Beaverkill / Willow

[Catskill]

<B>Todays update:</B>

The Beaverkill and Willow are still high but wadable. Don't drop your guard just yet, use a wading stick if
you have one. If you don't, you should consider one within the next budget.

This mornings water temp is currently 46 and the air is at 50. The cool air from last night actually brought a frost
to the ground. It was about 30 degrees at 8:00am.

Current Hatches: March Browns, Grey Fox, Black / Tan / Grey Caddis, black midges, sporadic sulphurs, and olives.

With no real rain in the forcast, fishing this weekend should provide good results.

 

[Dave B.]

Appreciate the update! With any luck I'll be able to make it up sometime this weekend. Early forecasts calling for some precip late Sat into early Sun. If this holds true I'll be out early Sun as I love fishing in the rain. Very few anglers and usually very actively feeding trout! Tight Lines!

 

[Caddis]

Fished the Beaverkill and the W. Branch

Last night there was a nice March Brown hatch and a tan Caddis hatch on the Beaverkill also, what appeared to be Hendricksons? A sulpher or two, Grey fox and Midges.

Friday was terrific, I was able to land plenty of nice sized browns on Brown extended body caddis flies and March Brown nymphs.

Yesterday I didn't do as well (as far as landing fish, but a great day overall). The fish were there, and taking my fly, but for some reason I had a problem with hook setting. I'd hook into a fish and a minute into the fight, he would vanish. Maybe my hooks aren't sharp enough. My version of Catch n Release.

Let me tell you about the big ones that got away. I found this big yellow stone fly in the Gorge once. Maybe a size 1. So like a dope, I tie this on with 6x tippet material. First cast I get this hit and whooops... there goes my fly. The unsharpened hooks might be ok for Gorge fish, but not for 18" + fish you're catching in the Beaverkill.

Missed quite a few fish on the West Branch at Hale Eddy. The water was extremely low. So low that you could basically pick a spot and walk from one side to the other without having to worry about tripping and getting more than your knees wet. On the brighter side, there were plenty of fish to be caught, but they all appeared to be 1 timers. They would come up for my fly 1 time and that would be the last I saw of them. Ohh well, maybe next time.

I stopped by the Willow yesterday morning, and it was packed but saw no action, fish or insects.

I'll post some photo's when I get them developed.