The season to date.

After fishing for the last six days straight I am at a loss to explain where the big bugs (isos, green drakes and brown drakes) are. I've been on the Big River, Big East, Beaverkill, West Branch and Upper East Branch. There have been iso husks on the rocks of the streams for the past two weeks. Saw one Green Drake spinner fall and one iso hatch on the BK. A handful of Green Drake duns and spinners on the Big East. A few Green Drake nymph husks in the West Branch. But I have not seen a major hatch of any consequence anywhere. The concentration of both wade anglers and drift boaters in the "sulfur zone" above Hale Eddy would seem to be an indication that it's over. It is June 15th after all and with global warming this is now late for the big bugs to be making their appearance.

With the wind that has blown all week daytime fishing has been frustrating. There were bugs and some rising fish but fly presentation was challenging to say the least. Evening fishing (7:00 to 9:30) was excellent. After the wind laid down spinners appeared along with hatching sulfurs, gray foxes, stenos and the odd march brown. Fish were up and feeding and the action was fast and furious.

The coming week will surely tell if there are big bugs left to hatch. The golden stones hatched on the BK a week before I saw the Drake spinners there. The golden stones hatched on the BR last Monday so perhaps the Drakes hatch and spinner falls is yet to come on the BR.

With or without the big bugs the fishing has been very good all spring, frustrating for wade fishermen until the water dropped but there have been enough big fish caught to make everyone happy. If in fact the big bugs are done you can expect fewer fishermen on the river (the number of drift boats on the river was down last week). There will still be rising fish but the average size of the fish being caught will be smaller (I had more 13/14 inch fish in my catch last week than in previous weeks).

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