I was leaning heavily towards the prospect of an honest to goodness early spring, but it looks like I may have to choke on that sentiment. NYC seems convinced that we are in for a rush of high water, for they ramped up the releases from the nearly full Delaware River reservoirs yesterday to make a little room for the inch and a half of rain expected today and tonight.
I took a riverwalk yesterday afternoon to enjoy the sunshine, and noted that the East Branch was still high and off color from our last rainfall event. A fresh inch or more shouldn’t give us a scene like 2022 above, but it isn’t going to do anglers any favors either.
Just when the rivers have been responding to our warmer air temperatures, some flirting with the mid-forties, the outlook has changed. Spilling reservoirs will significantly affect already high flows and snatch away the chance of the rare early dry fly fishing that was beginning to appear possible.
My mind has been working over the possibilities ever since Chuck’s message arrived. He found rising trout and took a lovely wild brown on a dry fly, and I wanted to get right out there and do the same thing! I checked the temperature of a few reaches of Catskill waters, saw them closing in on the mid-forties, and really started to believe.
In thirty years of Catskill angling, I can remember only one season when fishing began this early. It was more than a decade ago, and the same weather patterns that kicked things off in March in Central Pennsylvania took hold of the Catskills. Hendricksons hatched a month early on Penns Creek, and several weeks early here. Anglers were grinning then, but there was a price to be paid for the early start.
I was working of course, and I couldn’t run up here at the drop of a hat. When I did drive up to enjoy the early deliverance from winter, I found the hatches thin and spotty. They would linger for twice their typical duration, weeks instead of days in some cases, and that pattern continued throughout the season, at least when I came up to fish. Mayflies would trickle off for short periods, often so few of them that the trout failed to take notice.
I loved the thought of an early spring this past week, but I cannot honestly say I am willing to pay that same price. Perhaps I will try some smaller waters once this big rainstorm subsides. I have grown accustomed to waiting until the major Catskill rivers were ready to shine, but it seems as it the milder weather will continue between some smaller goodbye kisses from winter. I’ve got a seven-and-a-half foot bamboo rod that’s just right for prospecting some upland streams, and a little history I am anxious to chase.
Bright Waters Catskill 