Fly Fishing Report for the Upper Delaware and Catskill Rivers
WEEKEND OUTLOOK
All of the photos in today's blog post are from yesterday's great action. All of our guests have been having excellent fishing!
The weather is changing and the Trout are more active. This weekends fly fishing should be the best in a while. At this time there is still a heavy release of 1200 cfs. from Cannonsville reservoir. This cold water release has the West branch and the Main Stem fishing well. The Upper East has also been Ice cold but low. It is fishing well but it is always a very challenging place to consistently fool wild trout.
Our other rivers The Beaverkill, Willowemoc and Lower East Branch are now cooling down. They are all very low and in need of some rainfall. The overall action in these rivers should improve with every cold night.
Currently insect activity is good in most places. As soon as the heat wave moved out there was an immediate and very noticeable increase in insect activity. Yesterday was the first day in a while where we saw trout returning to decent surface feeding.
Isonychia, Olives, Cahills, Sulfurs, White Flies, Caddisflies, Midges and Terrestrials are available to the Trout at times. You should have a good fly selection since the activity is random and it changes by river section.
Overall the fishing is good to excellent. All of our trips this week have been heavy on catching! Our staff has been on the water and taking advantage of the diversity of conditions. This week the majority of our trips have been for Trout but we are still taking booking for Smallmouth Bass as well. All of our trout trips have been killer.
We are currently choosing between the streamer bite in the turbid waters of the West Branch or Nymph Fishing the miles of riffle water on the Main Stem Delaware.
Both Guide Matt and Guide Zach have been running their guests over to the West with the Streamer Rods. The last few days have been action filled. Yesterday they both reported steady action with their guests bring dozens of fish to net.
I have been on the Main Stem every day. The nymphing game is hot!. My guests have been running up the numbers and many of the WIld Rainbows have been very big. Yesterday my buddy Rick put a half dozen 18" bows in the net along with some juveniles. At this time the fish are hot. The hookups are steady and we are averaging about 1/3 of the fish making it to the net. The rest are just too crazy to get under control. Super Exciting action!
Right now is the time period for hot nymphing. It will remain hot until the cold weather spurs the heavy olive hatches that occur every autumn. My guess is that we should have superb nymphing for about another 2 weeks.
With the cooler weather we can expect to see improving surface activity daily.
TIP OF THE DAY
If you are planning to fish in the coming days bring your nymphing rod. The subsurface action is hot. The dry fly is not.
Right now it is best to rig up for searching the riffle water. Our guides are currently running 3 flies inline. Use a bigger BH Isonychia for your weight. Follow it up with 2 smaller nymphs in descending weight with the last fly being a non - bead head. The best flies have still been variations of Pheasant tails, Caddis Pupas and Isonychia. On most days smaller is better. Most days a #18 is the hot item. Indicator nymphing will cover the most water and increase your odds. I have been setting the indicator about 20" above the first fly.
If you would like to get out for a trips give us a call today. 607-290-4022
If you are in Roscoe make sure you stop in and see our new fly shop. We are now on Stewart Ave. Roscoe's Main Street. We are right next to the Pharmacy and across from the towns big parking lot.
