Posted on May 04 2025
Sitting here at home looking out at the fog and rain, it seemed like a good time for a Wind Knots and Tailing Loops segment, except there have been almost no questions. Hopefully Ed S. and I provided more than enough theories about odd hour Hendrickson sightings to satisfy Jim N., fly tyer extraordinaire.
Andrew wanted to know if I added sparkle to my caddis emergers. I know little about tying caddis emergers, and have caught only two fish on them, (none on the ones I just tied). Followed a LaFontaine video using Antron, which is sparkly, for the body and shuck, but somehow they all came out looking more like a fish hook I recently had to cut out of the braided rug in the fly tying room.
John H. asked about a skinny small black spinner, most likely a pseudo, and one with a yellow egg sack, a Hendrickson no doubt, (FYI the Lady Beaverkill is an old Catskill fly sporting a yellow egg sack that some still use to imitate the female Hendrickson).
With no other questions to answer I thought I might touch on my thoughts regarding the fish population currently in the river system. Keep in mind that my observations are based on only three weeks of fishing. First of all, with the poor May fly hatches, there have been very few times when I've seen a good display of rising fish. On the occasions, (3), when I did find enough bugs on the water to get fish up, the numbers were very encouraging, with lots of fish to cast at. A high percentage of the fish caught have been three and four year old's, measuring between 12 and 16 inches, with a good mix of both rainbows and browns. I have caught relatively few two year old's, 10/11 inchers which is usually the case early in the year. The big surprise has been the small number of fish 17 inches and up. My April and May catch totals most years usually show between 30 and 45% of the fish to be over 17 inches long. So far this year the number is an August like 15%.
Why? Last year I caught many fish between 19 and 20 inches, probably the remnants of the huge 2018 year class. They were fat and healthy and I expected to renew acquaintances with them as 20 inchers this year. How come I haven't? Perhaps my eroding skills have played a part, however, it's also likely that two other factors are contributing to the low number of big fish ending up in my net. One, there have been insufficient may fly hatches to get them up and feeding on the surface. Two, the low water has changed where they are hanging out. The bank sipping browns I so like to fish for have moved into deeper, safer pools where they won't be trod upon by wade anglers or end up in the talons of an opportunistic eagle. Hopefully they are still around and better water flows and more prolific hatches will result in more success catching them.
A sincere note of thanks to all who have taken the time to report on their success or lack thereof. Clearly we are all struggling. Just knowing what to expect helps to trim unrealistic expectations and lets you enjoy even minor triumphs on a river that is a true challenge for the best of fly fishermen.
Dennis-What a tremendous day. Congratulations A double digit day on any river is an exceptional day.And to do that on extremely difficult water like the UWB is quite an accomplishment. And on top of that you found the long lost Hendricksons. Kudos . Ed
I fished Sunday on the upper Deleware and had a nice day. It’s the first time this year I netted double digit fish. They were all browns and they were between 11-17 inches. I caught them on a caddis emerger and blue quills. The rest came on Hendrickson!!!! There was a fairly good hatch between 2-3:30. The fish were up and eating. All the action stopped at 4.
Jack- I just use a small circular plastic box that flies came in. At the end of the day I dump them on my fly tying desk to dry.. Nothing fancy, but it works just fine. Ed
Jack: by any chance did you lose your magnetic fly box on the Willow five or six years ago? I found one in , in shallow water, at the power lines section, ,around 2019 and I still have it with all nine flies nicely intact. If this is yours by any wild possibility, I would be delighted to get it back to you. I can drop it off at Troutfitter Syracuse when I am there in July, or I can mail it to you c/o Troutfitter Deposit.
Like John H, I would welcome any tips on landing big trout on light tippets.
I’ve tied lots of LaFontaine emergers, albeit poorly, and seldom use them. Most often when nothing else seems to work. When they do work, I suspect it’s as much because they don’t look anything like the usual flies with hooks.
To Jack..I use a prescription bottle that I drilled several holes in. I tuck it into one of my zippered vest pockets…been using it for years and it dries and protects the flies until I can resteam them and dip in floatant.
Have tied and been using caddis for decades. Prefer natural materials over synthetics. Lafontain patterns popularized synthetics…and sold a lot of books….probably the desired result.
Eric Leiser and Larry Solomon published “Caddis and the Angler.
A monumental work containing numerous caddis patterns, most using natural materials.. it’s a matter of choice… I’ll stay with the productive natural stuff.
The Lafontaine merger is a time consuming fly to tie, but it is the only pattern I have confidence in.
QUESTION; I lost my small ventilated, magnetic fly box that I used to store used flies when changing flies in the river. Clipped to my vest, it protected the flies from being brushed off when walking to and from the river. What do you guys use?
Angler119’- Thanks for your observations. The sparse hatches that everyone is experiencing is worrisome.Hopefully things improve with the hatches of the “ big bugs” With the enormous caddis hatches, could the insect population be shifting from mayflies to the more temperature/ pollution tolerant caddis?? Ed
Have tied and been using caddis for decades. Prefer natural materials over synthetics. Lafontain patterns popularized synthetics…and sold a lot of books….probably the desired result.
Eric Leiser and Larry Solomon published “Caddis and the Angler.
A monumental work containing numerous caddis patterns, most using natural materials.. it’s a matter of choice… I’ll stay with the productive natural stuff.
I spent a good part of the day yesterday on the river. I fished from the rr bridge to the water treatment plant and saw 4 fish rise. Fished up stream to the town bridge and had 2 hook ups. I caught the fish on paralips. I had rerefusals on caddis and Bwo. There not many bugs at all. There were caddis flying around but I did not see a Hendrickson. Before I decided to fish there I drove around down stream and saw nothing but fisherman and 2 boats. Up stream of the bridge only a few fisherman. From the red barn up no one.
Thanks for the detailed thoughts and answering my questions. Sadly, I have seen virtually no bugs on the BE or BK over the last week.
I have fished the tail waters the last couple of days, seeing lots of caddis still, and some more mayflies but finding trout rising consistently has been a challenge.
Finally yesterday there was a good spinner fall (yellow egg sack, Hendricksons?), Hendricksons hatching, and caddis. Trout were rising but not consistent, and were pretty picky.
Finally hooked a few on a blue quill emerger, my best fly this week by far. Landed some nice fish but lost the 2 biggest at the net. One upstream and one downstream facing. It was soul crushing.
If anyone has any tips for netting bigger fish in fast water I’d really appreciate it.
A119
Thanks for sharing your observations on the fish population…..and on the use of “sparkle” material in Caddis emergers. FYI, I’m not a fan of it either.