Had business in the area Monday so I decided to take advantage of the cold front and fish the mainstem Sunday. Water started out at 58 and never made it much above 62 in the late evening. Windy until dusk, water was clear and at a good level for wading.
I started out nymphing a favorite riff down by Callicoon and managed a few 16” hot to run rainbows. Got into some risers but it turned out they were all baby rainbows about 8” so I left them alone, nice to see them though.
Took a break midday then headed out for what I thought would be and early evening hatch, hiked about a mile to a largely ignored riff, nothing happened until 7:30 or so when a blanket sulfur hatch started (14s and 18s) but was largely ignored by the trout.
Then the wind dropped about 8:00 and there was a decent brown drake spinner fall along with a few coffin flies, this got the trout’s attention, ended the night with a few rotund, heavy river browns (they look like someone’s been feeding them) and some leaping rainbows.
With low water and hot temperatures projected, something tells me this might be the last hurrah on the mainstem for a while, it’s been a great spring on the big river, lots of fish clean to Callicoon.
Mark C
I started out nymphing a favorite riff down by Callicoon and managed a few 16” hot to run rainbows. Got into some risers but it turned out they were all baby rainbows about 8” so I left them alone, nice to see them though.
Took a break midday then headed out for what I thought would be and early evening hatch, hiked about a mile to a largely ignored riff, nothing happened until 7:30 or so when a blanket sulfur hatch started (14s and 18s) but was largely ignored by the trout.
Then the wind dropped about 8:00 and there was a decent brown drake spinner fall along with a few coffin flies, this got the trout’s attention, ended the night with a few rotund, heavy river browns (they look like someone’s been feeding them) and some leaping rainbows.
With low water and hot temperatures projected, something tells me this might be the last hurrah on the mainstem for a while, it’s been a great spring on the big river, lots of fish clean to Callicoon.
Mark C
