The Connetquot River State Park Preserve
For years I've heard about the incredible park out in Oakdale, where you can fish for trout...trout up to 10 lbs...rainbows and golden browns. I have fished for trout in many rivers throughout the country, but when I was a kid in Long Island they were hard to come by. I decided to do a story on this, so called, great fishery.
So, off I went at the crack of dawn...to the Connetquot River State Park. I arrived at 7AM and paid my $15 for the noon shift. With my bum leg (which I'd like to sell to science) and my good friend Barry, I set off down the path to walk some of the grounds. Right off the parking lot, to my amazement, were wild turkey...that's right...in Long Island!
We headed towards the hatchery...there were deer everywhere...I thought that I was by my old house on the Delaware...except that these deer were like house pets! In my opinion, this is a great place to bring children fishing. The streams are well stocked and incredibly maintained. Children can see the wildlife in their natural setting. The hatchery will blow the little fishermen away (I know that it blew this "little" fisherman away)...dreaming about their chance at one of the many monster trout that lay hidden in the streams. We spent most of that day just wandering around in amazement...but did not fish much.
I needed some more proof of these chubba wabba rainbows and browns, so I went with some dead ringers in fishing. Saturday night I couldn't sleep a wink thinking about getting some good photos of the fishing. Crazy Al and my brother Joe are both freshwater psychos. These two will do anything to get it right! On his first cast, Al caught a nice 3 lb. brook trout.
Then no sooner did he release it, when he hooked up a monster rainbow, who made a Moby Dick wake in the pond right before he inhaled it. Al had that puppy in no time...try an easy 4 1/2 lbs. The fishing went on and on like this for 2 hours. I was mystified by all of these blue ribbon trout. What a trip for the soul in the heart of winter.
More coming soon!