Tangled research and development

The third week of July was hot and sticky and trout fishing opportunities were limited, so Gary Dodson and I went on a research and development mission in the Catskills.

One spot was a generally cold stream that runs into one of the New York City reservoirs. I’m being coy because this particular cat isn’t exactly out of the bag but it has ripped it up some.

On the upstream side of the bridge it’s a medium-sized brook with a lot of wild browns and rainbows, plus occasional brookies that are stocked in private water further up.

On the downstream side there is a big pool by the bridge which is gin clear most days and has large browns and rainbows that like to ignore flies.

Further down a bit the stream melds with the reservoir, gets a lot warmer, and it’s a real crap shoot as to what’s on the end of the line.

Could be a perch, a sunfish, a carp…or if all goes well, a smallmouth bass.

Gary concentrated on the bridge pool and I clambered downstream to try and annoy a smallie.

Which I did, after several false starts with suicidal and tiny bluegills.

The winning combo proved to be a size 12 Surveyor nymph, usually deployed in a tight line rig for trout, but in this case attached on a short dropper (18 inches) to a size 6 Chubby Chernobyl.

The Chubby disappeared, I applied the upward lift, and the best smallie so far in 2025 obliged by jumping a couple of times before coming fairly meekly to the net. It was about 15 inches long, four inches wide, and starting to turn the bronze color of the adult smallmouth.

What made this doubly satisfying was I did it with light trout tackle -- a four weight rod and 4X tippet.

The boys at the fly shop will tell you this can’t be done, which I always take as a direct challenge.

Next up was the East Branch of the Delaware near Downsville. Different set of problems here, starting with a water temperature of about 50, a difficult trail, and mud that threatened to suck your boot off your foot.

Neither one of us had thought to bring anything warm to go under the waders, and why would we? It was 90-odd degrees out.

And then there was the fog caused by cold water meeting hot air.

Gary Dodson trying to get something going in the frigid, foggy East Branch of the Delaware River in mid-July.Patrick L. Sullivan

All I got out of this was a good photo of Gary in the mist.

Next week I segue into fishing for largemouth bass (primarily) in a lake from a pontoon boat and/or belly boat.

I am a relative newbie at bass fishing with a fly rod, having only practiced it for 20-odd years.

Because I am unencumbered by conventional wisdom, I have developed or acquired techniques that the above-mentioned boys at the fly shop would scoff at.

Such as the Yo-Yo Method. When I read about this online I thought the name came from the fact that anyone doing this would feel like a yo-yo. Wrong.

What you do is attach a heavy fly like a conehead Wooly Bugger to a short leader, say five feet.

Then attach two to three feet of stout tippet material to the bend of the hook with a clinch knot, and tie on a hard popper or other buoyant fly.

The heavy fly drags the buoyant fly down after it, but the latter is trying to go upwards.

This is exaggerated by short, abrupt jerks on the line, which causes the popper to go up and down.

This drives bass crazy.

The Crawl ‘n’ Troll: The lake I fish almost always has a steady west to east wind, so it is entirely practical to go up the lake (“up” meaning “west”) and float back with the surface current and wind, trolling a fly or two behind.

One problem is the lake isn’t that deep, 10-15 feet most of the way, and there’s a lot of vegetation on the bottom that will snag your fly if it gets too deep. On sunny and hot days, the bass like to lurk in this vegetation.

This is the only time I have ever found an intermediate line to be of any use. It sinks, but very slowly, and allows me to drift weighted flies like the Conehead Wooly just above the vegetation. If I get snagged, I shorten the leader up. If I’m not getting any hits, I lengthen the leader a bit.

I generally use a nine foot, eight weight rod for this work, although sometimes I fool around with a 10 weight (so I can justify continuing to own it) or something much lighter (so I can brag about it to the boys at the fly shop).

But an eight weight is a good all-around choice.

You want short, stout leaders. The lightest I go is usually 2X.Bass are not leader-shy, and you will be chucking big flies. Using a long leader in these circs is absolutely begging to get a hook in the ear.

Get a weight forward line in a bass taper, with the bulk of the weight concentrated in the first 15 feet of a 90 foot line. The poppers catch a lot of wind, and you’ll be glad of the extra heft to punch through.

For flies, you want poppers. I prefer hard poppers to the deer hair or foam variety. A few big hopper and or beetle patterns will also work, as will a big Stimulator.

For subsurface, which is where the bulk of the action is, you need nothing more complicated than an assortment of big Wooly Buggers in various colors: Sizes 2-8 in olive, black, brown, and white. Get weighted ones, either conehead or beadhead, and save yourself the trouble of adding split shot to the leader. And always get the rubber legs if available.

If you want to get semi-fancy, the Big Y Fly Company sells an excellent bass streamer called the Bass Vampire. It’s purple with yellow dumbbell eyes and comes on a 2/0 hook, which qualifies as a deadly weapon in most states.

Be prepared for a psychic change. This is very different than prowling a trout stream. It’s not just chuck and duck, but it’s not especially subtle, either.

And with several highly unpleasant trips to the dermatologist in my immediate past, I urge you to slather on the sunscreen, and reapply it frequently, while wearing your enormous hat.