Fly Fishing Report for the Upper Delaware and Catskill Rivers

WEEKEND OUTLOOK

The photos in this post are from guide Matt's trips this week. Mostly on the West Branch Delaware.

The Report

The Upper Delaware has gone through some major changes in the last week. Summer has it's grip on the region now and the regular rainfall that was present all spring has disappeared.

Currently most of the river system is warm with a few exceptions.

For Trout fishing the only areas that are fishing well are the West Branch and Upper Main Stem. The Upper East has good Temperature but the fishing is highly technical. The Headwater of the Beaverkill and WIllowemoc are also cold.

The Upper Main and West branch remain the best bet. Over the last week releases from Canonsville have fluctuated between 500 cfs. and 700 cfs. This range is keeping the insects and trout active. Today the flow is 600 cfs.

At the current flow rates there are fish feeding most of the time. On all of our floats we can always find sporadic risers to challenge your casting ability. The periods of high activity remain 2:00 to 5:00 pm and again near dark.

Sulfurs and Blue WIng Olives are the dominant insect hatches but Isonychia, Cahills and some Caddisflies are about. Midges are also a factor during summer. Tricos and other tiny insects are about most mornings with fish feeding only in certain areas.

Overall the fishing at this time can be classified as reliable but technical. We are now rigging several dry fly and nymph rods for our guests. I have a heavy rod with the Isonychia and a light rod with light tippet. This lighter rod gets changed between the tiny patterns that we are hoping the fussy trout will eat. These are mostly Olives, Sulfur and midge patterns.

My nymph rods are rigged with a triple rig that is our standard for all year long. This is only used in the deeper faster runs. The other nymph rod is rigged more like a dry fly setup with two #18 nymphs and a float only 12" above the flies. This is the best rig for most of the water at this time.

All of the rigs must be presented totally drag free to have any chance at all. At this time the Trout are at the top of their game and your presentation has to be perfect.

We are also hitting the Smallmouth water now.

We have had a few trips recently and the conditions are now right. For years now we have been offering our smallmouth trips on the lower Delaware mostly from Long Eddy down to Lackawaxen. This summer our guides have been scouting out some new areas to chase SMALLIES. Right now we have several now float trip options available with the emphasis on targeting much larger fish.

Give us a call today to book your next fishing adventure. For the next 8 weeks or so our guides schedules have a lot of openings. This is our normal summer slow down period. Thisis a great time to have some one on one time with our guides or to try a different fishery. We can now get you on the water with only a few days notice. We have some openings starting this coming Sunday. 607-290-4022