Fly Fishing Report for the Upper Delaware and Catskill Rivers
Bugs and Surface Activity
It's hard to believe that yesterday all of our guides rowed our guests through steady snow and today it was 70 degrees.
During today's great weather the insect activity continued to improve. All of our guests had good opportunity to cast to actively rising fish. On the section I was fishing there was a pretty heavy emergence of Blue Quills, Quill Gordons and Hendricksons. Our guides were spread around the system and reports were similar from the East,West and Main Stem Delaware. The Beaverkill and Willowemoc are buggy but not to the extent of the other rivers.
Right now the bug action is on! The biggest factor that is keeping it from blowing up is rover flows. Just about everywhere the flows are just a bit above the thresholds where the fish can feed everywhere efficiently. At the current rate that the rivers are dropping anglers will still have some time before you have a wide variety of choices on foot. Currently the 2 easiest places to wade are the Willowemoc and the slower pools on the Upper East Branch. The Beaverkill is a bit more challenging but you can pick your way around the edges and tailouts of the slower pools. The same is true on the West Branch. The Main Stem is still big. Wading is out of the question in all but the slowest eddies and back channels.
Anglers planning on fishing in the coming days should expect to fish both the dry fly and streamers. While it may be possible to nymph up a fish the other techniques are far better at covering water in the current conditions.
Right now fly choice depends on where you fish. If you plan on fishing the East Branch thin small and choose to fish the smaller Blue Quills with knock down duns and cripples as your go to. This river has been the only game in town for a while and the river has seen more pressure than I have ever seen. The smaller flies have been much more effective. The trout here are also a bit conditioned to streamers now. It is time to think outside the current trends in fly choice. Now is a good time for an unweighted old school fly like a Gray ghost, Muddler or Bucktail. This advice is also applicable on the West Branch of the Delaware.
On the Freestones, Beamoc, lower East and Main Stem the fish are not rising as much but they are pretty non selective and your traditional dry flies and Zonkers will take fish. My favorite fly on these water are our Baxter House Mayfly Cripples. They float great are easy to see and the trout rarely let them go by.
If you want to get out and fish the Hendrickson hatch in high water give us a call to book a drift boat trip. We have a few openings this week. We are also now booking trips for the remainder of the spring and summer at this time. Call 607-290-4022 to set up a trip.
