Posted on May 27 2026
The river system is a time bomb, I just don't know when its going to explode.
Left the fishing camp about 12:00 and drove up the PA side hoping to find bugs and rising fish. There were March Browns hatching and fish rising at Buckingham but the boats already launched and several wade fishermen had them well covered. The WB at Shehawken had nary a bug to be seen. Drove along the river below Deposit and saw neither bugs nor risers from the town bridge to the Men's Club. Picked up my new fly line from Dave at the Troutfitter who said there have been risers below the town bridge in the morning, (Hendrickson spinners?), he also mentioned that there were still Hendrickson hatching in the Deposit area.
Mark is back, has never fished the Red Barn and I said he should give it a try. Dennis plays golf on Tuesday so I fished his spot. Mark hooked three and landed two, (both 19 inchers), and was quite pleased with himself. Made sure he didn't get overconfident by placing him in spots where he had little hope of catching fish the rest of the day.
The fishing - Continues to be an enigma. The Hendricksons are still on the water, there are March Browns on all of the freestones, a smattering of Invaria and Gray Foxes are seen most nights, there are reports of Isos, (still haven't seen one and neither have the Grackles). What risers there are, are eating spinners or caddis. Last weekend with the cold rainy weather there were massive hatches of all kinds of bugs with fish eager to eat them. The last two days, you have to look for risers and make good casts to even get one to come up and look.
The outlook- We are entering the last few days of May, "it", (the big bugs), will almost certainly be over by June 10th. I don't know when it will happen, but it will happen soon, try to spend some time here in the next two weeks, if "it" happens when you're here, you won't regret it.
Fished the middle Mainstem this AM from 6:30 to 10. Caddis here and there, enough to get the fish up. About 8:30 there was a light March Brown / Green Drake hatch. The fish jumped on them for a while which was great to see and great to hook fish on 3×. No coffin flies spotted so the drakes must just be starting. Left when the crowds arrived.
To clarify I did not catch 22 trout. Total for the entire day was close to 15 which is still one of my best days ever up there.
Wow..if my math is correct Chris had a 22 fish day, with.most over 17 inches….thats “Unbelievable “
You seem to bypass areas with no bugs rising or any rising fish. What are the chances of catching fish in those areas, blind casting?
Monday I fished the lower BR to a large hatch of big sulfers and blue sedge. I saw some big sailboats mid river. Iso’s or a Drake? I did see some ISO shucks on streamside rocks. Fish were up sporadically but I did not connect. Flow was still over 3k. Personally I have not seen a March Brown this year including on BE. There were sulfer spinners under my porch light Sunday night, just north of Callicoon.
We had the flawed approach of hitting the WB late (3-9). Arrived to a nice hatch at Red Barn, but all of my risers were upstream (I think I only had 2 casts to downstream dimples). When that turned off we headed down to Ball’s, and there was nothing going on at any of the access points on the way. Fished our way back up, with sunset at Barking Dog, where (to paraphrase 119, it “Was as Cold as Ice”. We have renamed the team “Insect Repellent”.
Hit the WB yesterday and did very well despite the bright sun. Fished below Deposit 9-1pm. Caddis on water and sporadic risers but caught 7 including several over 18" mostly on spinner patterns. Went to lower WB from 1-5 and there was a tremendous March Brown hatch in the pool I was in. Lots of big trout on them and caught quite a few. Ended the day with probly close to 15 trout with most 17 inches and up. Boats that passed by usually had bent rods. Great day got lucky with the March Browns… makes up for all of the long ones up there!
“It” did not happen where I was on the lower BK last night.
There were thousands of dark gray caddis in the air, and a few sulphers. I saw 2 trout rise, scared ‘em both.
That was all I saw.