4-9-12

When the flooding took place last year it was catastrophic to say the least. People lost their homes, their businesses and their livelihood. The river that I love and cherish was responsible for a majority of the destruction in the Valley...well the mismanagement of the river is most likely to blame. Rivers flood all of the time..it's part of the moving water concept. There have been rivers and small streams destroyed since the flooding at the hands of man, not nature. Ruling bodies threw caution to the wind and let excavators, bulldozers and other assorted earth moving equipment into the waters that we hold so dear. The rocks were moved, the bottom dug out, the insect life killed off all in the name of "public safety." The reality is that the rivers will most likely flood again and the ecosystems have been crippled. There are enough articles on this topic at this point so I will go no further...

I've been hearing for months since the floods the my stream has been killed. The smallies, the walleye, the fallfish, carp, crayfish and all of it's other inhabitants have been killed. According to a few individuals, including some DEC officials, they were expecting an 80% fish kill off due to silt and chemicals in the water. I cannot verify these stories, there has been no studies that I am aware of as of yet...The river has changed, significantly...The banks have eroded, the trees fallen, debris everywhere, the rocks have moved, the pools have filled in and new riffles and runs have been created...

I visited my river today....I'm going to make my own assumptions from this point on...There is no one on earth that knows the water systems better then the anglers that fish them...period...I love this body of water like no other...It is responsible for creating my love of fly fishing and my desire to create new and original bass flies...On a bad day you can catch 10 fish, on a good day numbers of 50 in an eight hour period are not uncommon. If you know this river and are patient with it she will open her secrets to you...Pay attention..they don't come easy...When I hear people discuss this river in relation to the fishing, it's the same story...there are no fish in there...even before the floods...I make sure to never correct them...The people that know...they know...it's a gem...possibly some of the best river smallie fishing in the state...the same holds true for the walleye...

My dead river produced 16 fish for me today in less then three hours...

This many fish in such a short amount of time equals....

BASS THUMB...this is my first case of the year...not bad for my first smallie trip of the season...

The equipment...

The flies used were my Hell Yeah Grammite...Sili Craw in orange....Fleeing Bucktail in blue/grey/white...Strip-a-Bou Leech in brown and black....and a new fly that has not gone up on the site yet called the Lazy Lizard...my first three smallies today were on that fly...