Beaverkill River

The river

The Beaverkill rises in the Catskill highlands and joins the East Branch of the Delaware at Roscoe, and its place in fly-fishing history is out of all proportion to its size. Theodore Gordon fished here; the first American dry-fly patterns were tied for this water. Today it is a small, intimate, brown-trout river with steady hatches in late spring and a serious thermal problem in July and August, when water temperatures climb into the low twenties and the fish should be left alone.

On this river

Casting to Catskill trout

These fish are educated and the water is clear and low. Use a 4.5-metre leader with a 60 cm tippet, make the cast from a position where you never cross a fish with your line, and accept that you will sometimes need to wait twenty minutes for one fish to resume feeding.

The dusk drake

Ephemera guttulata hatches in the last half hour of light in the first two weeks of June. Position yourself before the hatch starts, fish a single #10 dry, and cover rising fish on the near bank first because the light will be gone before you can reach the far side.

Autumn streamers

From late September the browns turn aggressive and the fly can be bigger than anything you used in spring. Fish a #6 streamer across the current on a sinking tip, strip it in 20 cm pulls, and concentrate on log jams and undercut banks — the fish are defending lies rather than feeding.