Observations of a hack over the last 8 weeks

[krayfish2]

Unfortunately, haven't gotten out much this year. When I was able to get out I found the fishing to be bizarre at times or maybe I was just due for some shiit luck.

Wind, wind and more wind made fishing difficult to impossible many days. Then came the rains. Very welcome rain after a dry end to winter / start of spring. The stained high water ruined things for many but I timed things pretty well and didn't really have to deal with any stain.

Hatches were all over the map and baffling some days. I've seen choking clouds of caddis and fish responding to them. I've seen the water covered in green Drake duns not long after daylight and ver few fish eating them. As soon as the Drake duns stop hatching, fish were rising everywhere but there wasn't a bug on the water. When I would get to a pool and there were 10 fish feeding regularly, before I could even approach one, they would all stop. I would sit for an hour waiting for the fish to come back and they never did. I've seen a lot of 'one and done' feeders in my time but this year took it to a new level. I moved my boat so many times one day that both of my hands were open and bleeding from the anchor rope. Never could find a fish that was feeding regularly. Half of the fish I've caught this year on top were not the fish that I was casting to.

Went up to fish Hendricksons and saw very few. By that time the caddis were almost done in March browns had long since started. Go back a week later and..... hendricksons are back. The bad news is that the hendricksons are mixed with March browns, gray foxs, tan caddis, blue sedge, Cahills, big sulfurs, little sulfurs, green drakes, golden stones, yellow sallies, brown stones, cornuta and ISO.

For me it was a spring of bugs with no fish, fish with no bugs, fish that refuse to feed, high water or low water and lots of wind. Super frustrating and wonder if anyone else had noticed strange hatching sequence or less than normal behavior in the fish besides me. The spring seemed pretty normal or at least cool so the rivers didn't heat up too quick and they didn't get too blown out from the rain. I'm just baffled. Thank God bass season starts soon

 

[Nocktavius]

Unfortunately, haven't gotten out much this year. When I was able to get out I found the fishing to be bizarre at times or maybe I was just due for some shiit luck.

Wind, wind and more wind made fishing difficult to impossible many days. Then came the rains. Very welcome rain after a dry end to winter / start of spring. The stained high water ruined things for many but I timed things pretty well and didn't really have to deal with any stain.

Hatches were all over the map and baffling some days. I've seen choking clouds of caddis and fish responding to them. I've seen the water covered in green Drake duns not long after daylight and ver few fish eating them. As soon as the Drake duns stop hatching, fish were rising everywhere but there wasn't a bug on the water. When I would get to a pool and there were 10 fish feeding regularly, before I could even approach one, they would all stop. I would sit for an hour waiting for the fish to come back and they never did. I've seen a lot of 'one and done' feeders in my time but this year took it to a new level. I moved my boat so many times one day that both of my hands were open and bleeding from the anchor rope. Never could find a fish that was feeding regularly. Half of the fish I've caught this year on top were not the fish that I was casting to.

Went up to fish Hendricksons and saw very few. By that time the caddis were almost done in March browns had long since started. Go back a week later and..... hendricksons are back. The bad news is that the hendricksons are mixed with March browns, gray foxs, tan caddis, blue sedge, Cahills, big sulfurs, little sulfurs, green drakes, golden stones, yellow sallies, brown stones, cornuta and ISO.

For me it was a spring of bugs with no fish, fish with no bugs, fish that refuse to feed, high water or low water and lots of wind. Super frustrating and wonder if anyone else had noticed strange hatching sequence or less than normal behavior in the fish besides me. The spring seemed pretty normal or at least cool so the rivers didn't heat up too quick and they didn't get too blown out from the rain. I'm just baffled. Thank God bass season starts soon

Definitely one of the weirder dry fly fishing seasons I’ve experienced and one where I was very thankful to have my Clack. I typically split time between central and the Catskill tailwaters (living about equidistant from both) and basically haven’t fished the former since late March when I thought the fantastic surface action I was getting on BWO emergers and duns foreshadowed a banner year.

Since then, as you said- the bite has been weirdly off at times when it should’ve been on, fish were annoyingly only eating subsurface (and not responding particularly well to either nymphs on the dead drift or in swung presentations) while mayfly duns and cripples floated above. And as far as the wind, I don’t think I cast anything lighter than my 6 wt up there until last week. We had at least one day where winds were supposed to be 5-10 mph from the North and instead blew 35 mph from the South just as we were hitting the [Jurassic] Lake Lenore section of the Mainstem. Mercifully, the flooding rains that central has been dealing with since mid April seem to have passed over the area.

Memorial Day weekend it finally all came together and we enjoyed like 4 solid days of excellent surface action on relatively non crowded river sections. But aside from that, water temps have trended lower than normal early (the hendricksons suffered bc of that in my opinion), flows have yo yo’d all over the place with spillover causing sections of river that should have been productive to be fairly devoid of bugs. And the pressure doesn’t help. Last trip my buddy and I floated Friday and boated over 20 fish (many in the high teens) just blind casting March browns. The next 2 days we almost got skunked- the difference being a bunch of boneheads slamming articulated streamers through all the good holding water. I asked one how they did, and he said— “ amazing! We had like 20 follows.” Are we counting those now or do the international rules of horseshoes and hand grenades still apply?

 

[CLSports]

the difference being a bunch of boneheads slamming articulated streamers through all the good holding water. I asked one how they did, and he said— “ amazing! We had like 20 follows.” Are we counting those now or do the international rules of horseshoes and hand grenades still apply?

Uuuhhh, I would say that might have been my buddy's and me, but we were streamer bashing another river in central PA, so nope. Yup, streamer bash until we see risers, then anchor and cast to them. Follows is a good indicator of how the streamer bite is going . . .

As far as Memorial Day weekend, it was a banner hatch weekend with MB's, GD's, sulphurs, cahills, caddis, olives, and throw the big streamers when the hatches slowed.

The Hendricksons on the WB and Main stem of the D were light for us this year, but MB's seemed really good.

The Lehigh floats we did just ok this spring. We didn't really do as well there.

I dunno, all in all it seemed really good for me . . .

 

[Nocktavius]

Uuuhhh, I would say that might have been my buddy's and me, but we were streamer bashing another river in central PA, so nope. Yup, streamer bash until we see risers, then anchor and cast to them. Follows is a good indicator of how the streamer bite is going . . .

As far as Memorial Day weekend, it was a banner hatch weekend with MB's, GD's, sulphurs, cahills, caddis, olives, and throw the big streamers when the hatches slowed.

The Hendricksons on the WB and Main stem of the D were light for us this year, but MB's seemed really good.

The Lehigh floats we did just ok this spring. We didn't really do as well there.

I dunno, all in all it seemed really good for me . . .

I’d argue that if you’re going 0 for 20 netted fish to follows, the streamer bite isn’t as good as you think it is. Anyway I think the real issue was just the sheer number of boats fishing soft holding water fairly invasively in a concentrated time period, which threw the fishing off. That and the bright sun, gin clear coloration and dropping flows. Would agree that the MB hatches were money this year.

 

[Tigereye]

I really only fished the river twice this year, early April and about a week ago. Flows were just not conducive to effectively fish the areas i like to fish.

Necessity had me fishing smaller streams. Mostly nymphing in the windows when flows and weather were cooperative. I did have a few very good days, even in the higher water. Only fished dry flies 1 day (Henryvilles)on my way back to truck to see if i could conjer one or two to eat on surface. I did. 3 actually.

This week CalBar was in from California for his annual sojourn to the pocono mts.
Regrettably we only got to fish once due to weather. Yesterday. We did so so on nymphs and swung wet flys. Saw some risers to a moderate olive hatch but we could not reach them with higher water. He continued his streak and broke another rod tip. 3 in 2 years.

Hopefully we get an extra week or 2 from the fishing gods this year before water warms.

Still, all in all, I had fun. Learned a bit and had to adapt. Maybe I became a better fisherman.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

I just checked, and I have not fished the river since April 19th. I know the dry fly season has been bad for many. I am primarily a nymph fisherman, so I have had a season where I have done about average.

But I have changed where I usually fish in May. I typically look forward to this month of June and fishing bigger water. Oh, well.... I did fish high water with gear for bass twice in May, but that's cheating.

 

[DaveKile]

Andy I agree with you whole heartily. But like always it had a lot to do with where you were at and time of month. The dryer April quickly turned into the too much rain (you rain lovers are not welcome to comment) for May in most of Central Pa. Staying in Central Pa for the month of May I was boxed out of 85% of my time on notable streams and left to smaller creeks but still battling too much water.

These conditions certainly affected the hatches and trout. I fished over more stocked trout than I had planned. They seemed more difficult to catch than I remember, maybe it was the barbless hooks?

 

[dc410]

I’ve actually caught more carp than trout on topwater this year. I know that’s the first time that has ever happened for me. The trout topwater action definitely seemed odd to me so I just continued to swing wet flies right through the hatches and the wets pretty much kept producing fish.

 

[jifigz]

I have stated fishing a lot here in the last month, but I have been getting out somewhat regularly since spring began. I can only think of two trout that I was able to bag on traditional dry flies of bugs that were kind of sort of during a "hatch." One was a grannoms, and one was on a march brown. I have barely fished dry flies at all this year. In the past two weeks, I have been tossing cicadas and getting fish to eat them, but by and large, this year has had the least amount of dry fly fishing I have ever done.

I am hoping to throw lots of dries in my upcoming trip to Colorado.

 

[SBecker]

I have only been up to the Delaware once this year as life has been crazy this spring, but it seems your thoughts and concerns for the dry fly action has kinda been echoed by many others guiding or fishing up there. Looking forward to bashing my head against my boat trying to catch fish in July on 1 o’clock sulphurs.

In regards to the Lehigh, I have floated it probably 20ish times, and it has been, well, the Lehigh. Many times it was blown or high water and that obviously affected it. I think I got to fish a sulphur hatch one time in downpours, 30-40mph winds and 2500cfs. It was awesome, but made no sense. Iso’s have been ok for the past two weeks, but far from the action and or fish response of last year. The river is basically done now, temps are close to ending it and with the heat coming next week, it will be kaput till fall.

 

[moorestowngreg]

I have had the same experience as krayfish describes and others have seconded. I have to travel a ways for my fishing living in S Jersey outside of Philly. I have been to central PA a couple of times because I'm looking to find a place to buy and figured I would have a couple of hours to get some fishing in, never even bothered because of conditions those weekends, just too much water those weekends. I fish an non-stocked public section of Brodhead in the NE a few times of the year, same conditions as described above. Went to the East Branch Delaware a couple of weeks back just below the dam, Friday night it started to rain and by Saturday morning was getting blown out and by noon was forget it. Fish very picky everywhere and difficult. It's not that I am a master fly fisherman, but you put in enough time and you usually catch some good conditions at some point. Just one of those years, at least so far.

 

[DGC]

For me, cabin fever had just barely abated, and then the Hendrickson's barely showed up, followed by the grannoms getting compressed into a brief window. I did catch some excellent tan caddis action on the rare period of normal levels and clear water, but then the levels went back up for most of the sulphurs. The small streams had great flows and just enough insects to get the trout working them, and that scenario has been the season's savior thus far. It's been 20 years since I fished a 7.5 ft rod this much.

 

[ROVERT]

Apart from a couple local outings, I've only fished CV and Central PA. Dry flies are my default and I've had a decent season. Water conditions were tough but finding somewhere fishable with rising fish was usually doable if not easy. I did really well on grannoms, average on Hendricksons and MB, ok on GD.

Two things never really happened for me, though; spinner falls and sulphur dries. I didn't see one decent spinner fall this year, which is really strange. Sulphurs were also odd. I did really well swinging soft hackles when fish were on sulphur emergers but I didn't really find fish truly rising to sulphurs.

 

[Swattie87]

I’m a small stream guy. It’s been awful for me not being able to get out this Spring, with nearly dialed in conditions for like 6 weeks straight now. Ok, maybe there was a handful of days in there when even the small streams were unfishable, but still. (I’m not trying to rub that in, big stream guys, sincerely. It’ll go the other way before long.)

I’ve fished three times over that stretch, and had good small stream fishing all three times, as you’d expect. All three of those outings I parlayed in to an evening attempting a hatch but struck out and didn’t catch a fish all three times…Penns, Spring, Lower BFC, once each. No bugs on Spring and Penns. BFC at least had bugs, but nothing rising. I hooked and lost three when I finally caved and put a nymph rig on. 20 minutes before dark.

2 under 2.5 years old at home, and a hellacious run at work. Slated to get out Sunday with pcray and am excited and grateful for that.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I've got a bit of a longitudinal disadvantage on most of you all, but I'm just now, in the last week, seeing rising fish in any meaningful sense (though I did watch one fish wildly swat at something on the Ausable in mid May).

Plus, the only thing that even enables me to say fish are starting to look up is that I'm going to stocked water more than in most years - I drove around the Battenkill for 3 hours at the asscrack today and never saw a wild fish put it's head up. I'm having an odd late in life epiphany regarding prospecting for wild trout vs. headhunting for any trout. Not sure I'm happy with where I'm heading.

High water and cold temps have been interesting here in NY. It's felt like a western run-off. I'd like to think that sets us up for a wet, cool summer - like we had in 2023 - but I also put 5 air conditioners in today because it's about to be 97. Hell.

 

[SBecker]

I've got a bit of a longitudinal disadvantage on most of you all, but I'm just now, in the last week, seeing rising fish in any meaningful sense (though I did watch one fish wildly swat at something on the Ausable in mid May).

Plus, the only thing that even enables me to say fish are starting to look up is that I'm going to stocked water more than in most years - I drove around the Battenkill for 3 hours at the asscrack today and never saw a wild fish put it's head up. I'm having an odd late in life epiphany regarding prospecting for wild trout vs. headhunting for any trout. Not sure I'm happy with where I'm heading.

High water and cold temps have been interesting here in NY. It's felt like a western run-off. I'd like to think that sets us up for a wet, cool summer - like we had in 2023 - but I also put 5 air conditioners in today because it's about to be 97. Hell.

Pulled the AC out today as well. I know no where close to you, but wondering how the Syracuse waters have been. Another one of my favorite areas to fish.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Pulled the AC out today as well. I know no where close to you, but wondering how the Syracuse waters have been. Another one of my favorite areas to fish.

Ah! I should have been able to answer this! Xmas gift to the wife was tickets to see some bands play just south of Syracuse this weekend. I had posted here earlier in the year looking for intel on the area.

Unfortunately, end of the school year (both my wife and I teach) / end of spring athletics for our kids ended up with us selling the tickets and cancelling the trip.

 

[SBecker]

Ah! I should have been able to answer this! Xmas gift to the wife was tickets to see some bands play just south of Syracuse this weekend. I had posted here earlier in the year looking for intel on the area.

Unfortunately, end of the school year (both my wife and I teach) / end of spring athletics for our kids ended up with us selling the tickets and cancelling the trip.

Wife and I both are teachers as well and kids spring athletics is a killer. Know the feeling. 🤣

Favorite Cuse waters to fish….. 9mile, Butternut, Chittenango, Skaneateles, Limestone.

 

[krayfish2]

Yesterday's heat and humidity sent the bugs into overdrive. Turned on the light to take the pups out and in minutes, the house was covered...stones (multiple types) , Cahills, sulphurs, multiple caddis species and ISO.

Susky will approach 75,000 by Sun morning. It was 11,000 at this time last year. Might be a little before it's fishable.

Lehigh was blown out every weekend so I never got there until June 7th. Lots of bugs early afternoon, few risers and no steady risers. Caught fish blind casting,..on the strip to recast. Go figure. Got a couple nymphing but far from exciting.

Delaware owned me this year. 20 fish start feeding steady about 100 yards away. Pick up anchor to approach the fish and before the boat moves 2', they stop feeding. Put the anchor back down and wait 45 minutes.... nothing ever comes back up. This was every pool, every riff and every tail out for 3 days. Barely made any casts. Caught fish but caught more disappointment than anything else. Hell, hooked 3 on top in the bottom of bard parker in under 30 minutes which is pretty unusual. Those fish aren't typically very cooperative.

Maybe one or two more shots at trout but mostly bass until April 😕

 

[csoult]

It has indeed been a strange year. Bugs and no fish, fish rising in the bright sun, not rising on cloudy days. Strangest I can remember