Delaware River Report / Conditions April 4, 2012

Windy again yesterday, albeit a bit calmer on the whole. Regardless, we had fish rising throughout the day on Home Pool, and up and down the West Branch. The fish keyed in a bit more on Paraleps, but plenty were still taken on Hendricksons as well. The only major change was in the afternoon, when all activity came to a grinding halt around 4PM – unusual based on the previous few days. We have TONS of spinners in the vegetation on the shore, and it’s only a matter of time before they come out to mate & fall. If it happens mid-day, expect a sign in the shop window reading: “Spinners falling – I’m fishing down front.”

Jeff took another REALLY cool shot yesterday of a chimarra caddis, and even though I put one in yesterday, this one was too neat to pass up – check out the detail & reflection!

Chimarra caddis. Photo by: Jeff White

Hatches:

Ephemerella subvaria – Hendricksons – #12 & #14

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Chimmarra (little black) Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 188 cfs @ 41º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 280 cfs @ 44º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 143 cfs @ 45º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 656 cfs @ 45º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,340 cfs @ 47º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 394 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.7% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions April 3, 2012

It seems my graph down below isn’t updating, so feel free to click HERE to see the up-to-date one. I blame the USGS.

Regardless, yesterday was bright, sunny, and windy. The cold kind of wind that cuts through you. It was pretty brutal. That being said, there were fish all over the river, and bugs on the water, even in the midst of 20MPH sustained winds. This is definitely going to be one of those years! The wind has calmed down, and we are looking at a high near 60 today, especially in the sun. The West Branch will warm up first, as the levels are still low, and I expect it to fish all day today. We have a few folks going out, and I will actually make it out after we close up tonight, so expect a full report tomorrow!

Chimarra caddis. TONS of these flitting about in the wind yesterday. Photo by: Jeff White

Hatches:

Ephemerella subvaria – Hendricksons – #12 & #14

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Chimmarra (little black) Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 188 cfs @ 39º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 293 cfs @ 41º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 153 cfs @ 41º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 746 cfs @ 41º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,380 cfs @ 42º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 455 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.7% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions April 2, 2012

Happy Monday! Well, despite absolutely miserable conditions out there yesterday, the river as a whole fished tremendously on the NY opener. The rain brought the river system a much needed bump, but not a huge jump or addition of any discoloration. Hendricksons were the name of the game, coming off mostly in-between the bursts of rain, but on the Upper Main, they came no matter what, and we saw some of our first really ‘big’ fish caught. The clouds are scheduled to move off today, yielding some sun and warming up the rivers quite a bit. The downer today are the 30+ MPH gusts that we are expecting when that wind shifts. This bodes well for the rest of the week, with calm winds and partial sun. We could be looking at a good one!

 

An example of the misery out there yesterday. Have you ever seen a happier guy holding a 20"+ fish? Nate Eckhaus braved the elements and had a great day. Photo by: Scott Dawson

Scott Dawson, frozen and soaked, showing that he obviously forgot how to hold a fish during the long off-season. Photo by: Nate Eckhaus

 

Hatches:

Ephemerella subvaria – Hendricksons – #12 & #14

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Chimmarra (little black) Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 188 cfs @ 39º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 382 cfs @ 41º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 162 cfs @ 41º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 1,080 cfs @ 41º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,660 cfs @ 43º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 564 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.9% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions April 1, 2012

Happy Opening Day! As much as I’d love to prank everyone with a photo of a Green Drake, I shall refrain. We did have large hatches of Paraleps and Hendricksons on the West Branch and Main Stem throughout the day, regardless of the cold. The activity has been consistent in one way as well – the Main Stem fish, being in colder water, have been much more sporadic and pickier then their West Branch counterparts, who fed voraciously once the water heated up in the afternoon. More rain is expected today, as well as warmer temperatures than yesterday, so we expect to see the fish get friskier – get here now!

Home Pool this morning. Photo by: Bart Larmouth

Hatches:

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Ephemerella subvaria – Hendricksons (down river) – #12 & #14

Chimmarra (little black) Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 192 cfs @ 40º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 277 cfs @ 42º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 140 cfs @ 41º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 861 cfs @ 43º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,410 cfs @ 45º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 413 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.9% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions March 31, 2011

Well, it appears I blew it with our email blast sent last night, in the fact that something happened on the West Branch that I failed to mention – HENDRICKSONS ON THE WEST BRANCH! Good hatches and good fish showed up for the first time this season. Otherwise, there mixed reports from yesterday, and while it snowed throughout the night, no accumulation to report, due to the warm ground. As for the fishing – the lower Main Stem had BLANKET hatches of Hendricksons, but sporadic and picky fish were all that were found – likely due to the colder water temps. The lower West Branch  was significantly warmer than the Main, accounting for the hatching and active fish. We’ll see what happens with the colder weather moving in.

 

A crippled female Hendrickson. Photo by: Jeff White

 

 

Hatches:

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Ephemerella subvaria – Hendricksons (down river) – #12 & #14

Chimmarra (little black) Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 192 cfs @ 40º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 283 cfs @ 44º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 143 cfs @ 44º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 795 cfs @ 45º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,300 cfs @ 47º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 381 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.9% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions March 30, 2011

Hello! Get ready, as of tomorrow, we are OPEN FOR THE SEASON! The upper reaches of the West Branch and all of the East open up on Sunday, but with how well it has been fishing we decided to open up a day early this year. It will surely be different from last year, when I was shoveling snow off the deck to open, and we didn’t see fish for two weeks into April. We are expecting some snow overnight, so there is a bit of uncertainty as to what Saturday will bring, but Sunday for sure will be good, as the temps will be back in the 60s. We still have stone fly galore, and you cant walk on the shore around home pool without crunching 20 or more Paraleps (Blue Quill). Fish have been rising all day, so I am settling back into my normal feeling of bitterness as I am now chained to the shop once more! All for  you, good readers! Also, as of tomorrow, we will FINALLY have Dark Brown Dubbing available! I will put it on the webstore shortly – sorry for those who have been waiting forever and a day for it, sourcing has been an issue, but is now resolved – just in time for the Hendricksons to pop, which they did in SPADES downriver (Long Eddy and below), and are slowly moving upstream. It’s going to be an early one! Daily updates will also commence starting, well, I guess today! Enjoy, and I look forward to seeing all of you this season!

Ken House with a CHUNK of a brown caught on the Main Stem - built more like a shad! Photo by: Jeff White

An attempt to show the width of this fish - my hand is 4.5" from that thumb to heel - he was close to 6.5" !!! Photo by: Jeff White

Hatches:

Tiny Black Stoneflies – very infrequent, #18

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Ephemerella subvaria – Hendricksons (down river) – #12 & #14

Chimmarra (little black) Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 5:00 PM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 188 cfs @ 46º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 258 cfs @ 50º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 135 cfs @ 50º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 781 cfs @ 48º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,220 cfs @ 48º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 359 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.9% –188 CFS release

WEEEEE’RRRRRE BAAAAACK!

Sorry for the downtime everyone, had some issues with our web host over the last few days, but all should be rectified! Thanks to everyone who let us know it was down, we greatly appreciate it! I’ll put a new post up later today with some pictures (and hopefully video!) if the tech Gods will it.

Delaware River Report / Conditions March 26, 2012

What a swing from the weekend to today – it’s near 40 out, with 40MPH wind gusts forcing you into a ski cap (toboggan for you Canuckistanians out there) if you want to head out. We had good hatches over the weekend, with the Paraleps and Baetis making their presence known river-wide. The fish still seemed pretty keyed in on the stone flies kicking about, but I am sure they will work that out of their system soon enough. There have been SCATTERED sightings of the OCCASIONAL Hendrickson floating around. Please notice the emphasis. They haven’t started yet, and with temperatures dropping below the 20s here tonight, it’s unlikely that they will get started in the next week. So reports you may be hearing about them being full-blown ‘on’ are hotter than the air we had here this weekend.

A Baetis vagans dun with a bit of a crippled wing. Photo by: Jeff White

Hatches:

Tiny Black Stoneflies – very infrequent, #18

Paraleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) – #16 & #18

Baetis species – #20

Chimmarra Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 183 cfs @ 43º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 283 cfs @ 49º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 156 cfs @ 49º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 940 cfs @ 51º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 1,490 cfs @ 51º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 484 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.8% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions March 22, 2012

Will someone PLEASE explain to me why I am wearing shorts in the middle of March? We are already over 70 today, and it looks like we will get to 77 or so in ambient air temp. Bugs have been reported from about 12:00 to 3:00, and our first ‘magic hour’ flush happened last night at 6:30 or so. We have a few test subjects out on the river today, so we’ll give you a report once we hear from them!

Jeff's little black stone pattern that has been uber effective. Photo by: Jeff White

What we now have in the shop (and WISH we were using!) - the SLG courtesy of Jeff White. Photo by: who else? Jeff

Hatches:

Tiny Black Stoneflies – very infrequent, #18

Baetis species – #20

Chimmarra Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 188 cfs @ 43º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 337 cfs @ 49º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 194 cfs @ 50º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 1,310 cfs @ 52º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 2,000 cfs @ 54º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 7560 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.8% –188 CFS release

Delaware River Report / Conditions March 20, 2012

It still stymies me that I am doing a river update in March, and it all revolves around the late-May-esq weather we are currently experiencing. Water temps have been jumping up above 50, so we anticipate the fish will be getting more and more active. Proof of that was Jeff White fishing Home Pool yesterday, and in a two-hour stretch caught a slew of pint-sized rainbows – which is in itself odd for this time of year. We have tons of little black stoneflies hatching, and some Chimmarra (black) caddis are starting to materialize as well. The temperature balance also helped create a bit of fog on the river yesterday – looked more like August than March. Yikes!

MARCH fog on Home Pool. Photo by: Bart Larmouth

Early black Stonefly. Photo by: Jeff White

Hatches:

Tiny Black Stoneflies – very infrequent, #18

Baetis species – #20

Chimmarra Caddis – #18 & #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 188 cfs @ 44º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 373 cfs @ 51º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 219 cfs @ 52º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 1,900 cfs @ 52º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 2,460 cfs @ 52º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 1,350 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 91.1% –188 CFS release

Last-Minute Off-Season “Fun”

The warm weather has finally gotten Jeff and I in gear, as both of our boats needed new gel coats on their respective bottoms, and shipping them to Idaho for repair seemed a bit unreasonable. The rocks in this river (and some in the mountain west for mine) took a pretty good toll on these work horses. Deep gouges and exposed glass are signs of a ‘well-loved’ boat. What ISN’T well loved – all the dust from the three hours of sanding. My hands still feel like they’re holding a orbital sander! Hopefully the good weather will prevail tomorrow and we can finish them up. Also, we will open the shop for limited hours this weekend (i.e. appointment only!) for those of you who are going to venture out. We will not be FULLY open until April 1, as usual!

Jeff sanding is Low-side while I take a break from my High-Side. Photo by: Bart Larmouth

This was just the start - I looked like an albino after awhile. Photo by: Bart Larmouth

River Report / Conditions March 14, 2012

Why, hello summer. We hit almost 70 degrees here yesterday, and the bugs were definitely responding. We had large numbers of tiny black stones, and even some super-small (#20) Baetis kicking around as well. It doesn’t seem like the trout have caught on to this fact, however. No matter how much I stared at Home Pool, the fish just didn’t seem to materialize. The water temps are still mercifully low (we don’t want everything hatching out too early!) We will see what this spate of warm weather brings over the next few days. Rain in the forecast is a  blessing as well, as it will hopefully bring the reservoir level back up, as NYC is drawing it down at a pretty good clip through the aqueducts.

Home Pool this morning. Still good and green, which = cold! Photo by: Bart Larmouth

Hatches:

Tiny Black Stoneflies – very infrequent, #18

Baetis species – #20

FLOWS AS OF 8:00 AM:
West Branch at Stilesville, NY 247 cfs @ 38º
West Branch at Hale Eddy,NY 585 cfs @ 42º
East Branch at Harvard,NY 349 cfs @ 42º
East Branch at Fish’s Eddy,NY 1,870 cfs @ 43º
Mainstem at Lordville,NY 3,000 cfs @ 46º
Beaverkill at Cooks Falls,NY 1,130 cfs @ N/A
Cannonsville Reservoir Level &Release 89.3% –224 CFS release

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