Week of May 26, 2025

This post format is feeling a bit stale, but not sure what to do about it. Comment or email me if you have suggestions!

Since we had friends over for a cookout the day before, we took it easy on Memorial Day and hung around the house, mostly playing in the yard with Charlie. We washed the car together and watered the garden (he absolutely loves spraying the hose), then played a lot on the swing set.

I had a couple good fishing days this week and one bad fishing day.

Tuesday I caught 13 brown trout on a new stretch of the upper west branch of the Croton river that I hadn’t fished before. Used my TenkaraBum 36. Elk hair caddis, sulfur comparadun, and stimulators were the producers.

Wednesday I fished a river on the east side of the county that I had fished once before and caught two brook trout and seven brown trout. The two brook trout were larger than any I caught in the Catskills earlier this month. The browns were 8-9 inches and nice looking fish, decent size for that small water. Lots of watersnakes here.

I am excited to have caught some brook trout in Westchester! The first one was caught on my very first cast. That day I fished with the same size 14 Haystack (Fran Betters’ pattern) the whole day.

This is the place I helped with the trout releases. I was surprised to see a hatch of those huge hellgrammites (dobson flies) we sampled going on while I was fishing. Here is one of the hellgrammites and one of the adult flies I snapped a photo of:

Friday I fished two different streams. I heard of a supposed wild brook trout stream on public land and went to check it out, but all I caught was one tiny blacknose dace. The water was extremely low. Later that afternoon I fished the Amawalk, and while I had a couple strikes, I didn’t have any hookups. I’ve not had much luck on the Amawalk. It was a frustrating day where I spent more time bushwacking through invasive barberry and multiflora rose than fishing. At least I saw some wild irises and forget-me-nots.

I did a couple small things in the workshop this week:

I turned a new handle for a fish hook remover, since I lost my previous one in the Catskills.

Tried dyeing some polyester craft fur for fly tying, which didn’t go well. It didn’t take at all. I think I am just going to buy some pre-dyed since I find the dyeing process tedious and $5 will get me enough to last a couple years.

Mixed up some grey squirrel dubbing.

Fixed my net holder with pop rivets in the corners where the stitches ripped out. I rummaged around and found a washer that just fit the rivet so it wouldn’t pull through. After it popped, I flattened it on the railroad anvil.

It has been nice this past year to finally get my workshop set up so that I can go out and work on something for ten minutes without it having to be a whole thing.

The leather punch and washers were from estate sales. The pop rivet gun is an old one from my dad. I think the peen hammer was my grandfather’s. The anvil is from my uncle’s dad. It all came together here to fix this, and I’m sure I’ll pass this stuff on, too, after I’ve used it.

Fly tying this week:

More CDC & Elk (caddis) in 14 and 16

Different colors of Fran Betters’ Haystack, mostly size 14 (maybe a couple 16s)

A few size 16 bead head squirrel hair nymphs for droppers.

Some futsu kebari

A couple generic soft hackles

We went out to eat in Beacon in the middle of the week and Charlie noticed people walking on the abandoned railroad tracks across the street and really wanted to explore them, too.

The highlight of Charlie’s week was going for a walk down by the river and noticing that there was railroad construction equipment lined up on the side track. We walked the full length two days in a row looking at them. I’m not an expert, but I could identify tie pullers, tie inserters, spike pullers, spike collectors, plate layers, and plate screw impact drivers (it looks like the old style plates and spikes are being replaced with new style plates that use screws instead of spikes). Also something that looks like it aligns rails.

It has been a rainy month. 6.75in of rain here in May, according to my weather station. I looked up some official data and this is the rainiest May in at least the last five years.

I know that fish are more active and let their guard down more in the rain, but I’ve tried fly fishing in the rain and don’t particularly like it. It just isn’t fun and relaxing, which is the goal of fly fishing for me.

I finally looked back at the birdhouse cam. For two months it was covered by next material, but last week it was clear again and there were some large baby birds! House finches.