October 30, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 30, 2012

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you dealing with the effects of Sandy coming ashore. We dodged a pretty big bullet it seems up here at the club. While we eventually had winds in the 70MPH+ category rolling through, very little rain fell until early this morning, and even more amazingly, the power flashed off once or twice but managed to stay on all day and throughout the night. The rivers have bumped up slightly,but no where near the levels we saw last year from Irene. The bands of precipitation stayed mostly to our West and south during the winds, but we are definitely getting soaked today. The West Branch is clear, not quite sure how the East is fairing, as the Beaverkill likely blew out with its big overnight jump. Be safe out there today, wherever you are!

This is the lucky spot.

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18 (waning)

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)

October 29, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 29, 2012

Well, it was another crappy(oops! I mean tough, yeah, that’s the more PC word) day out there yesterday, despite some great conditions. Very few bugs on the water, and even fewer fish looking up to take them – chubs included. Not sure if they are anticipating the oncoming storm or not. Regardless, today is obviously NOT the day to be on the water. We have predicted gusts in the 60s today once we hit late afternoon, and they are likely to continue well into Halloween and beyond. Surprisingly, the rain in the forecast keeps dropping in amount that we’ll see over the next few days, so I doubt the rivers will flood dramatically. Regardless, I’ll batten down the hatches, and get the Ramen noodles ready for the inevitable power outage to come. If we still have cell service, I will post a small update tomorrow to let you know how we and the rivers fared. Be careful, and be safe!

A cool POV net shot of a nice West Branch Brown from the weekend. Photo by the angler: Michael Johnson

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18 (waning)

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)

October 28, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 28, 2012

Just a note – for some reason the blog is posting late to some people, so if you don’t see it first thing-  check back later in the day. We’re working on it!

To be totally honest (standard operating procedure on THIS blog at least), yesterday was one big disappointment. After all the anticipation and despite PERFECT weather / water conditions, we only had a brief window of activity on the water, with very few fish even taking advantage of it. That ‘activity’ lasted from about 11:30 to maybe 1:30 at the longest part, and as Jeff put it when I asked him what was hatching his response was, “Size 42 Pseudos. Oh, and we saw three isos. And one steno. And no one got eaten.” As such, I’m not optimistic about our chances today, especially considering we may have the first few winds from the “Frankenstorm” making their way to us later this afternoon. If we lose power over the next few days, I will try to continue to give river updates if possible. Since they are already staging all the PenElec trucks for a run to the cities, we may be without power for awhile up here if it hits.

Yep. This could be fun.

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18 (waning)

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)

October 27, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 27, 2012

A Storms like Hurricane Sandy is like the damn Superbowl (please don’t sue me NFL) for the Weather Channel and every other meteorologist out there. Or Apocolypse. Take your pick, and take it down a notch guys, really.  While it does look like it could bring some pretty serious weather up here, as of right now we’re “safe” until mid-Monday at the earliest. Winds are the concern, and we’re not hearing what kinds of rainfall we can expect in our area. Until then, let’s keep fishing! We had an unseasonably warm day here yesterday, and the bugs responded in kind and early – starting around 11:30 or so we had good Pseudo activity here on the lower West, and the fish were actually steady in places! The afternoon did get a little bit weird however, with certain pools (Home Pool being one) shutting down around 2:00PM, and others carrying on all the way into the evening. Today we’ve got more clouds, and even warmer temps, so the action should start early, and will hopefully continue on as it did yesterday.

After a brief hiatus look who showed up on an outside wall of the shop this morning – the Pseudos! Sorry for the lame cell-phone resolution. Photo by: Bart Larmouth

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18 (waning)

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)

October 26, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 26, 2012

Another misty, cloudy, cool day yesterday, and that’s exactly what we’re waking up to as well. The rivers continued to drop and clear throughout the day yesterday, but the slight precipitation helped to slow that fall considerably. The west saw some good Pseudo activity during the day, as well as some decent flushes of Isos and Stenos (Light Cahills) throughout the day as well. The fish are getting a bit more steady/reliable as they adjust to the ‘new’ water level. The East and Main were still a bit too off-color for decent dry-fly action yesterday, mostly likely the result of the mud coming in from the Beaverkill. Things can only get better as air temperatures improve, and cloud cover stays around. We’re looking a possibly a fantastic weekend, which we’ll need if this hurricane decides to head our way early next week!

Nice close up of a Main Stem ‘Bow. Photo: Jeff White

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18 (waning)

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)

October 25, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 25, 2012

It was dark. It was gloomy. It was even rainy at times. So yesterday was a great day to stay the hell inside and find a nice soup for lunch. That being said, it was also a pretty good streamer day judging by the folks I talked to, and the river did clear up quite a bit during the day yesterday. The misty rainy weather did have the nice bonus effect of keeping the water levels steady – good for those of you looking to float! I would guess we are pushing between 800 and 900 cfs here at the club, and the tributaries are still going strong.  We’re looking at another dark and dreary day like yesterday, so olives could absolutely be exploding out there on the water. If this storm stays away from us this weekend, we could definitely see this season go out with a bang!

Good friend of the shop Jeff Moore caught this colored-up female below Home Pool this past weekend. He apologized for taking a cell phone shot. As good a photog as he is, apology necessary and accepted. Photo: Jeff Moore

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Ephemerella invaria – Large Sulphurs / Light Cahills – #14 (waning)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)

October 24, 2012

Delaware River Report / Conditions October 24, 2012

Where was this rain in September when we really wanted/needed it? That being said, we definitely had a jump in flows, and it looked like the West Branch got the better of it for a change We crested a little bit over 800 cfs last night, and we are now dropping quickly. The rain was expected, but it wasn’t expected to dump as much as it did. The East and the Beaverkill came up slightly, and likely haven’t colored up too much – out front it looks a bit off color, but the low light this morning is making it difficult to tell exactly how turbid it really is, other than saying it’s definitely not chocolate milk, but certainly has visible staining. Great for streamers early on, and hopefully for dries if it continues to clear. We’re looking at a bit of a warm up today (Low 60s) so that will definitely help the bug situation, so long as the predicted showers remain just that – passing showers.

See? Hard to tell. Photo: Bart Larmouth

Isonychia bicolor – Isos – #12-2XL & #12 & #14

Heptagenia hebe – Olive Sulphur – #16 & #18

Pseudocloeon– Tiny BWO- #22-26

Stenonema stenocron(et al) – Light Cahill – (Male)- #14 (sporadic)

Ephemerella invaria – Large Sulphurs / Light Cahills – #14 (waning)

Hydropsyche- Tan Caddis- #18

Ryacophilia- Olive Caddis- #16

Baetis species – #18 & #20 (sporadic when cloudy)