Things are looking up, some of them are fish.

 Today was freestone day. The water temps have cooled in the last week and today all could be fished without endangering the trout. Started with the Beaverkill.  Fished three pools between the downstream  no kill and jaws. All had fish cautiously willing to eat a fly. More important was the fact that the rocks along the shore were covered with iso husks left in the last few days as the water dropped. The bugs weren't hatching while I was fishing but the fish were looking for them. The fish have become very careful about eating isos but the iso husks on the rocks told me that was the fly to use.

Tried two pools on the BE, one near a thermal refuge and one in the lower river where the upstream migrants might have been spending the night. Never saw a rise or a bug at either stop.

Last stop was a pool up high on the big river that I hadn't fished all year.  It was after seven when I got there and I was in the car driving home at 8:10.  There were a few white flies but little surface activity. Walked a good ways downstream and waded back up towards the car.  In the 300 yard struggle wading up stream I saw three rising fish. Two ate my fly with the best being a brown that was about a quarter of an inch short of 19 inches, making him fish of the last three weeks.

Barring a late season heat wave the entire river system in now available to anglers. Some of it is sparsely populated to be sure but every day more fish are moving, some towards their old river haunts and some towards their spawning areas. If you chance upon a fish that hasn't been cast to in the last couple of months you'll find an eager eater.  If the fish that comes to your cast spent the summer in junction pool, the fly better not be dragging.

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