Posted on August 25 2026
Spent Sunday at Saratoga watching the races with a neighborhood friend from back in 4th grade. His horse did not do well but we had a delightful day, toured the barn where his group of owners has a half dozen horses stabled. Scratched a few muzzles just in case they go on to be famous, toured the museum, and won the last two races to cut my gambling loss for the day to $3.00.
Was on the road this morning by 8:30 and mowing by 11:30. Had to prop limbs on the fruit trees, pick a few of the ripe peaches, water the reseeded areas of the lawn and it was 2:00. Ate lunch, sat back and let the world go by until 4:00 when I got in the car and made a lackluster attempt at fishing. There were almost no fishermen on the river. Either they're at the State Fair or they agree with my assessment of the fishing.
Stopped at two places on the BK, two on the WB, and one on the BR. Here's what I saw.
The bugs - There were tiny olives hatching in good numbers on both the WB and the BR, there were also some olives you could imitate, (a few), saw iso husks on the rocks on a BK pool that weren't there last week, (but never moved a fish), saw an iso and two cahills on the WB, (first cahills I've seen this month), saw a few white flies and two hebes, (along with the olives), on the BR.
The fishing - I've never carried two rods to the river to fish. Today I did. My 8 foot 4 weight Winston and a spinning rod built to stop a freight train. Never saw anything rise anywhere until a 16 inch rainbow came up and ate a blind cast on the BR.
The spin fishing left something to be desired, but I'm learning. Carried the rod, (heavier than a dead minister), to two places where I've had encounters with striped bass. Did nothing at the first stop, (maybe too early as they are night feeders). The last stop was more interesting. Made about fifteen casts with no results, (I even looked for fish following the lure in), and then I got a hit, it was a good fish but I knew right away it wasn't what I was after. Turned out to be a 17 inch smallmouth that jumped several times before I was able to get him into some quite water which is where I saw that he was being followed by the striper. The striper saw me and darted away, I towed the bass to shore where I gingerly extracted hooks from several parts of his body and let him go, (am putting a pair of hemostats and my box of white flies in my vest tomorrow).
Note - Found a nice net on my journeys today. If you lost it, just let me know when, where and what make, and we'll get it back to you.
2 things regarding stripers:
The plug should be at least 6 inches, eliminates most of the by-catch
Get some split ring pliers and remove trebles and replace with singles. I have a nice scar from removing a treble from my pinkie finger on the beach years ago.
Several years ago, a friend and I are fishing the UEB and doing quite well, when all of a sudden a very nice wooden net comes floating down the river. I wade out and grab it. Add to the collection. Later that evening, we are fishing a different pool and, lo and behold, another net comes floating down and my buddy grabs that one. We always wondered if the poor guy who lost the first net also lost the new one he’d just bought to replace it.
Fun story, love stripers..lost my Fishpond Emerger net at Stockport mid July, figured it was a donation to the fishing gods..
Wow!!!
So many lost nets!
Might be easier to catch a net then to catch a trout during the sulphur hatch!!!
Angler 119, I hope you do to the stripers what they’ve apparently done to the smallmouth on the Main Stem, and are undoubtedly doing to the trout on the West Branch. Look forward to hearing of your first victim.
BTW, a wooden net with a clear rubber bag and a magnet bumped into me while I was looking for risers in the pool below the Gentlemen’s Club a few weeks ago. In case any reader lost it, I dropped it off at the Troutfitter last Saturday.
Lost a black oval solitude net with. Temp gauge on the handle two weeks ago not sure where tho. Maybe hale eddy or deposit was gone when I got to shehawken all I know
Long time reader, first time commenter. It’s a long shot, but I lost a black adamsbuilt net at the bridge in deposit about a month ago.
A119, you might want to replace the treble hooks on the striper lure with single hooks of equal weight. You same weight hooks to produce the action of the lure. Always enjoy your posts.
👍👍👍👍
It doesn’t look too good the two night trip I’m going to make soon. Waiting for a new rod to use there. But, I’ll hope for the best.
I know it’s extremely unlikely but I lost my brown trout fishpond net weeks ago in Deposit . At that time mentioned it to Troutfittrrs shop and Trouttown Flies but no response so far . Could it be possible it’s mine ?