I'm Hot to Trout
Head north on Route 86 out of Lake Placid, N.Y., and you'll find yourself driving alongside a magnificent stream. Plunging through the gray granite of the north-central Adirondack Mountains, the Ausable (technically, the West Branch of the Ausable River) has long deep pools, frothy riffles, plunging cascades, and miles of open, boulder-strewn water--"pocket water" it is called. Soon you'll see, on your right, a rustic storefront: Adirondack Sport Shop. Inside, amid the friendly clutter of rods and vests and hats and waders, a peppery guy named Fran Betters is likely to be hunched over a table, tying flies. Strike up a conversation about the Ausable, and the straightforward Betters will tell you the river is the "greatest trout stream in the eastern United States." I, for one, believe him.
Now 74, Betters grew up on a hill overlooking the stream and caught a fish on a fly he tied when he was 9. He has worked these waters with fly-fishing greats and named some of the best holes after them. But it is the fast stretches that Betters loves most. Trout are known to lurk in the "pockets" behind each big rock and in the seams where fast and slow currents collide. You just have to be good enough or crazy enough to fish this rugged water.
Take two. I am one of the crazies. On a damp and cool May day, I meet guide Shane Whitford at Betters's shop. We don waders and raincoats, and head out. I've fished the Ausable in August, when the water is warm and the fish are lethargic. In May, normally, they're eager for flies. But after two days of rain, the river is high and roily. Clouds become fog and drizzle, and only Whitford's burly optimism keeps my spirits up. We wade into a long pool the color of dark tea, casting streamers (fake minnows). Surprisingly, the trout start hitting, and I catch two.
Other parts of the river yield nothing but frustration. So in late afternoon, we head back to the first stretch--now even higher. With its slippery rock bottom and quick drop-offs, the river is treacherous. We inch down into the pool, the water near our chests. And there, in the pouring rain, four nice trout come to the fly. When the last one, a fat 15-inch brown, is in the net, we whoop like school kids. I recall something Betters told me earlier: "Rain forces them out of their hiding places. This is when you get the biggest fish." I decide that when I tell my friends how to fish the Ausable, that's one detail I'll leave out.
LOCAL FAVE
"Once a year I try to climb Mount Marcy, the highest of the Adirondacks. On a clear day you can see Lake Champlain and all the way to Albany."
RUSSELL BANKS, the novelist, lives in the Adirondacks.
[map labels]
NEW YORK
Albany
Lake Placid
Adirondack Park
Ausable River
[interstates/highways]
90
81
87
This story appears in the July 4, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.