Posted on June 03 2026
After spending Sunday cutting up and removing three dead Ash trees that had fallen last winter and were either on mowed areas or were blocking access roads, I spent Monday dealing with car salesmen. Love my wife and enjoy spending time with her, but boy, was I glad to get out of town.
Got to the Lordville Estate shortly before eleven, unpacked the car, stowed the food and clothes, did a little yard work, came in, ate lunch, turned on the lap top and fell asleep in the recliner. Awoke at 2:20 and hit the road. My drive-by of the Red Barn showed only three anglers, with a big gap between angler two and three in which I saw fish rising. Had three 20s and two ones in my wallet. Drove to the Troutfitter and arranged a loan of five dollars from Dave. Found $15 dollars in the little tin box, left one of my 20s and took the change. Remarkably there were still only three people in the pool and rising fish.
The fishing - Was really good. Took my Hendrickson box out of my vest last week and put a few Hendricksons in small box that fit into one of the tiny little pockets on the Tackle-pack vest. It was at least 3:30 by the time I was fishing and 4:40 when I got back to the car. Wasn't even upset when I broke off the last fish by rushing him a bit.
And then - (Mark will laugh if he bothers to read this), I drove to the Beaverkill, hooked and landed a nice 17 inch rainbow, then drove back to a place I wanted to fish above Hale Eddy on the WB, (seeing neither anglers nor boats on the WB above Balls Eddy on the way), stood on the shore for ten minutes without seeing a bug on the water or a rising fish, got back in the car, drove back to a place on the EB and had the best two hours of fishing I've had all year.
The bugs - Hendricksons, mostly the little 16's that appear at the end of the hatch, at the Red Barn, nothing anywhere else until my 7:00 - 9:00 fishing on the EB where there were blue sedge in modest numbers actually dying on the water, the odd coffin fly, and very late, a few sulfurs.
A119 – Enjoyed your report, going with Harry Chapin today.
Slow morning for me. Things picked up at 2pm in stilesville ( 119, I was the angler that was the furthest upstream from you). This was the best Hendo day I’ve been a part of. Went 1 for 5….broke a fly line…blood knotted it and got the one 16" brown. Troutfitters hooked me up with a new line and I was ready for the EB later that night. Lotta bugs on the upper East. No coffins. Sulphurs were there in numbers. Greens were there but not many. Picky fish in low water. Only a few fish were landed and that was closer to dark.
Drove around a good part of the afternoon yesterday looking for rising fish – from WB to EB and on to Beaverkill and Williowemoc – didn’t see much. On the return drive I caught a nice rainbow and a bigger shad on a Green Drake mid-afternoon on the lower EB. Then spent the evening on the BR where there were steadily rising fish that were highly selective. Tried dozens of flies but it was able to connect only near dark when I netted 2 healthy rainbows on sulphur emergers.
Ah, the blue sedge and October caddis, the Kale of the bug world.
Fished yesterday morning and evening, saw just a few green drakes, a couple of sulphers, and a gazillion black caddis that never appeared to land on the water.
The fish were selective and spooky, even in the riffles. Went down to 6x and had to cast longer than usual.
Each fish landed was on a different fly pattern/size/bug species. Lots of one cast and never seeing the fish rise again. Never really figured it out.
A119 sounds like a good day and evening on the river. Good luck with the new vehicle. Hope it’s good on gas!! Going fishing today and will report.