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Ashokan Reservoir NY report (still not Winni, but better than Schroon...)

Fished the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills (NY) with my buddy Matt from about 7 am to noon on Sunday. Fished the lower basin, trolling the edges of a deep hole just south of the dividing weir. Ideal fishing conditions, stable weather, no moon...got out on the water 1.5 hours too late or we could have loaded the boat with fish.

Its nice to report that the cold-water (Winni and Moosehead!) trolling techniques I recently learned also work for trout species in other deep lakes. Fished by row trolling in a little 12-ft rowboat and could only manage 1-2 lines at a time, but still caught 2 brown trout, 1 rainbow all in the 14-17" range. Plump fish each pushing 1.5 - 2 lbs -- for the length not shabby. Used leadcore rigs set up similar to the famous A.J. combos. Fished down 2-4.5 colors, hard to know exact depth but probably 15-25 ft. range. Rainbow was up top near 2-2.5 colors, browns were deeper. Used about 50+ ft of 10# mono tied direct to the leadcore and an attractor followed by 30" of 8 lb. fluorocarbon leader between the attractor and lure -- tied both ends using no-slip loop knots. After experimenting I agree with others who find the no-slip loop knots allow the lures to "swim" better.

Both browns hit a self-modified Mooselook wobbler painted bright yellow / black dot on one side and 1/2 yellow / 1/2 gold-olive black dot on the other. Sort of a modification of the hues and schemes of the famous orange / black dot "NH Guide" color scheme people use on Winni and up north.

Rainbow hit my own modification of an A.J. hammered copper Top Gun; I painted the reverse side fluorescent orange / black dot. Used a home made attractor with two copper colorado blades and some glow beads with the copper/orange black dot Top Gun rig that took the rainbow. Used a simple brass colorado blade spinner on the other rig equipped with the weird Mooselook that the browns ate. Water temps were pretty chilly, still 48 - 50 F even by noon.

These were my first salmonids taken in NY since I was a kid. I can't remember catching a brown before, but they fought just like a salmon -- straight up and out of the water and/or made runs right at the boat to try and slack the line. Both browns broke water before I even knew I had a fish on. Rainbow tried to stay down, but ran at and under the boat at the end.

Still dreaming of fishing Winni, but this will do for now!

Eric Hince