This past week has certainly provided a variety of summer weather – sure to please just about everyone – from those who like “as hot as it gets!” as we experienced on Friday, to the picture-perfect sunny summer day on Sunday, with a refreshingly cool morning, low humidity, blue skies and puffy white clouds. Frequent rains have helped our garden vegetables grow in abundance and have kept river levels quite favorable for trout fishing.
On Sunday afternoon, the Beaverkill at Cooks Falls was recorded as flowing at 400 cubic feet per second, well above the 110-year median average flow of 140 cfs. The highest flow recorded over 110 years on this date was 5000 cfs in 2009, while the lowest flow was recorded back in the drought year of 1965 when just 39 cubic feet per second trickled past the gauging station.
Water temperatures have fluctuated as the air temperatures have, ranging this past week from a few mornings of 64 degrees to a peak of almost 76 degrees F on Friday afternoon with much of the week in the high 60s to 70.
Hatches this past week continue to be small Blue-Winged Olives, Caddis in various sizes and colors, small Sulphurs, Light Cahills and Isonychias. Don’t forget to carry along some terrestrial flies which can be useful after a rain shower or thunderstorm, as well as some nymphs if you enjoy fishing below the surface during those periods.