Trip Report: Moodna Creek Fly Fishing 4/4/15

The general trout season opened in April in my state. I had plans to spend the weekend at the Neversink River fishing. Unfortunately, all of the fishing reports I saw that week pointed to very poor conditions at the Neversink. Water was too cold and the fish weren’t biting.

I decided to instead check out some of my local rivers and streams. There are two decent trout rivers next to my house, the Ramapo River and Moodna Creek. The Ramapo is pretty popular, so it gets a lot of people. I didn’t know much about Moodna Creek, so I figured that I would check it out instead.

I got to the river a sunrise. Most of the lakes around me are still frozen, but the moving water is not. It was pretty cold that morning, with the water being just above freezing. I didn’t know what to expect. I figured I would start up the river and then work my way down if the water proved to be too shallow. Instead of a small creek, I was greeted by a sizable and fast moving river. I am assuming it was due to the snowmelt.

 

The banks of the river were very steep. In the pictures I am only a few feet in. Another few feet and the water was chest deep.

I gradually kept making my way down the river, looking for better spots. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much look. Eventually I made my way down to the confluence of Moodna Creek and Woodberry Creek. I moved onto the smaller Woodburry Creek.

Even the smaller Woodbury Creek was deeper and faster than I expected. I almost went under trying to unhook a nymph from a rock. Within a few feet the water got chest high, and I had to move down stream with the current so that I don’t get toppled over. Ultimately I had to give up on the lure.

Nothing worked. There were several other guys fishing and they didn’t have any luck either, at least up to the point when I left. They all thought that the water was too cold to get any good action. I suppose it will be better in a week or two.

I spent the rest of the day at the nearby Goose Mountain State Park, a wetland preserve.

The park is almost completely undeveloped. For some reason the top of that mountain just keep calling out to me. It will be pretty interesting to bushwhack all the way up there, and it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

Anyway, not the most productive of days, but I got to check out some of the local areas. Of course, I have two large forests just south of me, but I’ve already been there. :)