Loft Pond

Made my first trip into Nassau county for the season. I had read that Loft pond had carp so I took the Long Island Rail Road to Baldwin, New York. The pond look just like it appeared on Google maps, almost "L" shaped. It has lots of lily pads. As I walked the shore line I looked for signs of fish activity. In the northwest corner I saw a carp moving slowly towards the lily pads.



Other than a small carp on the east side of the pond, I didn't see much activity. I began chumming the areas where I saw carp on patrol and waited. but I was unable to get the carp active and feeding.



I switched flies and started to fish for panfish that might be lurking under the pads. sure enough a pocket size bass took my fly. My only fish of the afternoon.



This is nearby Milburn pond in Baldwin, New York. There are too many Canada geese here for me to want to return here to fish but maybe it will look more inviting next spring.

RED OCTOBER

I met Dennis at the Long Island Rail Road Train Station yesterday. We planned on fishing for carp in Queens county. The last time we fished in Queens( part of Long Island) we caught no carp, so we had something to prove, this time. Our first stop was at Golden Pond. No fish to be seen. We then traveled to Bowne pond. By the time we got there it was windy, overcasts and cold. The wind was gusting up to 25 mph. I chummed and put my rod together.



Slowly the wind died down, the sun came out and I started to fish. It took a while but I hooked a fish that started to take line, a lot of line across Bowne Pond. After several runs, I was able to see what looked like an orange football pulling against me. It was a Koi, my first ever Koi on a fly rod. He fought like a champion. But fishing never picked up at Bowne Pond so we left around late afternoon. We headed to Kissena lake.



I caught a second carp at Kissena Lake. There are some big carp there. Carp with some girth and about 6 inches longer than carp we catch elsewhere.



Dennis got down to business and hooked his first carp of the day at the lake. A hefty carp well over 10 lbs. I worked his rod while he netted his own fish.




Later Dennis hooked another carp but lost him in transit to the net. Incidentally, Dennis & I are the only two fly fishers to catch carp in Richmond, New York and Queens county. If we catch carp in Kings (Brooklyn) and Bronx county, we may set a new standard for carp fly fishing in the Greater New York area.

Episode 1 _ Fly Fishing 101

Episode 1 _ Fly Fishing 101

Main land fly fishing in The Bronx

Van Cortlandt Lake

I went to Van Cortlandt Park today and fished in Van Cortlandt Lake. It took a few fly changes to determine what fly the fish would take. But of all the flies I used it was the old standard, a Bead Head Prince that took the most fish.


Crappie

The Bronx is the only county of the five counties which make up New York City that is part of the United States main land.


Yellow Perch

I had planned to fish for carp but I discovered that my carpin tools had been left out of my back pack. My goal is to be the first person to catch carp on a fly rod in all five New York City counties.



Yellow Perch

I'm always surprised and happy to catch yellow perch. Perch like cooler weather and are somewhat elusive. Today I caught 3! I've caught a total of 6 this year so far.


Bluegill

Bluegills were the most active fish today but these were the BGs that are less than 5 inches long. They are zealous when it comes to taking flies. Often they beat the mature bigger fish in the area to what is available to eat.

Fly Fishing for Channel Cat

The beginning of the end

I went to Passaic, New Jersey this afternoon for some end of the carp season fly fishing. When we arrived it was 47 F with a wind chill factor of 37F! It felt like it was going to be a l o n g day. But after 1:00pm the clouds blew away, the sun shined brightly and the gusts of wind stopped. As if by magic the carp appeared and started to feed.



Dennis drew first blood with a #12 deer hair fly. A while later I caught a carp, my first since Sunday. Until today, I had been unable to catch a carp all week. I had been skunked at Central Park Lake, Golden Pond and Bowne Pond. When the bite stopped we moved to the deeper part of the lake to fish.



As dusk appeared Dennis had 3 and I had 2. I moved back to the shallow end of the lake where I saw more carp feeding. I made a cast and watched as the fly line began to slink away and across the lake. Fish on.

Survey

Tonight a survey was conducted to examine the fish in Prospect Park Lake. A similar survey was conducted about two years ago with the results being that the lake has more bigger bass than other lakes on Long Island and even Central Park.

Willowbrook Lake

This was my third visit to this lake. It seems the fish here are active during early morning but nonetheless we fished here because Cloves Lake had an event and was filled with walkers. Dennis & I started at the north end of the lake and worked systematically toward the area where we knew the carp to be.



Dennis with a carp on line at the south end of the lake.



I hooked this carp on my 2 wt fly rod. This is my second carp on this rod. I was kind of surprised at how at ease I felt with this big fish on such a light rod. Dennis worked the net and this helped to land the fish. Size #10 hook.



Waterfowl



more waterfowl

Crappie in Prospect Park

I fished the pool near the boat house this morning. I tried several flies with no hits until I tied on a small #10 clouser. A number of small bass liked this fly and took it. By trial and error, I located a bunch of mature crappie that also liked my little clouser. I landed two and lost the third at the shoreline.



Each fish is more than 9 inches long.

Early Morning in Prospect Park

Left the house early to chum for carp and to see if I could catch some fish before the forecasted Nor'easter arrives in the evening. There was almost no wind so I was able to get some nice photos of the lake. This picture was taken near Three Islands; a lot of bass and Crappie have been taken in this spot.



The main part of Prospect Park Lake



One of the swans



My reward for being persistent. Caught this guy on a pheasant tail nymph #14.

Indian Lake

After I left the Bronx river, I took the subway down town to Indian lake for a shot at the bass that live here. First time fishing here since spring. Fishing was slow but I did hook two small Blue gills.



Looking east



Looking south



Almost no wind in the park.

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