Wednesday, August 11, 1999

Quick Update: The Cannonsville is blasting water into the West Branch, creating the season’s best flyfishing on both the West Branch and the Main Stem. Prolific hatches of sulphurs and blue-wing olives keep fishing active throughout the day and evening, while the Main Stem is enjoying some excellent morning trico hatches. Water is cold and fish are feisty and hungry.

Dear Flyfisher:

We continued to bang big trout throughout the Upper West Branch down to the junction, and began to score some great fish on tricos on the Main Stem. The fishing has been great, and the forecast for the next couple of weeks is for more of the same.

The Cannonsville Reservoir is releasing about 1,500 cfs into the West Branch, so wading is almost impossible. Drift boat fishing, on the other hand, gets you where the fish are rising – which is pretty much all over. There’s plenty of bugs on the water throughout the day, so the feeding is active and steady. We’re casting to rising fish, and the action has been spectacular.

As you know, most of the rest of the Northeast is reeling from drought. But, because the Delaware is a tailwater fishery the water supply is plentiful. At mid-week, the Cannonsville was down to about 54% of capacity, which isn’t too bad for this time of year. Nonetheless, at the current release rates, the water won’t last forever, unless the Pepacton Reservoir – which feeds the East Branch of the Delaware – begins sharing the load.

So far, the river master and the City of New York (which owns and operates the reservoirs) have relied on the Cannonsville to keep the Delaware in water, and the salt-line from creeping above Philadelphia. That has produced spectacular fishing on the West Branch and Main Stem, but may prove deadly if we have a hot, dry September.

The cold waters have prompted huge sulphur and blue-wing olive hatches that begin around noon to 1 p.m. and last through 6 to 8 p.m. Spinner falls supplement the evening activity. In the morning, we’ve been fishing the big pools of the Main Stem where tricos have been coming off in hatches large enough to encourage steady feeding. The tricos have emerged between 8 a.m. and noon, depending on cloud cover and temperature.

The water temperatures on the West Branch are in the 40s throughout its entire length. The water warms as it flows into the Main Stem, although temperatures remain in the low 60s throughout the 25-mile stretch of trout water between Hancock and Calicoon.

The Main Stem also is seeing some steady hatches of Isonychias, which some people call Slate Drakes, Yellow Drakes and White Flies (epheron leukon). These are big flies, and it’s hard to lose track on them even when fishing fast water. The takes can be spectacular.

We still have a few dates open for August and September. But, with the Salmon River’s runs of Kings in the offing, the openings are getting scarce. If you want some great action, give me a call or drop me an e-mail and we’ll see if we can hook up with some big, wild Delaware trout.

– Adrian