Posted on May 05 2022
With the weekend coming up, thought it might be helpful to try to bring you up to date on river conditions. The freestones (BR, BK and BE) have all had Hendricksons for over a week. The Apple Caddis are hatching throughout the BE and I assume on the BR. I haven't seen them on the BK.
When the spills stopped on the UEB and the WB the water temps plunged and the hatches slowed. The reservoirs are now below the lip of the spillways enough that NYC will almost certainly begin to reduce the releases and when they do there will be a bug explosion on both the UEB and WB.
The fishing - The BK and EB went from easy pickin's to - Why won't they eat my Hendrickson?, in less than a week. Why? The drift boats give no fish a free pass, they are all within reach. By last Saturday most of the fish I was catching had hook marks in their mouth. By Monday the fish were reluctant to eat a Hendrickson. If you are fortunate enough to be on the UEB or WB "when it happens", it should be great fishing. If, however, you are a few days late, expect to earn every fish.
The bugs - There are still paraleps. Don't be afraid to use them. Hendrickson shy fish will switch back to paraleps because there are far fewer hooks in them. By all means use Hendricksons on the UEB and WB if the bugs come. On the freestones you will do better to mix things up. There are several types of caddis on the water, give 'em a try. If it's warm there are also sure to be spinner falls of both may flies and caddis.
Now is the best time of year to catch big fish. They are up gorging on both the mayflies and caddis. Check your terminal tackle often for knots and frayed spots. I lost a good one tonight when I didn't take the time to change a frayed tippet. Wade carefully, the flows are still high and be courteous to everyone, it's going to be crowded.
Sorry for the dumb question, but what is the BE and BR? I assume BK is the Beaverkill.
Thanks,
Mark
Angler119. Great to hear from you again . Thanks for the update . Fished the Willow last Monday-miserable weather-managed three nice “holdover” fish on Hendricksons around 5:00. Fished again Thursday mostly stockers??Still great fun . Hope to hear more from you in the future. Ed Smith
Great to see you haven’t totally hung it up. Always love to read your blog. Please keep on keeping on.
This is a great snapshot and I appreciate the time and experience you put into this summary. Hope you add further snapshots/forecasts during the year.
Sincerely,
HydeLowRider.
https://twitter.com/HydeLowRider
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Perhaps one of John Gierach’s characters of the time summed it up the best:
“This character, Koke Winter, had a broken leg but was holed up at a ski lodge.
When someone asked him if he’d broken the leg while skiing, he grumped, "
I don’t go in for them sissy sports; I’m a fly-fisherman."
Very Helpful. Thank you!
I apologize for the poor writting and grammar. I didn’t proof read before I sent it.
I had a pretty good day Wednesday on the BK. Missed three, few refusals, but did land three. I’m not sure if they were this year’s stocked fish or holderovers, both had damaged fins, but they didn’t pull like a stocked fish. One was or seemed to be wild and in very good shape. 14-16 inches for all. I believe they were grannoms, black with tannish wings. There were fish rising right up until the mergansers came through. Those ducks eat a ton of fish!! A buddy ofine is biologist for the DEC, he says they made their way down to the rivers when the addirondacks waters were frozen late in the year a fews ago. Also he said they will be absolutely problematic for the fishery, adults eat their body weight in fish a day and the ducklings as soon as they hit a month or two old do the same, because there are predators for them in the rivers. In the Addirondacks pike, bass, large pickerel will eat the young in water, and other predators will raid nest keeping them in check. I did a proposal for a class on the benefit of the Deleware system and ways to improve it, I have to remember to print it and drop it off to Dave.