Bare

[Eperous]

It's Leap Day with three weeks of old man winter left, and our Catskill peaks are brown and bare... here's a shot taken while walking the Ashokan today, where I saw three bald eagles but didn't get any photos...

AR160229.JPG (328.35 KiB) Viewed 1299 times

Sunday the family & I went snow tubing up at Hunter Mountain and the only snow we observed anywhere lay on trails skiers and tubers used, plus a few small, grey piles left behind by plows--- but not many of them...

Last Wednesday we received some 3 1/2" to 4" of rain locally... the creeks are up and look good, most are clear... here's a shot of the upper Stony Clove Creek taken on the way home from Hunter Mountain...

Stony Clove headwaters, 160228.JPG (779.71 KiB) Viewed 1299 times

I wouldn't be too surprised if the elevated flows, increasing daily light-time hours, and warm weather has pulled some wild rainbows out of the Ashokan, up into the Esopus on their annual spawning run...

It was 64 degrees at Hunter Sunday and almost 60 here today, the streams look good, feels like I should be fishing somewhere... but, who knows what the conditions will be like on the eve of April 1st, after all this is the Catskills and the only thing predictable about late-winter, early-spring Catskill weather is "it's unpredictable"...

Ed

[JoeCz]

Thanks for posting the pics, Ed.

I had promised the rest of the family I'd go to the movies with them on Sunday afternoon, so I wasn't able to get up to the Beamoc no-kill sections. Did anyone else go?

I stopped by the Ramapo in Tuxedo, where there were a few black stoneflies around, but no rising fish. A couple guys were trying their luck in the fast but reasonably clear water anyway, but holdover is pretty poor along here, so left my waders in the car and went home without wetting a line.

[BillA]

Stony Clove.....ssshhhhhhh

[Bullethead]

Always a little leery of calling a winter done, still, looks like on the way to Spring. Looking forward to having more time down home this season...knocking wood. Please, keep the pictures coming, E. Thanks.

[Eperous]

Stony Clove.....ssshhhhhhh

I hit a nerve... YIKES!!!! I know that feeling , sorry Bill...

Ed

[BillA]

Ed, I was kidding. I think that spot-burning is bullshit. If a guy can figure out where fish are then good for him. I do have a soft spot for Stony Clove since i live across the street.

[flymank]

Love your photo's ed,they always lift my spirits