Montauk in December

A long, long time ago, the Eichholz and Boyer families packed our camping gear, tent for us and a camper van for them, and headed to Montauk.  It was spring break at Herky and we thought we'd do some camping and fishing, this was before either Marty or I were into fly fishing.  It turned so cold as I was pitching the tent that Connie and I decided to use the last room at the motel.  This was the first time I ever had the guides on the rod freeze solid.  Yes, it has happened since and probably will again.

I had the opportunity to revisit this weekend and took advantage of it.  Because I wanted to return Saturday, I drove separately with plans to meet up with Kim, Rod and Warren later.  When I arrived, I didn't see them so decided to explore a little.  When I took the short path to the spring, I spotted the river and thought it looked like an inviting fishing spot, so I headed back to the car and got my gear ready.

The fish were not choosy. Soft-hackles, I love them. I threw a green biot body, a purple and starling, a pink lady, a peacock herl bodied and finally a hairs-ear soft hackle and caught fish on all of them that afternoon. Nothing of any great size, but I was kept busy all afternoon. On the left is a picture of my first Montauk park rainbow and another little fellow below I'll talk about in a bit.

A couple of strange things caught fish.  The first was when I dropped my fly in the water while I was hanging my net on my vest a rainbow swam into the fly and managed to foul hook himself.  He was not counted as one of my fish caught.  Later, after hanging my fly in a bush on the opposite shore and then it coming loose, I brought my line quickly across the water to see if I lost the fly.  Just as it arrived at my feet, the little guy above grabbed it and ran.  He didn't get too far!

I finally met up with the others at our cabin where Kim was making super.  Rod supplied several quail and we all feasted on them, mashed potatoes, gravy and peas.  Followed with a small piece of cake. Saturday we started the day with fresh made breakfast burritos, yummy!!! Then off to the water.

Saturday morning I fished a different area.  I had packed my camera away and forgot to bring it this morning.  Caught another minnow and a hand full of fish before the MTFA meeting.  Most were again caught on soft hackles, but I finally tied on something a little different, a bibio, small and caught two more, including one of about 15 inches as measured with my "measure net". Saw lots of trout, but they were more selective.  Still, I had a handful and was very happy.

After our short meeting and a quick lunch, I decided to try the area just below the hatchery. It was especially designed and is catch and release, flies only, no wading.  But while exploring Friday, I saw lots of fish and BIG ones in there.  I decided I wanted to try it for a short time with a little dry fly.  It was turning very windy, so my hopes declined when I arrived, but I tried anyway.  I GOT LUCKY.  On about my 5th or 6th cast with a #20 Griffith's Gnat I had a nice fat rainbow of at least 18 inches. Beautiful colors! That caused me to try some more, but no luck.  I put on one of my soft-hackles and still no luck.  The wind was increasing and I was getting ready to leave, when Lou came walking up to the same area.  She and a friend had fished this area in the morning and he caught a very large fish.  As Lou and I were talking, he caught a small trout.  When we asked what he was using he said a #6 woolly bugger.  An I was going small?

It was a great weekend, good fishing, good food and especially good friends.  I will be going back