Syracuse.com - Fishing for trout on the famed, but finicky Battenkill

[HuntingNY-News]

I had the enjoyable outing last month fishing for trout on the famed, but finicky Battenkill. I was in southern Washington County in Cambridge, which is northeast of Albany, participating in the annual Spring Safari of the New York State Outdoors Writers Association. The event brought outdoors writers from throughout the state to sample the area's numerous outdoor offerings....

I had the enjoyable outing last month fishing for trout on the famed, but finicky Battenkill.

I was in southern Washington County in Cambridge, which is northeast of Albany, participating in the annual Spring Safari of the New York State Outdoors Writers Association. The event brought outdoors writers from throughout the state to sample the area's numerous outdoor offerings.

I went turkey hunting (I real got close, but couldn't close the deal), attended a seminar given by officials from a local Quality Deer Management Association coop, heard a talk by New York State Museum consultant Howard Romack about the reptiles, amphibians and insects that call the area home - and fished the Battenkill, guided by Adriano Manocchia, a veteran trout angler and nationally known artist.

I was anxious to try my luck on the trout stream, particularly with the notoriety it has received over the past century with famous trout fisherman such as Lee Wulfe, John Atheron and Lew Oatmann having wet their lines on its waters. Oatmann devised nearly a dozen different streamers (minnow-like, baitfish imitations) for fishing the Battenkill, such as the silver darter and ghost shiner. Most, if not all of his creations are still used today, Manocchia said.

The river boasts four wooden, covered bridges - one on the Vermont side and three on the New York said. The one on the Vermont side, in West Arlington, was painted by Norman Rockwell several times, Manocchia said.

The picturesque waterway begins as a trickle up in hills of Vermont near Manchester and flows by the headquarters of the Orvis Corporation, located in that community. The spring-fed, river flows some 25 miles to the New York border, and then another 24 through Washington County and into the Hudson River.

Manocchia, a native downstater who relocated with his wife to Cambridge 11 years ago, said the Battenkill, with all history, is not the trout stream it used to be.

"I tell people if you want to have a beautiful, peaceful day on a great trout stream, come to the Battenkill," he said. "If you want to catch a ton of fish real easily, go somewhere else."

The reason the stream is so challenging to anglers is multi-faceted. For starters, the Vermont side is no longer stocked, a decision made years ago to return it to a purely wild trout stream. The New York stretch, though, is stocked by the state Department of Environmental Conservation with 19,000 yearling brown trout. Its waters also hold wild brook and rainbow trout.

The New York side gets pressured not only by New York anglers, but by Vermont fishermen who cross over the state line to take advantage of the stocked areas, Manocchia said. In addition, the river in recent years has established a growing reputation among canoers and kayakers, particularly on weekends, who enjoy their sport, often in the prime fishing areas.

Manocchia took me to the river's "no-kill, artificial fly/lure only" area, which stretches more than four miles from the Vermont border down to the Eagleville covered bridge. That May morning was a sunny, relatively windless day with temperatures quickly climbing into the 80s. Manocchia led me to a number of stretches and holes that to my eye had trout written all over them. The water, though, was very clear.

The stream has its share of good insect hatches, including Hendricksons and caddises, among others, Manocchia said. However, nothing much was hatching that day.

I started off fishing with my fly rod, using weighted, wooly bugger streamers to get down deep, close to the bottom. Manocchia tried nymphs. At one point, I switched to my ultra-light spinning rod, casting a small, silver-bladed, Panther Martin lure. No luck.

Fellow outdoor writer Chris Kenyon from Wolcott, who accompanied us most of the way that morning, succeeded in catching a nice, 12-inch brown in a deep hole using a Rooster Tail lure.

I switched later on to casting a Panther Martin lure with my ultra-light rod.Adriano Manocchia 

Sue Bookhout, from Cazenovia, another association member, fished the river two mornings. The first, she caught a 12-inch brown on a tiny pheasant tail nymph (size 18 hook). The second day, she caught another fish about the same size. She used the same nymph, but that day tied another fly higher up on her line -- a large, beaded caddis -- to get her pheasant tail down deeper.

Kenyon and I roomed together that weekend in a small cabin at the Battenkill Riversports and Campground in Jackson, near Cambridge. Our cabin was located right on the river on a gorgeous stretch. The camp manager said someone had caught a 23-inch brown the week before on a spinner.

Undaunted, that evening I tried casting my Panther Marten lure on the river near our cabin and quickly caught two small, brown trout.

Just as it got dark, I saw a big splash about 40 yards upstream.

"Every once in a while you see some monster fish in there," Manocchia said. "However, they didn't get that size because they're dumb. It takes quite a bit of work to catch them."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog