First off, the river is in prime condition, it don't get any better than this. The water release is at 900cfs and the gauge at Pineville is at 944cfs. What this tells you is that at this point there is virtually no run-off adding volume to the river, the water flows from here on out are dependent on what the power company decides. Let's hope they continue to feel generous.
The steelhead are reaching peak or just past peak spawning, a lot of dropbacks in the river and these are not from the hatchery, they have only recently begun to take eggs so we wont see any fish drop out of the hatchery for awhile. This means that there should be good fishing on dropbacks through mid-April.
Swinging flies is becoming very productive in the river now. Spawned out steelies are on a feeding binge so leeches, streamers, sculpins and big meat flies are connecting regularly. If you prefer the indicator, egg patterns, big golden stone fly nymphs and San Juan worms in the fast water will hook you up.
Inland trout season starts Sunday here in New York. The creeks are in good shape, maybe a little low depending on where you're fishing. The forcast is for mid 50's and chance of rain, showers. This should make for a busy day on the trout streams. Most years the opener is about 10-15 degrees colder and often the percipitation is snow. Also, no snow banks to climb over this year and the water is not high or off color as it is many opening days.
I plan to take my wife and head out Sunday afternoon on a local trout stream. I always look forward to the opener, this year a little more than others. Probably has to do with the mild spring so far and knowing that I wont have to throw streamer as there is already some hatching going on. I'll probably try a few small Dark Hendrickson comparaduns and I always like fishing traditional tied Red Quills early in the season. Richard Strolis has a great video showing how to tie the Hendrickson Comparadun, click on his name for the link to some excellent fly tying vids.
Hope your steelheading and trout fishing are good for you.
Tight lines.
