Hook, Line and Sinker by Judy Van Put

Reservoir levels (as of March 27) were as follows: Pepacton Reservoir, 96.3 percent capacity of 140.2 billion gallons; Ashokan Reservoir, 90.5 percent capacity of 122.9 billion gallons; Cannonsville Reservoir, 100.3 percent capacity of 95.7 billion gallons. West Branch Delaware River anglers will need to take care while wading, as Cannonsville is currently spilling.

Opening Day Outlook
Opening day, Wednesday, April 1, of the trout-fishing season here in the Catskill Mountain region looks promising! Despite a very (almost record-breaking) cold and snowy winter, we dodged a bullet in seeing the snow melt gradually, without the torrential rains that could have brought about massive flooding.

Sonny Somelofski of the Tremperskill Country Store reports that he saw a nice fish on Saturday. It was caught by Skip Vezetti who summers in Andes. The trout was 24 inches long and probably weighed about six pounds. Skip was fishing from shore with sawbelly, “right on the bottom” when the fish took.

The month of August has been pretty slow so far for trout fishermen, at least in the Pepacton Reservoir. Neither Al Carpenter of Al’s Sports Store in Downsville or Sonny Somelofski of the Tremperskill Country Store weighed in a trout over the past week. Reservoir fishermen will be happy to learn that Cat Hollow, which has been closed since the flood of July 23, reopened Saturday.

The results of the Pepacton Trout Derby are in! Sponsored by Al Carpenter of Al’s Sports Store in Downsville, the July Derby was a great success and brought in some nice entries. The winning fish was caught by Joe Lacomis, from Pennsylvania. Joe bagged a brown trout that weighed 13 pounds, nine ounces, and measured 29 inches in length.