A Leslie Wong Blog

On my drives from New York City to the Catskills to go fishing on the Beaverkill River, I always took Route 17, because it was a little more interesting.

Off the George Washington Bridge, I’d take Route 4 in New Jersey and then NJ 17 near the Garden State Plaza. Once I crossed back into New York near Suffern, the surroundings started to change from urban to rural.

On Route 17 in Southfields, New York, was The Red Apple Rest. I probably first went by there in the late 70′s. I took this photograph around 1979. The Red Apple Rest closed in 2006.

Josepth Berger at the NY Times wrote about the Red Apple Rest’s location: “What made the Red Apple so essential a summertime port of call was not so much its food as its location. Before the New York State Thruway opened in 1956, the ride up to the mountains along the old Route 17 could take four or five hours and the Red Apple Rest was almost exactly halfway. While there were three or four other pit stops, the Red Apple, watched over by its founder, Reuben Freed, became the place to go.”

I walked over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and photographed some new rainbow trout in the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit. The aquarium trout don’t fit into the angling category but there are a few freshwater opportunities here – you’d just have to work at it.

In Monterey, there might be a few hatchery trout left in Lake El Estero, located near the bay off Del Monte Avenue and managed by Monterey City Parks and Recreation Department. The California Department of Fish and Game used to mention fish plants there but the last mention of planting in their publication, Fishing California’s Central Coast Region (PDF), was in 2004. I used to see people fishing Lake El Estero but it’s been a while. A couple of years ago, when I inquired at the recreation center at the lake about fishing, a woman asked me, “Why would anyone want to fish here?”

[Dec. 27, 2008: I found that the California DFG has plans to stock Lake El Estero sometime between 11/24/2008 through 1/1/2010]

When I first moved here, I found a nice, friendly fly fishing store in Carmel – Central Coast Fly Fishing. They seemed to be the most informed about trout fishing in Monterey county. They describe some local opportunities, but you don’t just drive to the stream and get out of your car.

According to the California DFG, “Most Monterey County streams have their headwaters in the Los Padres National Forest. These headwater streams provide good trout angling for hikers.”

When I lived in New York City, I always found solace in fly fishing for trout in the Catskills, mostly on the Beaverkill River.

A New York bookstore was another place to find solace. My favorites were Scribner’s, Rizzoli, Shakespeare, Strand, Coliseum, Barnes and Noble and McGraw-Hill. I always looked for fishing books. After baseball, fishing seemed to produce the most titles. Over the years, I accumulated many. Here are a couple of them:

Good Fishing Close to New York City: A Guide to the Great Close-To-Home Angling of the Metropolitan Region (Good Fishing to New York Ser.) ● Open Season ● French Fishing Flies ● Fishing Idaho, An Angler’s Guide ● Art Flick’s New Streamside Guide ● Matching the Hatch ● Vermont River: The Classic Portrait of a Man and His River ● The River Why ● 21 Great New Zealand Trout Waters (Fly Fishing International) ● Fear of Fly-Fishing ● Neversink: One Angler’s Intense Exploration of a Trout River ● Fishless Days, Angling Nights ● Every Angler’s Guide to Amazing Lures and Flies: Rare and Forgotten Masterpieces of Fishing ● The Complete Book of Fly Tying ● Trout Strategies ● Fishing Came First ● Trout on a Fly ● Higher Elevations: Stories From the West ● New Zealand’s Top Trout Fishing Waters

“Joan Wulff handles a fishing rod with grace and explosive power. In 1960 she set the women’s unofficial world record for distance casting—an astonishing 161 feet. Now the grande dame of fly-fishing at age 81, Wulff has not lost her touch. Standing on the banks of the Beaverkill River near her fabled fishing school in New York’s Catskill Mountains, she raises and points the tip of an 8½-foot rod just over her shoulder, gives a sudden backward snap of the wrist and sends 40 feet of line sailing straight back behind her..”

The Whip-Like Physics of Fly Fishing

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I hooked this Pike with a yellow plastic worm on a lead-head jig. I break off the barbs on the hooks for easy release, but they still get stuck. I had to ask Liz to get me some pliers because in my excitement, I dropped my hook degorger in the water (Chris dove in an got it out later).

The second pike I caught just self released as I pulled it toward the dock.

Wednesday I got another Pike and a small Smallmouth bass, but there hasn’t been any action since then.

There are a lot of weeds in the water. I catch those all the time.

Alien Invasion, Nobody Cares

The rental agent at Thrifty was anxious for us to upgrade to a new Chrysler Pacifica he had on the lot. I said, “Do you mean the big station wagon?” He didn’t see it that way.

It is a very luxurious vehicle. The tailgate opens electrically with a keyless remote.

Outside of Toronto on the 400, there is a large UFO parked that nobody seems to take notice of. The people of Toronto must be hypnotized.

Bass Pro Shops
At some point, I realized that I forgot my fishing reel. Fortunately, Bass Pro Shops had opened up their first Canadian store last November. It is 140,000 square feet. I am impressed. I vow to sell SUNW and buy stock, later to find out it’s still privately held. Cabela’s isn’t doing that great anyway.

The fishing department has about 100 reels on display so you can pick them up and try them out. I go to the reels locked in the display case and point out the Shimano Stella to Chris. I tell her she has to buy me that one because she made me come to Canada.

Bass Pro Shops has a large aquarium, that rivals one at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There are many large fish. I see at least a couple of 12-15 lb. rainbow trout, bass, etc.

Cairns Pool, Beaverkill River, Roscoe, NY