's a big pond.
Streamers, nymphs, nothing was working on this day.  So I dried off, packed my stuff and left.
"I shall return", as the nearby fishing shop states there are a lot of crappie in the water here.

Springfield Park in Queens

A buddy caught this striped bass in Springfield Lake in Queens today.  Springfield is one of three lakes in Queens which are tidal.  It is the second bass he has caught this year in a New York City park.  The first one was caught in Brookside Park.