Upper Delaware River Fly Fishing Report

MID JUNE ACTION

Catskill and Upper Delaware River

The spring fly fishing season continues on! As has been the case since opening day the weather, river conditions, and insect hatches are running late. It is still very cool in our region and our river are in prime condition. The regular rainfall has kept all of our river at prime levels and water temperatures remain in the range for trout to be active and aggressive..

I have not posted a report for a while due to lack of time. I have been staying out late every night lately fishing the Drakes and Coffinflies well into darkness.

The big bug action continues. Currently there is still a reliable, heavy emergence of green drakes most every day. These giant Mayflies occur throughout the river system but the heavy activity occurs in isolated pockets. Most of the system normally gets very light activity or no drakes at all. Our guide staff is dialed in on the remaining activity associated with these giant bugs. I expect the action to last another week or so. The trout will also continue to blast the large patterns blind fished for another week or so after the emergence ends. Give us a call today to book a float trip while they are around. 607-290-4022

The last 2 weeks have been pretty incredible. The amount of 20" + fish that our guests have boated is incredible.

We want to congratulate affiliated guide Chris Dever on the giant Delaware Brown he took this week! Photo courtesy of guide Rich McCombie.

Over the last week heavy rainfall hit us again and there is more expected today. Over the last few days Cannonsville, Pepacton and Neversink reservoirs started spilling over their dams again. All of our rivers are at great flows for both wade and drift boat fishing. The extended weather forecast is for more cool weather so the great conditions should continue into July.

With the reservoirs spilling over there is now some warmer water entering the tailwaters. When this occurs the trout's metabolism shifts into high gear and we get a good streamer bite. Our guides now have the streamer rods back in action and yesterday we hunted a few during lulls in the Green Drake activity. A small articulated baitfish with a woolly bugger teaser out front has been effective.

We have been nymphing up some great fish recently including some 2 footers. The huge brown that Chris took also fell for a nymph.

Currently there are a lot of different situations that need to be addressed when nymphing. The rivers are at flows where there are lots of different water types. No one set up will fish everywhere at this time, I am currently rigging 3 different nymph rods. Each is set up for the different situations that we encounter. The short explanation is one with very heavy big nymphs that will be fished with high sticking techniques in the deep cuts. One with a medium weight beadheads for both high sticking and mid distance indicator fishing. The last is rigged, light tippet, 3 tiny flies, palsa indicator. This is fished long line exactly like a dry fly.. The 3 rod situation is great for drift boat fishing but impractical for wade anglers. Wade anglers will not see as many different situations and would probably be best served with 3 mid sized bead heads fish under an indicator.

As far as fly choice I like my flies to look like everything but imitate nothing. BH Soft Hackles, Our Wired Stoneflies, BH Pheasant Tails and our Trigger Nymphs are what you will find hanging from my rods at this time. On bright sunny days I also make sure to put one of my Ice Caddis into the rig.

Here are some of this weeks results - photos are from my trips and Baxter House trips from guides Matt Hackett, Marty the Party Yi, Rich McCombie, Rylie Lake and Luc Genovesi. We are super proud of this staff of hard working guides.

Starting this week Baxter House Outfitters is taking bookings for our very popular Half Day and Evening Hatch Float trips. These trips put you on the water for the prime time of the day!.

We are also booking full day trout trips for the summer months. These trips are a mix of dry and nymph fishing.

I am also taking bookings for full day trips that go deep into the world of nymphing. If you want to get a greater understanding of the Upper Delaware Trout and how to catch them in clear low water these trips are the master class.

Now is also the time to book your Fly or Spin Tackle trip for Smallmouth Bass. Our guides have trips lined up on the Delaware River that will produce big numbers of Smallies. We also have some out of the way floats that specifically target the big boys. Our summer time Smallie floats are also the best trips for introducing young anglers to river fishing. We can accommodate one adult with 2 young anglers on most of our drift boats.

Call us today to book your next angling adventure - 607-290-4022