When the hendrickson hatch is in full swing, there’s no river I’d rather fish than the West Branch of the Delaware.  The WBD is a bug factory.  This river provides a substantial emergence of hendricksons, along with other tasty insect species for trout.  Prolific hatches produce trophy trout.  Few rivers in the East rival the biomass of insects that are available on the West Branch.  Even fewer waters produce so many 18″ plus wild trout.  Still, it’s not a river without complications and a myriad of challenges for the angler.    The insects and fish are there, catching them is another matter!

To cap off Spring Break I managed an overnight trip to the West Branch of the Delaware.  I invited a wonderful father and son duo from church to join me.  They are eager fly fishers, having taken up the sport several years ago.  It was their first trip to the Upper Delaware River System.  We stayed at the West Branch Angler Resort  and spent a day and a half fishing the Lower East Branch, the West Branch Angler Resort water and the Special Regulations/Trophy water on the West Branch.  The father managed three quality fish nymphing riffles.  The son experienced success as he hooked a couple of nice fish using a Quill Gordon or his personally tied Antron Rusty Spinner.  He didn’t get them to net, but it was a positive start by reading the rise form, selecting the appropriate fly pattern, casting, mending, executing the drag free drift and picking up the slack line in time to hook the trout.  Just deceiving  these wild, wary fish to take in low, slow water conditions deserves recognition.  I’ve witnessed plenty of anglers experience less catching success on their first foray to the WBD.  Well done for a first time trip to  the Upper Delaware System!

I redeemed myself from my last trip to the WBD.  Experience and stealth sure help on this river.  Each day I landed several fish in the upper teens.  My largest was a measured 20″ brown trout that gobbled a Foam Shell Hair Wing Rusty Spinner, size # 16.  Even landing a few nice fish, it’s tough not to feel like the river has the upper hand right now.  It is highly challenging to catch them.  The bugs are there, but so is the incessant wind, the low flow and heightened selectivity and wariness of the WBD trout.  On Thursday, we saw minor white caps on the West Branch during the hendrickson hatch.  That shuts down 98% of the dry fly fishing.  Heavy wind gusts deter rising trout.  It’s tough to master dry fly fishing with 20 mph gusts.  Another complication is that the low flow rate of 270 cfs makes for exceptionally spooky trout.  A year ago when I fished the WBD it was flowing at 1,600 cfs (Like most anglers, I’m concerned about the low water, lack of rain and forecast for warmer temperatures).  Low water may bunch up trout and move them to particular stretches of river, but they are also more well sensitive to out of water threats.  Loud talking, foot steps, boots scraping or a minimal wake puts down feeding trout.  I didn’t see as many shallow bank feeders this trip.  Most times, they appeared to prefer the comfort of deeper water.  Another complication to catching these fish is the quantity of insects available.  Apple caddis, early black stoneflies, yellow stoneflies, blue quills, blue winged-olives and hendricksons are all on the menu.  You have to determine which insect and what stage of the hatch these fish prefer.  Couple the sheer number of insects on the water with gusty wind, inconsistent risers, low water and spooky trout, and you have a perfect angling scenario for technical, dry fly fishing.

If you fish you are an optimist.  That’s good, because you need a healthy dose of optimism to be successful during tough conditions on the West Branch.  There are angling tricks and strategies that you may employ to increase your hook up possibilities.  A few dry fly tactics for this technical tail water include:

• Avoid entering the water or wade even slower than a heron.  If you can cast to a fish from land, do it.  Keep your rod tip low, stay low and avoid lining the fish.  Even one extra false cast might alarm these fish.
• Wear drab, dull clothing.  Multiple times, we spooked fish merely by walking on the road above the river.  Bright colors, sudden movement or casting shadows can all be avoided.  During low water and with bright sun, these fish have a wide cone of vision to detect potential threats.
• Position yourself upstream and to the side of the fish.  This position allows you to make a fly first presentation, keeping the tippet above the fly.  You want the fish to see the fly first, not your leader.  I like to drop the fly 8′ to 10′ above the feeding fish, straighten/mend my drift so that the fly is lined up to drift directly into the fish, fly first.  As your fly drifts, purposefully point your rod tip at the water and gently shake out coils of line to feed and extend the drift.  If the fish doesn’t take, let your fly gently drift well beyond and then it will swing to the side.  Gently pick up or twitch/retrieve your fly, taking care not to spook or line the fish.
• Maintain patience, observe the fish and determine if it have a feeding pattern, what it is feeding on and when is the optimal moment to manage a presentation.  You may need to cast between the narrow window of calmness, when the wind doesn’t blow.  I like to cast to a feeding fish when the feeding ring is still visible.  The rings of the rise form may  reduce the fish’s cone of visibility.  The fish is also returning to a holding position before the next feed, so your cast has the potential to be less noticed.
• If you have placed 5 or 6 accurate, drift free casts on an actively feeding fish, change patterns.  Select a fly with a different profile, color variation, smaller/larger size, etc.  A larger pattern may be exactly what is needed to command the trout’s attention during a heavy hatch period.  Continue to study the rise form of the trout.  Or, simply seine the surface of the water to determine what insect/stage is being consumed.
• Go for that most active, aggressive fish.  Those are the ones that are more likely to inhale your offering.  If you are within casting distance of several feeding fish, opt for the most active of the bunch.  That fish is more likely to be a player and take your fly.
• Fish as long a leader as you may comfortably cast.  I’m already using a 16′ – 6x fluorocarbon leader.  If you have the good fortune to hook a fish, let it run.  Gently let the fish pull out any spare line and calmly fight the fish from the reel.  These are strong, acrobatic and heavy shouldered fish that will gradually wear down w/ consistent,  lateral rod pressure.

Finally, I wanted to share an ugly angling incident that I witnessed firsthand.  On Friday, I was one of three men fishing a 200 yard stretch of the Special Regulations Area.  Two fellow fly fishers approached from above and they were heading to a rocky gravel point, well below where anyone else was fishing.    Observing that these two men were heading to the rocky gravel point, the two fisherman near me, abruptly reeled in and noisily waded across and downstream the long pool.  They intended to cut the new arrivals off at the rocky gravel point, at the other side of the river.  These two rude wading anglers put down my fish, spooked all fish within several hundred yards and intentionally blocked out the new arriving fly fishers.   It was a boorish, inconsiderate, unethical angling act and I’m surprised that only a few minor words were exchanged.  We all love to fish and want to catch fish.  That’s not an excuse to ruin fishing for others or to purposefully cut off a fellow angler.  We can all do our part in sharing the resources, promoting ethical angling and maintaining the integrity of our beloved sport.  A little consideration and communication can go a long way.  If those aggressive wading anglers had of shared or held back, there likely would have been more rising trout for all parties to share.  Let’s continue to do our part to promote good will and friendship among anglers!

On Good Friday a friend and I fished the Upper Delaware River System.  The conditions weren’t ideal, but it was our only chance to fish.  We decided to make the lengthy car trip, despite an unfavorable forecast.  There was a heavy frost the previous night and it took hours for things to warm up.  The high temperature for the day barely reached fifty.  There was also a steady stream of wind, with gusts up to 25 mph.  Finally, the water was super low on the West Branch, flowing around 280 cfs.  So why would we make this multiple hour trip with poor conditions?  In a word, bugs.  The mayflies still hatched and trout found ways to feed on them.

Figuring that there wouldn’t be much surface action until late morning (when the air temperature warmed up sufficiently), we selected a spot on the Lower East Branch to nymph.  It was 37 degrees when we started nymphing.  Within his first five casts, my friend hooked a hot rainbow that raced downstream.  He lost it after a minute, but it was a promising start.  Within another ten minutes, he landed a foul-hooked rainbow.  At least they were interested.  Over the next hour plus, he fairly landed another 15″ rainbow that put forth an admirable fight.  Those Delaware System rainbows sure are fighters.  I struck out nymphing this gorgeous pocket water.  There was a rare splashy caddis rise or two, but nothing consistent.  The only consistent aspect was the growing gusts of wind and the chill we felt wading deep across this run.  Even with thermals underneath, I felt cold after a few minutes of deep wading.

It was nearing noon and we decided to leave the East Branch to prospect the Upper West Branch.  We selected a stretch in the Trophy Regulations Area.  We had the entire pool to ourselves.  In years of fishing this stretch, I’ve never witnessed it so low nor seen the rocky gravel bars as exposed.  For an hour and a half, we looked, observed and hoped for bugs or rising fish.  Again, the only thing steady was the wind.  We decided to bail out before 2 pm and drove downstream towards the PA Gamelands.  The Upper and Lower Gamelands appeared to be happening places, as there were half a dozen cars parked in each lot.  If you fished the Oatka recently and counted the 22 angler cars present, those 6 cars might not seem like much.  Still, we wanted more space and drove to the lower river, aiming to find fewer anglers.  We ended up below Balls Eddy and enjoyed a 300 yard stretch of river to ourselves.  Around 2:30 pm, flotillas of blue quills started to appear.  They were soon joined by decent numbers of hendricksons.  This was what we drove for.  Except, there weren’t surface feeders.  We waited, observed, walked and never saw consistent risers.  The wind picked up some more.

We knew that all these mayflies were floating downstream.  So, we drove another 2 miles downstream.  It was out best decision of the day.  We found a lower river spot with a few anglers, but plenty of space to spread out.  Around 3:30, blue quills heavily emerged, along with some hendricksons.  It was windy, but there were a couple of current seams out of the wind that trout managed to feed.  Our newest problem was the selectivity of the trout.  There were so many darn blue quills on the water that your fly was hugely outnumbered.  I missed two and managed to land a strong 11″ rainbow.  It appeared that they were feeding on blue quill cripples or emergers, along with the sporadic hendrickson.

Fellow anglers wrapped it up around 6pm and we had a large stretch of water to ourselves.  I started scouting behind series of boulders that provided shelter from the wind.  If the wind didn’t blow to heavily, there were some snouts gulping the significant biomass of bugs floating in the film.  They were also exceptionally selective and easily spooked.  Loud talking put them down, heavy footsteps put them down, gentle wading put them down and any poor presentation spooked them out of the shallow water.  In many instances, I was only afforded one or two drifts, before spooking a fish.  Even attempting to time a feeding fish and employing a 16′ 6x flourocarbon leader, I managed to botch fish after fish.  It’s rare that I don’t stick fish on my rusty spinner patterns.  I called my friend over and he managed to easily hook and land a nice 19″ brown that was feeding out from the bank, away from the back eddy/not near boulders.  Sometimes it’s all about being in the right place at the right time.  I’m glad that he got one, because those guys sure got the best of me.  Still, it’s always a pleasure to sight fish to large snouts and to enjoy a major hatch.  The Delaware System is a bug factory for a reason.  If you go, bring your A+ Angling Game and hope that the wind blows less.  As for me, I can’t wait for my next trip to the West Branch.  I’ve got some angling redemption on my mind…

The recent exit of Syracuse University in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament put me in a funk that only fishing could cure.  My sympathetic wife, an SU grad, understood my grief.  It was a magical hoops season that ended short of the Final Four.  I’m proud of the SU crew and all the obstacles they overcame.  Still, the sting of just missing the Big Dance in New Orleans hurt.  Spending a quality day fishing was a sure remedy for March Madness Blues.

My plan was to target steelhead in the morning and fish the hendrickson hatch in the afternoon.  With all the warm weather we’ve experienced, Spring was popping along at a remarkable clip.  During the previous warm spell I’d heard reports of stellar steelhead fishing, as well as the start of our seasonal mayflies.  My only steelheading dilemma was which tributary to fish.  Ultimately, I opted to fish a local tributary East of Monroe County.  My spin fishing friend fished this same stretch less than two days before.  He talked about over a dozen hook ups, acrobatic, line breaking steelhead and the difficulty of landing these torpeedos.  I laughed at his inability to land the majority of fish hooked and chalked it up to angling error .  Little did I know that my turn would come and there were factors for those lost fish.

I arrived at a local tributary at dawn and was glad to see no cars.  Immediately, I noticed waking fish moving up and down a long run that ended in a logjam.  Whatever fish were in this 40 yard stretch of creek appeared active.  I roll cast a hot bead black soft hackle steamer and solicited my first response on the third cast.  It was tough not to notice the take, as my line quickly tightened and the rod jumped forward in my hand.  I managed to beach this 22″ steelhead as it shook my hook.  Next, I moved 20 yards upstream and cast again.  As my streamer swung mid current, it was smashed.  I pulled tight and promptly popped my 8 lb flourcarbon tippet.  Over the next fifteen minutes, I either lost or broke off several more fish.  It was my turn to reflect on my lousy landing percentage of fish.  These fish were so hot and aggressive, I now empathized with my friend’s misfortune of lost fish. I also reflected that it was time to make some adjustments.

I clipped my leader, tied on new 12 lb flourocarbon and opted for a hot bead, white soft hackle streamer.  Within a few casts, I landed another mid-sized steelhead.  Over the course of two plus hours, I hooked 10 steelhead on streamers and landed five of them.  One bright fish was landed fishing upstream, while the rest were on the swing across the creek channel, or against structure/brush.  There was a pod of suckers spawning in the middle of the run and I think that it made these fish even more aggressive.  My best fish was an elegant 31″ drop back female hen, post spawn.  She was long and thin, clearly lacking eggs and looking to feed.  To hook ten fish in slightly over two hours is stellar.   I was sated with steelhead.  It was not even 9 am and I turned my thoughts to dry fly fishing.

Minutes later, I was winding my way below Route 104 to connect to the NYS Thruway.  I’d heard that there were hendricksons on the Lower West Branch of the Delaware River, as well as the Main Stem of the Delaware River.  What’s  a three hour drive when you can fish a nice mayfly hatch on the surface?  I stopped by West Branch Anglers Resort and chatted with Sam B.  I also dropped off a few nice gourmet cookies, intended as a small measure of gratitude to the WBAR crew.  Over the course of a season, they put up with my inquisitive phone calls about angling conditions.  Truth be told, I wouldn’t have made the drive if Sam hadn’t provided his candid appraisal of how things were fishing.  I trust the WBAR crew to be fair and measured about conditions, not inflating the fish catching.  Some chunky molasses and peanut butter cookies were the least I could offer.  Besides, I needed to pick up some new flotant.  West Branch Anglers Resort  is a shop that sells Tiempco Dry Magic Fly Flotant, truly super stuff.

Since it wasn’t yet April 1st, I couldn’t legally fish in NYS.  I opted to fish the PA Gamelands.  There were only two other cars in the parking lot.  I arrived to the River before 1pm, it was still sunny and there was a slight breeze.  I hiked down the trail and soon beheld this crown jewel of a fishery.  Not to my surprise, there was a 18″ plus feeding brown with a few feet of the foot path, tucked behind the slack water of a boulder.  That feeding brown made the drive worthwhile.   I enjoyed sitting down, watching it feed as I rigged my 5 weight.  Eventually, I tired of watching it and was ready to time and place my cast.  The fish appeared to be feeding in an oval pattern, rising 2-3 times every 30 seconds.  I crept into position, timed my cast and dropped a nice hendrickson emerger into the feeding lane.  That darn fish few on another natural, within inches of my pattern.  My fly/presentation was scorned several times.  Eventually, I lined the fish and it bolted out of the shallow water.  Not the ending I imagined, but it sure was nice to see a surface feeding fish.

Over the course of the next five hours I landed two browns and one rainbow.  My best trout was a 19″ brown that slurped down a rusty spinner imitation.  All fish came on dry flies.  Honestly, I expected to do better.  There was minimal angling pressure and I had hundreds of yards of river to myself.  There were a few # 14 hendricksons, several early black stoneflies #14-#16, the odd caddis and a healthy hatch of mahogany duns # 16 to # 18.  I suppose they are more accurately called blue quills, but the body sure looked mahogany to me.  There seemed to be enough bugs.  The problem was that the fish wouldn’t rise with any consistency and the wind picked up throughout the afternoon.  If the wind stopped, a fish might rise once, then not again for several minutes or more.  The water was barely at 300 cfs and they were also super spooky.  Even wading cautiously, I put fish down.  It was a surprise to witness  WBD trout this selective this early on, as well as easily spooked.  Still, I’ll take 3 decent WBA trout on a dry fly in March!  Overall, it’s tough to complain with the bountiful angling that NYS afforded me this fine Spring day.  Steelhead in the morning and surface feeding trout to mayflies in the afternoon.  My guess is that few states boast the same combination.  Get on the water, enjoy Spring and may you dream of mayflies!

On Tuesday, November 15th I’m presenting for our local Chapter of Trout Unlimited.  Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited is the Rochester based Chapter that meets at Gander Mountain (300 Jay Scutti Boulevard – Rochester, NY 14623  (585) 424-4100).  There is a fly tying demonstration that begins at 7pm, followed by the business meeting at 7:30pm.  My presentation should begin shortly after the business meeting.

The topic is Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River.  I’ve prepared a neat compilation of photos, videos, seasonal observations, entomology, flies and overall observations that should help the fly fisher be more successful at this challenging tail water.  I’ll share specific WBD strategies and will reference plenty of hours spent fishing this awesome fishery.  My favoritism and bias towards this river will likely come out.  If you are a trout fisherman and don’t get excited about 20″ plus browns on dry flies, then your angling pulse requires attention.  The WBD is capable of trophy trout, as well as epic rejections.  This presentation should generate  good discussion regarding selective trout strategies.  Come join me on the 15th to learn more about this fishery, or to talk about catching wary trout.

Timing is everything on the West Branch of the Delaware.  If I manage a trip to the WBD in late August,  I try to coincide my fishing time with overcast conditions.  The absence of bright sun and heat seem to improve the quality of the blue-wing olive hatch.  While some might favor heat and sun for the diminutive WBD trico hatch for an August morning, I prefer to  fish the olive hatch.  Heavy cloud cover or even damp, drizzly conditions are ideal for these baetis mayflies.  Olives still hatch on sunny days, but trout feed more aggressively on olives during overcast conditions.  As such, it’s important to monitor the forecast and optimize conditions that present sloppy weather, and in turn, beneficial olive scenarios.

A friend and I managed to clear our calendar for a day trip to the WBD.  Based on the projected weather model, we planned ahead and selected the most cloudy, least sun friendly day.  To be honest, we selected a dark, damp, rainy and soggy day.  It was pretty iffy fishing weather.  It rained, drizzled, blew wind, rained more, showed some distant sun, then rained some more.  It was an exercise in securing the hood on my rain jacket every few minutes, in between bursts of rain.  At one point it rained buckets and I thought I was going to next see cats and dogs dropping from the sky.  I suppose all this may have something to do pre-conditions of a Hurricane named “Irene”!

At one point, the heavy rain interrupted what looked to be a promising olive hatch.  Between the heavy downpour and spooky lightening, we had to seek refuge on the bank of the river.  I was forced to abandon our position at the tail out.  Minutes before this gully washer, a large brown took up position in a foot of water, at the very tail out of the pool.  It was beginning to comfortably feed and I had just moved into position.  I was on my third pattern change with this beautiful fish, when the next rainstorm moved through and shut things down.  Unfortunately, I never saw that same fish rise again.  I’ve never seen small trout rise in that particular spot and was disappointed to not spend more time targeting that gorgeous fish.

Once the final rain stopped around 5pm, we actually enjoyed a two hour window of a minor olive hatch.  There were size # 20′s and #24′s on the water, with trout sporadically consuming emergers/cripples.  I witnessed very few duns eaten, with the huge majority ignored.  My best fish was a 17″ to 18″ brown that ate a #18 deer hair wing rusty spinner.  I missed several more and wasted too much time on smaller fish.  It’s tough to ignore a close, rising 14″ fish in favor of targeting larger fish.  I managed four browns for the day, all on my high-vis, rusty deer hair spinner pattern.  In hindsight, I should have experimented more with olive nymphs and various olive cripples/emergers.

That said, I still managed several fish despite unfavorable conditions.  Wind, heavy periods of rain, constant fog and poor visibility were all limiting factors during this trip.  The morning trico hatch was sparse and we only observed small fish feeding.  Rain, wind and heavy fog shut down any decent sight fishing for the majority of the day.  Late afternoon when the weather finally broke, we enjoyed two solid hours of olives.  It wasn’t a heavy olive hatch and I never saw constant gulpers.  Regardless, it was nice to see fish feeding on the surface, stick a few and miss a few more.  Between now and Fall, the olive hatch is likely to pick up on the WBD.  If you have confidence in your olive patterns and like to fish a fine and long leader, give the WBD olive hatch a try over the next month or so.  The crowds are gone, the trout healthy, the 600 plus cfs water level ideal for wading and you should catch a decent olive hatch.  If you want to improve your odds, check the long term forecast and plan your trip on an overcast day.

My cousin and his pre-teen son recently took up fly fishing.  They live in Massachusetts  and we hadn’t yet enjoyed the opportunity to fish together.  We agreed that it would be nice to take an overnight fishing trip and decided upon the West Branch of the Delaware River.  I was confident that I could guide them to a trout or two.  Our only free time was mid-August.  No worries, as we would still have bugs and I reassured them that we could fool a few trout, right?  Heck, my cousins fishing goal was to land one trout.  That seemed pretty silly to me, as I was prepared to help him tangle with multiple fish.  Well, the WBD sure was stingy and fickle.  It stymied them and me as a guide!

They hooked several fish, but weren’t able to bring any to net.  There were minimal tricos and the fish weren’t rising to them.  We didn’t witness any sulphers upstream and the touted olives showed up in minute numbers.  The surface fishing was as slow as I’ve seen in years.  There wasn’t any evening spinner fall and the trout never comfortably fed on the surface.  Insect activity and surface feeding had been good, up until the previous few days.  When you don’t have bugs hatching on the WBD, you don’t have rising fish.  We talked with fellow anglers and they got blanked, or managed a tiny dink.  I know of a full day guide/float trip that yielded two small rainbows over the course of the entire day.  Things were slow.

My plan was to swing soft hackles in the riffles and pick up acrobatic rainbows.  Well, the rainbows weren’t  cooperative.  We pounded three stellar riffles and barely earned a strike.  An advantage of fishing in August is that you have long stretches of water to yourself.  For tactics, I had them fish two weighted soft hackles (#12 & #16 sizes) on a long leader and they covered plenty of water.  One riffle gave up four hook-ups, but each fish became unbuttoned for our fledgling anglers.  I even swung soft hackles and only managed two rainbows, after hours of prospecting.  It wasn’t fishing well.  When we compared notes, fellow anglers reported similar conditions.  Just before my cousin and his son arrived, I fished a stretch and picked up two browns on a spinner pattern.  That was my only promising dry fly fishing over the course of nearly two days.  It seems like the stellar hatches of the spring and early summer are taking a break.  Once nights begin to cool off, olives should pick up.

Despite the slow fishing, w didn’t give up and enjoyed the overall experience.  We lifted up rocks and studied aquatic insects.  We fished a warm water pond and practiced casting.  We tied a few knots and looked for wildlife.  Perhaps the most fun activity was introducing a ten year old to fly tying.  He was a quick study and enjoyed making his own wooly buggers.  Fly tying with kids is a great back up activity when the fishing is slow.  He may not have caught a WBD trout, but I think he’s already looking forward to tying his next fly!

After a self imposed two week hiatus from the West Branch of the Delaware, I longed to return.  The calendar said it was July.   I reasoned there wasn’t a better way to start July 4th Weekend than tangle with wily WBD browns.  I invited my brother along and he was a good sport to join me.  Although he also grew up with a fly rod in his hand, he is less addicted about our quiet sport.  Still, he enjoys fly fishing and we relish opportunities to spend time on the water.  We take our kids fishing, but rarely have a chance for both of us to fish alone.  So, it was a brotherly treat to share this fine fishery together.  He had never fished the WBD.  He loved the scenery, the quantity of bugs, the visible risers, the screeching eagle perched above us in a tree, the serenity of wading and the chance to relax on the water.  He was also thankful that I reminded him to wear thermal underwear, as the water temp was in the upper forties.  Even on warm days of Summer, the WBD (being a dam release fishery) runs cold.

On the drive down, I talked about specifics of this fishery and techniques that might help us.  It’s tough to impress upon a casual angler, or a WBD rookie, the complexities of this river.  Add in the fact that it is July (more pressured fish, longer leaders required, stealthier approach needed, more discriminatory trout, algae in the water, etc), and the  deck is stacked against the non-exacting angler.  The WBD in July does not suffer angling fools easily.  He managed to hook two fish over the course of fishing several hours.  He landed one small brown (hooray) and experienced many refusals.  We enjoyed a decent sulpher hatch (size #18) that was intermittent between 1pm and 8pm.  Around 5pm a wave of blue winged olives emerged (size #22) and there was a limited spinner fall towards dusk.  We also saw the odd isonychia (size #10) prominently floating on the surface.  I witnessed some of the smaller browns eat isonychia duns.

As for pressure and being the 4th of July Weekend, it wasn’t very bad.  One stretch had an armada of drift boats and pontoon boats that departed by late afternoon.  For many hours, we enjoyed hundreds of yards of river to ourselves.  I managed half a dozen smaller browns, no pigs.  There are plenty of 6″ to 14″ fat, happy browns in the WBD.  I broke off one large bank feeder and never stuck a large snout this trip.  Those easier to catch trophy browns in May and early June are now wily, selective, easily spooked fish.  I fished a 17′ 6x flourocarbon leader and found it impossible to mend enough, or preserve a drag free drift on numerous occasions.  Add in floating slop, competition from naturals, complex currents, fish that are keyed in on one specific stage of an insect, and you have a technical fishing challenge.  At this point, they have consumed thousands of sulpher emergers and know what a legitimate mayfly emerger looks like.  Their feeding is very specialized and there is less need to break the surface for a natural.  Each rise is an economy of motion.  These fish easily bolt and will shut down with reckless wading.  Hefty browns flee their comfortable feeding stations on seam lines/current edges/shallow water banks if they sense an unfamiliar wake, or get lined by the errant leader.  Any unnatural drift puts them down. Algae dragging across a leader has the potential to spook them.  Despite these factors, it is still one of the most spectacular wild trout fisheries in the East.  My advice is to fish it any time you can.  Each trip makes you a better angler and the vistas are superb.  As for me, I’m already anxious to get back to the West Branch of the Delaware.  After his first experience, I bet that my brother will also jump at the chance to fish the WBD again.

If you have faith in your favorite fishery, good things tend to happen.  Such is the case on the West Branch of the Delaware River.  High water, heavy wind, and cool temperature put a damper on early season wade fishing.  Recently, conditions improved as warm, stable weather coincided nicely with the start of sulpher season.  Late May or early June, sulphers begin emerging on the Delaware River System in prolific numbers.  Experienced WBD anglers place faith in this quality hatch and count upon the fishery to provide outstanding dry fly action.

Between coaching, teaching and a young family, it’s been hard to find time to manage a day trip to the WBD.  Over the past eight days, friends provided tantalizing, stellar reports of superb dry fly fishing.  March browns, cornutas, baetis, green drakes, brown and tan caddis, light cahills and beloved sulphers were emerging.  When a friend reports landing and measuring four browns between 20″ to 23″, he is likely to quickly grab your attention.  That’s how good this place fished recently.  Based upon previous experience, I knew that this particular convergence of bugs creates some exceptional sight fishing for large snouts.  It’s almost as if the normally shy WBD browns, lose a degree of caution  and become “sulpher silly”.  There is week to two week window at the start of each sulpher season, when these persnickety fish let down their guard and feed with less abandon.  Sulpher silly sipping browns are easier to catch.  The only emergence possibly better is the start of the hendrickson hatch in early May.  For me, early June has repeatedly afforded great moments of sight fishing large WBD browns.  Finding time to make the trip was my obstacle.

After juggling schedules and commitments, I was recently able to make it on the water  by 2pm.  There were 15 angler cars at the state parking lot.  I opted to hike upstream.  There were size #18 cornutas on the water, sporadic tan caddis, the odd march brown #12 and a few sulphers #16.  I carefully approached the tail out of a large flat and gently waded above and across a pair of rising fish.  I checked my 16′ 6x tapered fluorocarbon leader and tied on an antron cornuta emerger pattern.  After several refusals, I rested the fish and opted to tie on a sulpher emerger.  About the same time, a fellow angler came sloshing upstream, sending a wake and putting down these fish.  These browns may be what I call “sulpher silly”, but they aren’t fools to sloppy wading.  I chose not to say anything to the fellow angler and instead, invited him to fish for the risers above me.  Next, I carefully waded to the far shore and set up above a different feeding fish.  I made a 40′ reach mend cast downstream, continued to feed line to ensure a drift free presentation and watched the snout poke through to intercept my sulpher emerger.  I lifted tight and let the brown charge downstream.  Two minutes later, I admired a beautiful 17″ brown and gently released it.

Over the next few hours, I landed several more fish, up to 21″.  All fish were caught on sulpher patterns.  Some were landed in side channels, others in the main channel.  All were browns that I identified, crept up on, got into position and worked a nice presentation to.  I’m saddened to confess that I lost as many fish due to angler error.  The pattern wasn’t as important, as was the presentation.  The best fish came towards dark, within four feet of the bank.  The white snout came up, engulfed the fly and we were off to the races.  Larger bank feeders tend to move closer to shore when the insects are heaviest, towards dusk.  Mending, ensuring drag free drifts and timing your presentation are critical.  The reward, a hefty, acrobatic sulpher sipping brown.  The only drawback from this experience was an aggressive bout of poison ivy that I caught while bushwhacking back to the car.  My hands still itch as I type this!

Over the past three weeks I’ve closely monitored the USGS Water Flow for the West Branch of the Delaware River.   It’s been plenty high this season.  Wading has been limited and it’s been tricky to catch this superb fishery just right.  This is the first year in many, that I haven’t spent a number of days already fishing the WBD.  When I observed the cfs close to 1,500, I knew it was time to make a trip.

A friend and I drove down for some late afternoon fishing.  It was hot, humid, sunny and we were sweating in our breathable waders.  Reports had indicated fish feeding on the surface early and late.  We arrived to the Upper WBD around 4pm and didn’t observe any risers.  Not to worry, fellow anglers and the local fly shop told us that things get going between 6pm to 9pm.  We sat along a grass point that provided an excellent view of river.  For two hours we relaxed, enjoyed an early supper and scanned the water for risers.  No such luck.  Somehow, the trout ignored their alleged heavy feeding period set to begin at 6pm.  Around 7pm, we noticed a few splashy risers, along with several sulphers on the surface.  Better late than never!

I opted to move upstream.  My intention was to target large, shallow water, bank feeding browns.  Over the next two hours, I never saw the large snouts, consistent risers, nor conveyor belt feeding pig browns that I hoped to tangle with.  I managed four mid-sized browns on a sulpher cripple and then a rusty spinner.  Yet, I was surprised that there weren’t any pig browns (19″ to 22″) that the WBD so generously blesses us anglers with.  Perhaps the flow had these fish off, or  perhaps it was the heat.  Another probable reason was that there was limited insect activity.  The march brown emergence was fading and we only saw a few few of them.  Meanwhile, the  sulpher hatch was  just starting and not heavy in numbers.  Over the years I’ve caught numerous large fish along that grassy bank and know the potential of the fishery.  For some reason that afternoon/early evening, large snouts never  showed where I was fishing.

My friend fished downstream and enjoyed better results in the glassy pool where he fished.  He managed eight fish, several in the upper teens.  All caught on a sulpher compara dun.  Speaking of sulphers, they are starting to come off strong in many creeks.  Go enjoy that hatch and stay on the water  until you can’t see.  Some of the best action (spinner fall) occurs towards dark.  This will be especially the case if we continue with bright sun and hot days.  As for me, I’m already planning my next WBD and can’t wait to try out some new sulpher patterns!

For several weeks I’d been planning a Labor Day escape to fish the West Branch of the Delaware River.  Over the years, I’ve enjoyed solid Labor Day angling conditions on the West Branch.  Consistent olives, isonychias, light cahils and streamers were typically on the menu.  Uncrowded water was another bonus.  In addition, fishing the WBD over Labor Day is symbolically sentimental.   It marks the end of summer fishing and ushers in the start of the school year (a return to teaching/coaching).  Truthfully, I find it tough to leave that river, no matter how well or poorly it fishes.

This year, Mother Nature threw us a few challenges and we only fished the WBD for a day.  The Cannonsville Reservoir  turned over a few days ago, releasing chocolate, turbid water through the West Branch.  The water release also increased from 500 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 1,1oo cfs.  Finally, Hurricane Earl added to the mix by contributing blowing winds all day.  The forecast called for gusts up to 43 mph.

We rented a driftboat from West Branch Angler’s Resort and floated the approximate 7 mile trip from Stilesville (below the wier) to the resort property, below Hale Eddy Bridge.  During our entire float, we didn’t witness another bank fly fisherman.  Our only other company was a fellow drift boat.  Our strategy was to pound the banks w/ streamers the entire float.  We rigged a 7wt and 8wt w/ a sink tip and experimented w/ various streamers all day.  All told, we landed two browns, the largest 21″.  There was a rocky bank that produced several strikes within a 100 yard stretch, but most of the river blanked us.  Sparse streamers, buggy streamers, massive articulated streamers, varying retrieves, dark and light colors, were all part of our arsenal.  Clousers were the fly that produced most interest.  We only observed four rises during the entire float and minimal insect activity.  With the discolored water, the fish had 15″ or so of visibility.  While the wind wasn’t as bad as we expected, we think the turbid water hurt our quality fishing.  If we were to repeat that day under similar conditions, I would increase the length of our float and concentrate streamers on the rocky bottom and prime lies.

Nonetheless, it always a treat to fish the WBD.  Under challenging conditions, we managed to land two fish.  We also witnessed a graceful bald eagle fly a few feet overhead.  It’s such a beautiful fishery with so much promise as a big fish producer.  I doubt that I will have another chance to fish it this year.  Now, it’s time to start gear up for our tributary fishing.  New York State has so much to offer the angler and I’m greateful that another season is quickly upon us!  For those interested and willing to pay your angling dues, the WBD will continue to give up trophy browns over the next month or so.  In my case, Lake Onario tributaries start heating up and these fish are much closer and quicker to target.  Choose your wonderful angling options within the Empire State and remember to take a kid fishing this Fall!