Tips for Fly Fishing the Esopus River

The Esopus River in New York's Catskill Mountains offers some of the best trout fishing in the state. The river is full of wild trout, mostly Rainbows, but also receives some stocking of Brown Trout. The river has a steep gradient with many large boulders and plunge pools. Many anglers find success easy on this river because of its large population of wild Rainbow Trout. However, many of these fish are on the small size and it is not uncommon to catch 20 fish with the biggest being only 8 inches. There are a few tricks to catching larger fish on the Esopus, but you may have put away your dry flies.

The Esopus offers some great dry fly fishing and on occasion there will be larger fish rising. To find these larger fish you must be patient. The smaller fish tend to explode on the surface with very splashy rises. To find the larger fish look for the slower more deliberate rises. Larger fish generally don't want to waste a lot of energy chasing bugs like a smaller fish will. Since their rises are more deliberate and they don't want to waste energy by exploding on the surface their rise forms may actually be smaller dimples. When you come across some rising fish on the Esopus look thoroughly over the fish and try to pick out the largest you see and fish to that one first, because you may spook it if you hook the smaller ones.

My next tip may be the hardest one for many fly anglers to swallow. Put away the dry flies and fish below the surface. Year in and year out my largest fish on the Esopus come by fishing subsurface. The larger fish are often holding in the deeper pockets created by the large boulders. These are not necessarily the best dry fly areas but they are great for fishing nymphing. Adding weight is necessary and you can expect to lose a few flies but the rewards are worth it. I know this is hard because you can normally expect to see rising fish, but generally they are small, so to get to the large ones go beneath the surface and don't be afraid to throw the biggest nastiest nymphs you have.

Finally the downstream sections toward the reservoir seem to contain more large fish. I am speaking of the area below the 5 Arcs Bridge and you will need a DEP permit to access this stretch of stream. The permits are free but required to fish any section downstream of the 5 Arcs Bridge. This section of the river has some larger pools that are ideal for big fish. Also, it is the first section that fish moving out of the reservoir encounter. During the spring and fall it is not uncommon to catch a few fish over 20 inches in the section and there are plenty of larger ones. This section also receives less fishing pressure simply because of the necessity of the permit.

The Esopus is one of the great Catskill streams that are legendary to fly fishermen. It contains a large population of trout that readily rise to dry flies. However if you want to catch the larger fish the river has to offer you may need to put away the dry flies and fish below the surface. The river has something to offer for all anglers, the small fish are fun and easy to catch and the larger one's are plentiful but more difficult to catch. So no matter what your skill level give this river a try and hopefully these tips come in handy.