Fly Fishing Report for the Upper Delaware and Catskill Rivers

Great Action around the System!

BAXTER HOUSE NEWS!

This coming Saturday May 19 Baxter House along with the Roscoe Beer Company are hosting TFO DAY at the Beer Company. Come spend an afternoon sampling Trout Town Beer and Casting! This event will start at noon. Our TFO rep will be set up with the full line of TFO rods and reels for you to cast and get in your hands. Come Check out the New Axiom II and the New Drift Nymph Rod!

THE REPORT

Over the last few days our guests have been hitting it hard on the Dry Fly.

Right now the Upper Delaware is giving up what it is known for, Match the Hatch Dry Fly Fishing!

Over the last few days all of our trips have been able to fish just the dry fly. The action is now very steady throughout the day and trips where you are just hunting for risers is the norm. Our guest had a weekend where 20" class fish were hitting the net like crazy.

Over the last few days river levels have dropped to the point where anglers can wade fish just about everywhere. Drift boat fishing is good everywhere. The Upper East is getting low and drift boating here is getting tough.

Blue Quills, Hendricksons and Apple Caddis are the big hatches. The hatch is at various stages in each different river and river section. Right now it looks like the Lower Main Stem is getting thin with bugs. The Hendos and Apple Caddis are winding down. There are a few March Browns and Some small Sulfurs about but not in any real numbers. The Upper Main and Lower East have more of these insects and have flurries of action throughout the day. The Tailware sections of the East and West branches still have good emergences of all early season insects. This is where the perfect habitat for the early season nymphs are and the result is a much longer emergence period.

Anglers should have spinners with them when on the water. There has been heavy spinner flights at times. With the last few days of rain, cold and generally crappy weather the next period of light wind and low humidity should see huge spinner activity.

In addition to the great dry fly action I have been putting the nymph and streamer rods in peoples hands during lulls in the insect activity. The nymphing is just getting going. The fish are just moving into the faster water and the areas where nymphing is typically associated with. The streamer bite is much slower with the crystal clear water and falling flows. We have still been putting a few in the net each day by fishing smaller flies that are mostly unweighted, or lightly weighted. My best pattern has been our Urchin Bugger. This fly has a unique motion in the water and fishes well when stripped slow, fast or just dead drifted.

here is a double on the streamer from crystal clear water