Posted on 23-Sep-2011 by Dustin Mason

All the rain and wacky weather we have endured over the past month or so appears to have provoked an early Fall turn-over in the reservoirs; or so it seems with the prevailing turbidity of the river as of late. There is an abundance of nutrients suspended in the water as a result, triggering baitfish and those that prey upon them to become more active in preparation for the winter months to come. This can be a great time to get into some of the biggest fish of the season as they gorge themselves on smaller fish. Streamers work particularly well under these conditions and the push of water that came over the dam recently, that brought with it an untold amount of Alewives, has these trout pretty keyed in on bait. The water levels are a bit high for comfortable wading opportunities, but there are certainly some areas that remain accessible on foot for those who must. Dry-fly action is, for the most part, hit or miss. Some reports do have Iso's stirring up some surface activity, and although it should not be surprising to happen upon your own little flurry of bugs, to have these expectations may be a bit unrealistic. However, the eternal optimism of a dedicated dry-fly fisherman, suggests you bring your Isos!

Posted on 09-Sep-2011 by Ben Sheard

The weekend is here and we are just finishing up an interesting week here on the upper West Branch. Really, the last two weeks, since Irene came through, have been pretty hairy around here with drastically changing flows and weather. After Irene the river came down quick and everything was coming together pretty well as far as flows and drifboat fishing was pretty good. Then, this week brought us rain pretty much every day then Wednesday morning the rain really let loose on us. To make a long story short the dam started to spill and the West Branch at Hale Eddy peaked out at just below 23,000 cfs here at Hale Eddy late yesterday afternoon. As I write this Hale Eddy is flowing at 16,900 cfs, down 6,000 from yesterday. Stilesville up-river is flowing at 12,700 cfs and above the reservoir at Walton the flow has dropped to 7,900 cfs. With the amount of water we have, even with it dropping at a steady clip, the river really won't be fishable from boats 'till next week some time. And that will depend on the upcoming weather. Floods happen, it's a natural occurance that the trout have dealt with since day one, they'll be fine, maybe even happy. Lots of bait, including many alewyves, have been entered into the river and I guarantee they are feeding on them.