Upper Delaware Fly Fishing Report

TUESDAY

Yesterday afternoon and last night some light rainfall moved through the region again. The Heavy rainfall that was forecast was once again a bust. The overall amount of rain was light and it has caused some minor increases to our local rivers flow.. The recent rainfall fell mostly over the headwaters of the Beaverkill and Willoemoc. This is having positive effects on these waters and the water of the Lower East Branch and Main Stem which they flow directly into. The tailwater only had abot 25 cfs. increases in flow over the last 48 hours.

The last 2 days have had a major weather shift to the cold side. The cold weather has caused all of our rivers to drop rapidly in temperature. This trend should continue today before leveling out. THe cold weather trend is expected to continue through the coming weekend. The rest of the week should offer excellent fishing opportuinty.

Yesterday we had a major increase in insect activity during daylight hours. There were lots of olives on the water all day and the sulfur hatch was happening in the afternoon hours. All of our guests had several quality hours of casting to rising Trout.

Today there is still a slight chance of rainfall. It is not forecast to be anything significant but it is another day without bright sunshine so we'll take it.

For the next week all area rivers will offer fishing opportunity. My top choice at this time still remains the Beaverkill. This river simply has the bugs at this time. There are multiple species on the water daily and finding rising Trout is not a problem. Green Drakes and Coffin Flies have been heavy and the Trout are feeding well. Most of the other rivers are a bit fickle at this time.

River Flow Table

Beaverkill - 620 cfs.

Wilowemoc - 525cfs.

Upper East Branch -159 cfs

Lower East Branch -990 cfs.

West Branch - 306 cfs.

Main Stem -1470 cfs.

Our fly shop is now open daily. We are fully stocked with the essentials and the best local fly patterns in the area. If you are planning to fish and want to get the scoop on what's happening on all area rivers, stop in. Our guides will be in and around the shop from 8:30 am until they leave for their trips. You can pick their brains on the latest hatches, techniques and locations. Our staff will be available to you on a daily basis from now through the end of June

Currently there are Green Drakes, March Browns, Sulfurs, Stoneflies, Caddisflies and more emerging from all Upper Delaware Rivers. There is good spinner activity most nights. Anglers should now target the areas around the faster riffles and pocket water. Most of the insects that are emerging now are fast water dwellers and all of the late day spinner activity will happen in these same areas.

Today's Upper Delaware Fly Selection

March Brown Cripples, Green Drake Cripples, Baxter House Coffin Fly, Kens Coffin fly, Hackle Wing March Brown Spinner, Hackle WIng Rusty Spinners, March Browns, Sulfurs, Blue Quill CDC Duns, Quill Gordon Cripples, Hendrickson Knock Down Duns, Hendrickson Cripples, Red Quill Cripples, Elk Over CDC Caddis, X Caddis, Peacock Klinkhammers, Apple Caddis, March Brown Duns, March Brown Cripples

BH Copper Johns, BH Pheasant Tails, Ice Caddis, KT Pupas, BH Stoneflies, Flash Back Pheasant Tails, Cased Caddis

Small Zonkers, BH Wooly Buggers , Sculpins, Bottom Wigglers, Muddlers, Small Atriculated Flies

Streamers of 3" or less will be most effective at this time.

BEAVERKILL AND WILLOWEMOC

Both the Beaverkill and Willow are fishing well. Both rivers got the majority of the rainfall that occurred over the last 2 days. Both have risen to mid to high levels and have some turbidity. ANglers should be aware that trbidity has very little effect on rising Trout. If there are insects the trout will rise. Turbid water also greatly improves the streamer fishing. The turbidity should clear out after a day with no additional rainfall.

This is one of my favorite times to fish these waters. The insect hatches are now transitioning to species that thrive in the faster riffles and pocket water. The Beamoc waters are perfect for these insects! Over the next 4 weeks anglers should have no problem finding active insects and Trout.

March Browns, Green Drakes and Sulfurs are on the water. At this time a rusty spinner is a great choice for any fussy fish. The Coffin Fly action had been great and the Trout are pounding these giant insects.

Anglers should nymph early and start looking for risers in mid afternoon.

The nymphing is excellent. The best tactic for the Beamoc water is high sticking in the Pocket water. At this time the Pocket Water and Riffles are full of fish.

EAST BRANCH

The East is very low and looking pretty sad in a lot of places. The Upper river is being starved of water by the lack of reservoir releases and little natural rainfall. In most places this river has little flow.

The Lower East is in good shape this week due to the water coming down from the Beaverkill and WIllowemoc. The lower river also has turbidity from the Wilow at this time. The turbidity is light and the fishing is just OK. There have not been many insects since the Drakes ended here and the ISonychia, Cahills, Sulfurs, etc. have been absent during daylight hours. The cool overcast weather could change this but it did not happen yet.

WEST BRANCH

The West is at low water conditions. There is a lot of weeds and algae in the drift. The 224cfs. release will continue despite the very low water conditions and the almost full reservoir.

The insect activity is very good and this river should be bug soup for the next month. Anglers will easily find rising fish when insects are present.

MAIN STEM

Over the next few days the Main Stem should get a break from the heat. The water temperatures are dropping and decent fishing conditions are present. Anglers should however keep in mind that the current conditions are very temporary. The first sunny day with air temps. near 80 will easily push these waters to over 70 degrees again.

With that said the Main Stem fished well yesterday over most of it's length. There were good hatches during daylight hours and the trout were feeding well. OUr guests had no problems finding and catching some impressive Wild Rainbows.

On the section I floated the water was covered with small Olives for much of the day. There were also good hatches of both large and small sulfurs. I also saw a decent amount of Isonychia joining the mix. These insects should provide some great action in the coming weeks. Anglers should keep in mind that the Upper Delaware trout love Iso's. Now is a great time to blind fish the riffle water with an oversized Isonychia pattern.

The nymph action on the Main Stem is decent at this time. Our guests have been hooking up with wild rainbows in most riffles that we fish.

Isopnychia, Green Drakes, Stoneflies, March Browns, Sulfurs and Olives are possible on the Main. We should also see Cornuta Olives and some heavier Isonychia action at any time