The pendulum swings to the WB!

 

Spent the morning mowing the grass, attacking the knot weed that threatens to block my view of the river and tying flies, just in case I get to fish again. 

The rivers are dropping, slowly, and as of now, the Willow is at a nice level to fish. The BK can be waded, with care. It's at 850 cfs, don't try to cross it, be content with the fish you can reach and know that the risers on the far side will be there next time. The BR, EB, and UEB are not wade able. If you can find a place where you can walk the bank and cast, do so. The fish don't like the heavy current any more than you do and are often in along the bank.

What about the WB? you ask. Well, right now the flow at Stockport is at 1500cfs and the USGS graph is going straight down. How can this be? NYCDEP probably shut off the release.  The inflow at Walton is now down to 1100 cfs, that coupled with the other streams flowing into the reservoir probably come close to 1500 cfs. Who knows what they are doing? By tomorrow morning, my guess is that the flow at Hale Eddy will be at least 2000 cfs. Check the USGS release data before making a decision on where to fish.

The bad news - The shops in Roscoe aren't saying it, but I believe the Hendricksons are pretty much done on the Willow (Ed S., correct me if you have more up to date info) and on the BK. Drove over there today between the Hendrickson hatch on the WB and the Spinner fall (more later). No Hendricksons on the Willow yesterday at prime time, and no bugs to speak of on the BK around 6:00/ 6:30 today. It's the Doldrums on both rivers and just when they are most needed for wade fishermen.

The good news - The Hendricksons (and presumably the apple caddis) are moving up the WB. Spent two delightful hours casting at risers in water I probably shouldn't have been wading in, during the Hendrickson hatch. Got a refusal from a fish on an upstream cast, ripped the fly out of the mouths of two other fish and had a hot rainbow take me into the backing, come docilly back towards me and then dart away breaking me off in the process. Did you land any he asked? Not another fish that I cast at did anything but eat the fly and end up in the net. Three of them had the fly three knuckles deep in their mouth. The 7:00 to 8:00 spinner fall might well have been as good were it not for the rain.

The outlook - If the rain doesn't raise the water levels, the WB is the place to be. Wading opportunities will increase day by day. Wade carefully, don't take chances and see if you can't get some of those WB fish into your net.  

 


 

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