The beautiful Neversink River near Liberty, NY. We
declared Thursday Neversink Day at the Fish-In.
After breakfast a caravan of 9 cars headed for
the home waters of Theodore Gordon and the day's
fishing. That's Robert Montouri (Monty) in the
foreground.
RW checks the knot on a fresh fly before heading down
to the river. His little one-weight accounted for
22 trout during the Fish-In.
Allan Podell (tyeflies) organizer of this Fish-In, works
over a nice Neversink brown on the one-piece Lee Wulff
rod he won on a FAOL Monthly Drawing. He christened the
new 5-weight and his new custom-made reel on this fish
and it was all captured on film. The brown took a
renegade dry fly, or as tye likes to call it, the
"fore-and-aft."
Lauder and friend Andrew from New Brunswick, Canada,
go over their fly selection before taking a crack
at the Neversink browns.
Lou T shows off his antique Montague cane rod to
several folks in the group.
The Willowemoc River got plenty of attention from
our group too. Here Monty is playing a nice brown
in the fast water above the DeBruce club in the
upper river. The fish hit an Ausable Wulff.
Charlie Place casts to a rising fish on a pretty
stretch of the Willow.
RW fooled this foot-long brown into taking a dark
Cahill wet fly fished as an emerger at the storied
"covered bridge pool" on the Beaverkill.
ny angler fishing the pool below the Willowemoc covered
bridge. He and several others in our group took about
a dozen brookies on dries in this stretch.
Mark Romero (willowhead) and Monte work a seam along
the far bank of the upper Willowemoc where brook trout
are rising. Mark lost a 15-incher here.
Ferns, hemlocks and brook trout...the epitome of
solitude. Fir Brook provides it all. This is the
upper-most tributary of the Willowemoc River. Several
folks at the fish-in spent time here to escape the
crowds of the Beaverkill.
Slic (Dave Ulmer) mends a cast to a rising brookie
on Fir Brook.
Part of the FAOL group that met at the Roscoe
Diner for breakfast every morning. Here is where
we made plans, paired up for the day (or not) and
headed out for the fishing. Twenty-six folks in
all showed up for the Fish-In. We roughly
estimated that over 300 trout were caught and
released during the week.
Les Young tries not to miss any of the annual
Fish-Ins. He usually catches the most fish...
and the biggest too. Here, Alan Podell is
showing Les his new custom-made reel as Lou T
looks on.
"The Grizz" came all the way from Atlanta, GA to
spend a few days with old friends. He was one
of the very first members of FAOL and originator
of the first fish-in back in 1998 in Yellowstone
Park.
Slic getting ready to do one the things he
does best...eat! Next to Grizz, Dave came the
farthest for the Fish-In from Ohio. We all
consider him one of the "good-old-boys" of
FAOL.
RW makes his annual pilgrimage to the C.F.F.C. & M.
Many folks took time to visit the Catskill Fly Fishing
Center & Museum in Livingston Monor. FAOL's own
Allan Podell, a member of the Catskill Fly Tyers
Guild, was the featured tyer on the Saturday we
were there.
The FAOL group tied every night at the Reynolds House
Lounge in Roscoe. Here, Andy Brasco (the "Berg Man"),
is interrupted while tying one of his famous wet flies.
Andy gave one of his exquisite wet flies to each person
that attended the Saturday night dinner at the Rockland
House. We all indulge Andy's perception that he
"really is" Ray Bergman.
Tyeflies and RW made all the tying sessions too, along
with Lou T, Dansker, Andre, and others. Some folks tied
and others observed. All told, about 12-to-15 folks
attended the tying sessions every night, many just for
the jokes, tall takes and riebald humor.
Monty always make sure he had enough flies for the
next day's fishing. In a single evening he took
26 browns at the covered bridge pool on the
Beaverkill during one of the most spectacular
caddis hatches I have ever seen.
Mark Romero (willowhead) puts the finishing
touches on another of his salmon fly creations
...the "Aqua Velva." Every night Mark came
earlier and stayed later than any of the other
tyers. At the farewell dinner, he and Allan
handed out gifts of tying materials, tippet packs
and other fly fishing goodies.
Thaks to Mark and Allan for planning a great week.
We all had good fellowship, good fishing and good fun.
Plans are already being made for Roscoe 2005...
same time...same station...so stay tuned.
~ RW
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