My Uncle Rudy used to do the same thing. He lived on the Schoharie just west of Hunter, and he used to walk the river, come up behind a rock, put his hands down and more often that not, came up with a brown. I was always amazed. I used to cast my a** off to get a couple fish and he just caught them by hand. He never kept them though. This was usually in July or August when we'd go up and visit. The Schoharie is pretty warm that time of year...maybe the fish were lethargic. I only caught them after dark.

Ken