NarrowsburgOvercast, 44°
Wind: 11.5 mph
Narrowsburg
|
As a columnist who writes about fly fishing for River Reporter, it has been my tradition to include a piece about the opening day of trout season each spring. Unfortunately, here in the Eastern …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
4/7/21
|
|
I don’t remember the exact date that the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) became aware of the Prattsville pumped storage project proposed for the Schoharie Reservoir. The project …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
3/24/21
|
|
I cannot, in the truest sense of the English language, call this a fishing story. It can, I guess, be called a “catching” story. It does not even involve conventional fishing equipment, …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
3/10/21
|
|
As a long-time angler, I hear little discussion about tapered leaders, even though they are an integral part of a fly fisher’s gear. Perhaps leaders are viewed as innocuous, just a necessary …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
2/24/21
|
|
As readers of this column by an author who is resident of the Hudson Valley and fishes the Catskill region almost exclusively, you might reasonably ask, why a piece about grayling? A good question, …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
2/10/21
|
|
In early November of 2019, I wrote about the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) proposed plan to make significant changes in how it managed New York’s trout rivers. …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
1/27/21
|
|
This week’s column was supposed to be about the new trout stream management plan released by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) last November, but it is not. Instead, …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
1/13/21
|
|
Right about the time this piece appears in the River Reporter, the winter solstice will be more than a week in the past. For those of us that fly fish, the day after the solstice begins the countdown …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
12/30/20
|
|
I can’t recall the last time someone spoke with me about stoneflies—you know, the order Plecoptera? There are reasons for that, especially here in the Eastern U.S. and, in particular, our …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
12/16/20
|
|
These days, with all the social media chatter and fast-paced lifestyles, it is hard to know how many anglers have what we used to call a “home water.” From what I’ve observed over …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
12/2/20
|
|
Because of my training as a fisheries biologist, along with some knowledge of aquatic insect life cycles, I’ve made remarks about the hatching process that mayflies and caddisflies go through …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
11/18/20
|
|
Logic might dictate that current weather conditions would be reason enough to forget fishing today. The local meteorologists report that this is one of the driest summers on record, with lawns, crops …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
11/4/20
|
|
Fall means different things to different people. Under normal conditions, fall means back to school for students and the beginning of another work year for teachers. Sadly, the virus has interrupted …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
10/21/20
|
|
In previous columns, I’ve written that most mayfly hatches on some Catskill tailwaters, with some exceptions, end by August. But a recent trip to the lower East Branch found excellent hatches …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
10/7/20
|
|
We went forward on this early September day with almost no expectations. The river had been quiet these last weeks—few hatching mayflies and fewer rising trout. Normally, at this time of fall …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
9/23/20
|
|
A very long time ago, in what seems like another life, I had the opportunity to fish the Bitterroot River in Western Montana for most of one summer. At the time I was a student enrolled in the School …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
9/9/20
|
|
For those involved with the effort that led to the adoption of the Water Releases Legislation, Part 671 of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), none of us knew, back in 1976, the dilemma that …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
8/26/20
|
|
A few months ago, an old friend suggested that my writing style was a bit too technical and professorial for a fishing column, so for this piece, I decided to lighten things up a bit. While the event …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
8/12/20
|
|
Fly fishing is a fragile and fickle sport. By that, I don’t mean to imply that rivers are fragile, or that trout are fragile, although, in some instances, both are. What I do mean is, unlike a …
more
By Tony Bonavist
|
7/29/20
|
|
Some of my angling friends call this time of year “The Dead Time” because hatches of mayflies and other aquatic insects are on the wane. For the most part, they are absolutely correct in …
more
By TONY BONAVIST
|
7/15/20
|