The Trip
We went back to the West Branch for another June trip, with hopes of seeing humongous mayflies buzzing the air all around us. I stayed at the WBA for the five days, and Jimmer came up and bunked with me for the first three days. Risty and his friend John came up for one day mid-week, for a marathon day of fishing at Gamelands. We did see plenty of big bugs everywhere, but the fishing was fairly slow. The West Branch flow was still over 1,000 CFS, but at least the weather was nicer and much warmer than it was in May. We hit a nice sulphur hatch the first afternoon/evening up above the cabins at the WBA. I was able to land a few nice fish, and I lost a real nice 18-inch brown as I was bringing him toward the net at the bank. Jimmer was ready with the camera, but sadly, there will be no photo! Things slowed down the next two days, but the guys got into some nice fish at Gamelands. The last two days I was on my own and saw some really nice browns up in the no-kill area. I landed some of the nicest fish of my life during those two days, and mostly in the pouring rain. There are no decent photos from this trip, since we seemed to be really focused on the fishing this time around. Oh yeah, and we also lost Jimmer's memory chip for his digital camera! I guess we're going to have to add a photography course to fish college for fish camp next year.

The Hatch
The rivers were still running high and strong in early June with all the rain, but things did settle down in time for a few days of some decent fishing on the West Branch. There were plenty of March Browns, sulphurs, and big Green Drakes, along with lots of BWOs in various sizes. There were large olives hatching in the morning and tiny olives (pseudos) hatching throughout the day. And there were caddis flies everywhere, as usual, in tan and olive. I caught some really nice fish on the West Branch on my own flies, mainly on compara cripple patterns I tied for March Browns, BWOs, and the big drakes. My dark olive caddis flies (size 16) also worked well. There was certainly no shortage of flies on the water. The fish were selective at Gamelands as usual, but we caught some nice fish there, and near the cabins at the WBA as well. Risty and Jimmer hooked some real nice browns on dry flies at Gamelands on Tuesday. I saw one of the biggest browns ever that day at Gamelands, when he came completely out of the water and devoured a big Green Drake floating by. That fish was HUGE! I stalked him, but never saw him again. There was an excellent sulphur hatch just as it was getting dark Tuesday night. I missed a lot of takes, because I could no longer see my fly on the water and was too late setting the hook. The no-hackle, BWO CDC Comparadun in sizes 16 and 18 was one of the top producers again this spring. During the last two days, I netted several big browns in the 18 to 20 inch range on BWO Compara Cripples and Comparaduns. All of these fish were taken in the no-kill area upstream from Hale Eddy. There were lots of monster browns up near the bridge at Deposit feeding on olives near the bank. They also came up for Green Drakes and sulphurs later in the day. I saw some of the biggest most beautiful fish on this trip, with several large browns breaking the surface and coming two or three feet out of the water. It was really something to see. The sulphur hatches were really heating up as the week wore on, with both large sulphurs and Light Cahills (sizes 12 and 14), and the smaller dorotheas (sizes 18 and 20), hatching in large numbers in the early evenings (usually at around 7 PM or so). Fishing a sulphur emerger down and across was effective. But the browns hit the sulphurs hard and fast, and I missed several nice fish during these hatches, and lost most of the ones I hooked. One of the nicest fish of the week was taken mid-week, up in the no-kill area. It was about 9:30 AM and pouring rain, and there were large olives hatching everywhere. I had spotted this large brown two days earlier in the shallow riffle, and Jimmer had worked him for about three hours that afternoon. But he was feeding sub-surface and was very selective. When I returned two days later, he was in the same place taking the large olives off the top. He was feeding in about 12 inches of water. I nailed him in the first few minutes with a size 14 or 16 BWO, which was a deer hair compara cripple pattern (with the trailing shuck). I released this fish about 40 yards downstream, but four hours later he was right back where he started. He is still there, waiting for Jimmer to come back.

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