South Fork 7-12-14

The giant stonefly event is pretty much over, but fish still know what they are, so keep a few patterns for them in your fly box. Golden stones, PMDs (3 tails on duns), pink alberts (2 tails on duns), afternoon caddis, and sallys are keeping fish active on most of the river. So be sure to have patterns for their life cycle in that box. Don’t overlook swinging one of Wes Newman’s Super-X patterns under, then away from overhead cover.

A good reason why South Fork fishing is stacking up better this year than last is that Palisades Reservoir at 75% of capacity. This means cooler water (currently around 54 deg. F just below Palisades Dam) going into the river. Last year with the reservoir at so much less of capacity, water going into the river was warmer making dry fly fishing frustratingly slow by this time of year.  Are you a South Fork enthusiast? Count your blessings for 2014 because good water conditions should go on for quite some time here.