Summer in America: the joys of fly-fishing for trout in upstate New York

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/09/summer-in-america-fly-fishing-upstate-new-york

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Each spring, as soon as enough snow melts, the New York state department of environmental conservation dumps 300,000 trout into 85 streams and 30 lakes and ponds across the Catskills and Hudson Valley regions. Rainbow trout, brook trout and brown trout – all legendary for the joys of hunting them on a fly rod.

The trout are raised in tanks and fattened on protein pellets, but as they slip into the creeks and streams, they behave like wild fish, drifting behind big rocks and waiting for food. They know how to hide from predatory birds and bigger fish. They also know what a drowning stonefly looks like, how to rise slowly beneath it and when to dash and drink.

They were raised on a farm, but they’re wild at heart. That also happens to be my life story. So each summer, I go out and try to hook a few.

You don’t have to wait for summer to go fly-fishing in the Catskills. Trout season opens on most streams on 1 April. Serious anglers will have put in many happy days on the water by the time the hobbyists arrive in June.

But for this hobbyist, summer is where it’s at. The water is warm enough that you don’t need waders. Fish activity increases as the temperature climbs away from freezing. And when it’s time to have lunch, or a drink, you can pick a sunny rock instead of hunkering against the wind.

With so many swimmers added each year, the angler’s odds are pretty good, especially since most streams host healthy year-round fish populations, stocked or not. So at the start of any fishing day, the odds always seem pretty good.

The business of fly-fishing is simple: the trick is to guess or divine what the fish are eating that day. Then you have to make the fly – the lure – look innocent on or under the water. Innocent enough to eat.

In fly-fishing, you spend a lot of time staring at the water: trying to read it, watching for a strike, looking for the next place to cast. This must be one of the core pleasures of the sport. Standing in the water and staring at it, watching it move, for hours on end. It’s a self-effacing, relaxing experience.

On the best fly-fishing days, you’re standing in a stream with a friend. The fish are eating flies on the surface of the water, meaning you get to see them strike. The snags and tangles and break-offs disappear with the feeling of a good one hooked.

Of course, there are trout fishing detractors out there, and they’re worth hearing out, at the risk of muddying a simple pleasure.

Hatcheries pollute, and the fish they produce may act wild, but die at higher rates than river-born fish. For all its perceived beauty, the rainbow trout is an invasive hybrid species that originated in the Pacific north-west and took over North America by ingratiating itself with anglers and conservationists, who have enthusiastically stocked it around the world for 130-some years.

The native fish, the truly wild fish, are almost entirely gone from upstate New York, just like the old-growth trees.

Where to fish

Take the Adirondack Trailways bus out of Port Authority up to Rosendale and make your way out to the High Falls swimming hole, then double back for a beer on tap at Market Market. Take the same bus to New Paltz and head to Minnewaska state park for a hike (and swim), then double back for a beer on tap at the Mountain Brauhaus.

You can also rent some wheels from the friendly folks at Bicycle Depot and cruise the pleasing Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, a bike path on an old train right-of-way running 20 miles along the river of that name. Definitely take yourself hiking or climbing at the Mohonk Preserve.