Catskill Mountains fly fishing adventures. We are located just two hours north of New York City. We specialize in walk wade and drift boat fishing trips for beginners all the way to seasoned veterans on the fly.
Over the next few days the Catskill Region and Upper Delaware River System will see extreme winter temperatures. What will this mean for the Delaware River System? Let’s see…
Seven Day Forecast
Over the next seven days we will be lucky to get the mercury over the freezing mark. It feels like the sun has had its mask on for about a month now. The sky is gray and the ground is hard and icy.
As the winter temperatures fall you will see the rivers “lock up” a bit. The edges will freeze and runoff melt will seize. As you will see looking at the flows charts, any new runoff that was destined for the river will freeze. Shelf ice is inevitable with these extreme winter temperatures. .
What does this mean for fishing?
Fishing will get very very tough for the angler. The ice on the tip of the rod will make it tough to fish for a long time. The fish will drop into the deepest holes and be glued to the bottom. Indicator nymphing deep slow holes with an indicator is your best bet.
My good friend and mentor George Cherundolo and I experimented with Kelly Galloup’s Boogieman Streamer over the past decade. Together George and I have tested many articulated streamers on the Delaware River System and this my friends is it!
Why the Boogieman Fly?
The Boogieman is the perfect eastern river streamer. Tied with lead eyes to get the fly down fast when slapping banks is crucial. However making it dance is the second part of the equation. To be blunt, this fly gets down and dances very quick.
George and I have dubbed the fly above the “green machine.” As George would say “this fly is a killer.” We will usually start with green and mix it through the color spectrum. Sometimes darker in the brown and black and sometimes lighter in the white to tan areas.
Size of Fly
The size of the Boogieman is also perfect. From 3.5” to 4.5” it will almost get chewed on by any size trout. We have landed fish at or above the 24” mark and also have taken smaller fish with a big appetite.
How to Fish It
When fishing these from a drift boat in high water it is essential to hammer the little pockets and back eddys. Upon your fly arriving in the spot, one big mend allows the weighted fly to sink into the strike zone without leaving the bank. Upon mending the angler will strip the fly back with the tip of the rod in the water. This will almost create a fool proof way of streamer fishing. With aggressive strips away from the bank the trout will most often set themselves due to the force of the strip. As long as your rod and line are not bowed from the current, the angler will have a direct connection to the fish.
History of the Boogieman Fly
Kelly Galloup introduced the Boogieman in 2010. This fly will catch almost any fish that eats other fish and has been a staple in many guides boxes since its inception. This fly closely imitates the Heifer Groomer however has a few minor tweaks. The lead eyes and wool head give it profile and weight, while the cactus chenille and barred feathers make it come alive in the water.
Each year spring time river conditions happen due to the snowfall and winter conditions months earlier. Here we are a few months before the season. Actually to be exact it is 72 days away.
Currently the 2021 season is lining up just right. We have decent snow pack in the hills, the rivers are above average flow and the reservoirs are all at or above historic statistical averages.
What’s this mean?
Going into a season having full reservoirs is crucial to the longevity of a season. More water means happy fish and more water also spreads out the fishing pressure across a system. More water also means that some spots will only be accessible by drift boat. Which is the age old debate of the wade angler vs the oarsmen.
Below is a snapshot taken just now of the NYC Environmental Protection gauges, measuring the Catskills and Westchester Reservoirs.
Snow Pack
On the higher elevations around our rivers we have a stead 4”-8” of ice and snow. It has been cold and cloudy for at least going on a month now. Days in the 30’s are beginning to feel “warm.” The snow and ice is locked in tight and not going anywhere soon.
The current snow pack is good for now, however if we want a prolonged season we will need another good snowfall before March is over. The positive is that the snow base is already in place to hold any fresh accumulations.
River Conditions
I drove around above the reservoirs this weekend as well as the East Branch, West Branch and Beaverkill. All of the rivers are juicing! The trout have to be happy with this big water.
The only side note about the rivers is I noticed that the tributary mouths have almost all been washed out. Some of these streams are major breeder streams as seen in the RFID chip tagging study. Without access to these small feeders the trout reproduction success falls.
This past fall the rivers were very low. It was early October and I had just departed the West Branch Angler. We were throwing streamer when all of a sudden halfway down monument pool we came across hundreds of brown trout on their Redds. We pulled over and had lunch while admiring this spectacle from a safe distance.
I have seen fish spawn in the river over the past decade however not in this amount. Is this because they can’t enter the tributaries due to the stream mouths being blocked?
Recap
The resovoirs and river levels are good for this time of year. We could benefit with a heavy snowfall in mid to early March. The spawning streams need to be tweaked to allow access before riparian growth begins in the spring. It’s about to get to single digits next week.
By Tom Mason: Some of us in the last few days have explored the tying of the Hendrickson and we have enjoyed this very much. But what fly was used by the old timers before the Hendrickson came along.
Art Flick states in his classic Streamside Guide that the Whirling Dun was originally tied to imitate E. Subvaria. This is that Fly as per the dressing of Rube Cross.
My Take
It was interesting to me because the “Hendrickson” is so famous I never questioned what was tied before its invention. Tom Mason let me know he “was there” (lol) when the Hendrickson was invented. He also told me he tied it with using dinosaur bone tools lol.
