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The way it is.

Posted on April 24 2018

Spent the warmest day of the year (so far) opening up the fishing camp. For those of you that care, the 27 year old camp refrigerator started right up again.  With no apparent leaks in the water pipes and the heat turned on I left to take a look at the river system.

To date it's been the coldest April in 75 years.  The water temps have been hard pressed to get above 40. The banks of the Beaverkill and East Branch below "jaws" are still lined with huge blocks of ice.

Yes, there are micro caddis hatching and flying around but I never saw a fish rise.  There were a handful of boats on both the West Branch and  big river and a few wade fishermen on the Beaverkill.

The shad bush and redbud are a long way from blooming, the knot weed that lines the banks of the river has yet to poke new shoots up out of its subterranean tubers and the only dandelion blooms  (Hendrickson precursors) I saw were wedged between the pavement and south facing wall of the Circle E Diner.  In short, if you're a dry fly guy, it'll be awhile.

Both reservoirs have spilled this spring and the fish are feeding on the alewives that came over the dams.  If your game is floating, throw streamers.

This coming weekend is the "One Bug" tournament and fly selection promises to be a challenge for participants.  It's  doubtful, given current weather predictions,  that participants will see a meaningful hatch of mayflies.  It seems more likely that major hatches won't happen until the first week of May.
The water levels are coming down and with a few days of warm sunshine "Mother Nature" will catch things up.

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