The Bronx River

I took the subway to East 180th street and the Bronx river. This river has a poor reputation based on problems with pollution in the past. Slowly it has come back to where it is now a viable fishery again. Two beavers now call the Bronx river home. I walked the lower third of the river and was amazed at what I saw, fish. I saw clear, moving water, turtles and other signs that the river is better.



Two turtles enjoying the sun



Large mouth bass swimming in the south Bronx



I saw about a dozen fish this size near the water fall.



Concrete Park, so named because it was once home to a concrete company, is an access point for boaters. The water here is brackish so it is possible to catch Fluke, Blue fish, Stripe bass as well as Carp, Catfish and Large Mouth Bass. In the distance, the number six train heads uptown. Boaters can float up river to 180th street or down river to the point where the Bronx river and the East river converge.

Made my day

I fished for carp this afternoon in New Jersey. I felt a little weak from the two hours of roller skiing I did on Saturday but Dennis & I went carp fishing anyway. I had some new ideas I wanted to try. The first was to use a "chum bag" to try to get carp to feed on the surface. The other was to fish my two weight March Brown fly rod for carp.



Dennis and a youngster from Passaic, fly fishing



Carp taken on a two weight graphite fly rod



The chum bag shows potential but needs to be tweaked a little. This was a slow day; we only caught 3 carp. I think we lost 3 also.

Prospect Park this afternoon

It has rained for several days in a row. Today it finally stopped and I picked out an old Fenwick fiberglass fly rod from my closet.


A view from the south shore of the lake.

Due to the recent rain, water levels are back to normal and fishing should be good for the remainder of the season.



I was fishing streamers this afternoon. The fly I used was a #12 black marabou. It is a fly I've used with great success for a number of years. In the water it resembles a small minnow that is swimming erratically.



I actually hooked six crappie but only landed two; these were big crappie.
Crappie love streamers like woolie buggers, zonkers, cat's whiskers and nymphs.



I landed a nice size BG and a small bass.

Single hand rod spey casting

Here is a link to "Ask about fly fishing" with Simon Gawesworth talking about spey casting using a single hand fly rod.



http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/simon-gawesworth/simon-gawesworth.cfm

Raining

Today it rained, no fishing, no roller skiing. On a day like this I make use of my health club membership. This was my second visit this week. I did more than an hour of cardio training before jumping on the weight machines. I felt pretty good; like I could have done more.

I took a look at the map of the Bronx river on Google. The Bronx river is New York City's only fresh water river. Several years ago herring were released in the Bronx river and that first batch should return to spawn in 2011. Stripe bass like to eat herring so next fall could be very exciting.

Fall fishing

Went to Central Park for carp today. I fished the Lake at 72nd street near the Bethesda Fountain. Tourist congregate here to take pictures, so it is not an ideal place to fly fish for carp. I wore earth tone clothing and was surprise to find that the carp seem to not see me standing in the shadows. I stood as still as possible while the carp surfaced and ate my chum. I used the white mullet fly again.






Waterfall near the boat house in Prospect Park

More carp

Took to the river this afternoon, the Passaic River. It took awhile to figure out what fly to use. I tried different colors first, red, brown and then I saw a carp go for something white. I tied on a white mullet fly. I hooked into a carp that heading east across the river and then made a sweeping right turn as it headed down river. This caught me unprepared. When I looked at my line, I saw that half of my backing was in the river! I started to run along the river bank to prevent the fish from cleaning my clock. I managed to slow the fish and get my backing back on the reel. Eventually, I got the fish to shore.



After I released the fish, I crawled back to my hooch on the river bank and rested for a long time. Sitting in my shaded spot I noticed the flowers and the bumble bees pollinating. Sometimes you catch a fish and it is so satisfying that you no longer need to catch another fish. This was that type of fish.


Passaic River



My carp flies ( any questions?)