Fly Fishing Report for the Upper Delaware and Catskill Rivers

WEEKEND RECAP AND LOOK AHEAD

Over this past weekend the challenging weather continued but the Trout activity shifted gears. This was the first time this year where we have strung together a few days in a row of great fishing. Over the last 3 days I have had long time Delaware River regulars and each day I heard that it was their best trip ever.

Overall our guests have been crushing it. The Streamer bite is in high gear now. In the areas where our guides have been floating you do not go very far without a big mature Brown Trout charging out at a properly fished bait fish imitation.

The Dry fly action has also been great especially late in the day. Over the last 4 days the Hendrickson's have been blanketing the water. At times there have been so many insects accumulated that pods of fish have been crammed into small feeding lanes gorging themselves.

With the dry fly and streamer bite the way it is it's no surprise that we have been taking some big boys. Over the weekend my guests also had numbers. Both Saturday and Sunday we ran the numbers up quickly. Yesterday we landed over a dozen and had another half dozen mature fish on that we lost. Over the weekend I handled lots of 20"+ fish with the best being just under 23 inches. Guide Matt had a 23" brown come to net on his boat which he got on video. We'll be sharing that clip later this week.

With the clearing water it's time to feed the beasts. Bite sized bait fish patterns are the way to go right now. The action with the 6" plus streamers has slowed down considerably as the trout are moving back to their normal lairs. Yesterday 4" Bait fish stripped very erratically moved the most. We had the best action with Our custom EP Style Bait Fish and with our Slider type streamers. These far outperformed articulated patterns.

Hendrickson duns are emerging in mass now from the tailwaters. When we get our next dose of sunshine and light winds we can expect the mother load of spinners to descend on our rivers. This happened one day last week and it occurred at 11:00 in the morning. If you are finding a Trout that is being fussy now is the time to switch to a spinner at any time of day.

This weekend every fish that we took went for one of our hackled spinner imitations. Size 10 -14 are what I have been using and in most cases the bigger spinner was all it took. Last night we had steady action picking off one fish after another with the this trusty fly.

During the emergence the Knock Down Dun had been a steady performer. We have also had some luck with Parachutes and Comparaduns in the faster runs. There are also Blue Quills, Gordons, multiple species of Caddisflies and a few March Browns on the freestones.

We have some openings if you want to get in on the hot action. Give us a call today. 607-290-4022

If you are heading our way remember that we are still having very high water for the date. The most wadable water is in the Beaverkill and Willowemoc. There is some very limited access in the tailwaters.