Upper Delaware Drakes: The Things Fly Anglers Dream About

This article originally appeared in the July 2005 issue of Fly Fisherman.

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For many Eastern anglers, Green and Brown Drake hatches provide memories of some of the year’s best fly fishing. No other mayfly species captures our imagination in quite the same way when pursuing large trout with dry flies. These hatches are the peak of the season–the things we dream about, on long winter nights.

Yet, for some, drakes invoke frustrating memories of fishless days with few bugs or uncooperative fish. A number of years ago, while camping on the banks of Penn’s Creek in central Pennsylvania, a stream renowned for its drakes, I overheard two old-timers discussing the merits of the river's premier hatch. "The fish don't like 'em. They taste bad. That's why the best fly pattern for a Green Drake is a size 14 Sulphur," one of them said.

This may be true on some rivers, but l know where the fish do like them–a river where the sheer numbers of emerging drakes and fluttering spinners is a natural wonder and where some of the largest trout east of the Rocky Mountains live. This hatch-matcher's haven is the upper Delaware River, especially the East Branch.

The Upper East Branch

The upper East Branch glides for 17 1/2 miles from its humble beginnings within the tubes of Pepacton Reservoir near Downsville, New York, to its junction with the Beaverkill outside the aptly named hamlet of East Branch. It flows through a valley dotted with cornfields and is surrounded by mountains where local populations of grouse, turkey, white-tailed deer, and black bear largely outnumber its human inhabitants.

Pepacton Reservoir provides the bulk of Catskill drinking water for New York City, so the upper East gets proportionally less water released clown its course than its sister river, the West Branch. This makes it a smaller and more intimate river than either the West Branch or the nearby freestone Beaverkill. The upper East is not suited for boats throughout much of the year, and although there are some who choose to float its shallow riffles and silty, weed-laden pools, the river truly belongs to wading anglers. Gentle currents and a uniform streambed usually prompt me to leave my drift boat in the driveway.

The river's stable flow and temperature create an ideal spring-creek-like habitat for trout as well as Green and Brown Drakes. The drakes usually begin hatching in early to mid-June, right about the time they are winding down on other Catskill rivers. The timing of the hatch helped keep the upper East's drakes a secret for many years. Few anglers fished the river as recently as five or six years ago, and when the drakes ended elsewhere, most decided that the hatches were over for the year in the entire region.

The upper East has always had a reputation for difficult fishing, and only a small cult of die-hards risked their valuable vacation time or weekends to pursue its spooky trout. This used to be a blessing. Now the word is out. At times, parking areas and pull-offs are full to capacity, as they are on most rivers during prime time. The wild trout residing here inspect hundreds of fly patterns during their lifetimes. They can be difficult to catch. To compound this problem, the vast amount of food produced by the river's pure, unspoiled water would seem to make it almost unnecessary for a trout to ever rise to a dry fly to survive. However, they do rise here, often.

The fish are eager when the drakes begin hatching. They willingly accept most conventional patterns if presented correctly. As the hatch progresses, the fish become more particular. Certain physical characteristics of the East Branch also encourage this selectivity.

The river's many long, flat, slow-moving pools provide trout ample opportunity to scrutinize flies, both natural and man-made. It is common to have the larger, more selective fish fin slowly beneath your fly, interrogating, looking for a glimpse of the unnatural.

Like most tailwaters, the water temperature and bug life change drastically the farther you venture upstream. Generally speaking, water temperatures drop and drake populations decrease as you get closer to the dam. The most productive stretch is from Shinhopple down to the confluence with the Beaverkill. You will find drakes above this point, and some good fishing as well, but the true spectacle of the hatch is best witnessed on lower sections of the river.

The Fish

The upper East has developed a reputation for growing large, wild brown trout. Its wild trout population is also supplemented with hatchery browns to the disdain of many of the river's faithful. Attitudes change slowly, and although the majority of fish caught are released, leaving a healthy, naturally reproducing trout population, the hatchery system is still deeply ingrained in New York State.

Wild browns average 10 to 12 inches, but you would have a hard time believing that during the drake hatch 15- to 18-inch fish rise regularly and catching a 20-inch-plus fish is possible. I caught my largest Delaware River trout, a hook-jawed 24-inch brown, in the upper East Branch on a drake imitation.

The upper East's tributaries also contain populations of native brook trout. The fish are in the 8- to 10-inch range, but every year a few of them leave their cold, small creeks and avoid bald eagles, blue herons, and fishermen long enough to grow large in the river. Al's Wild Trout in Shinhopple used to have photographs of many large fish taken in the river, and some of them were brook trout. Sadly, Al Carpenter passed away last winter, and the upper East lost its only fly shop and one of its best friends.

The wild Delaware River rainbow is strangely vacant in the upper East Branch. The riffles and pools behind my home on the lower end of the Beaverkill, a short two and a half miles from the junction of these two rivers, have been colonized by rainbows that now seem to be seizing control of the entire Catskill portion of the Delaware watershed. One would expect the upper East to also contain large populations of wild rainbows, but this is not the case.

No one really knows why there aren't more rainbows here. Perhaps it is water temperatures, a lack of suitable rainbow habitat, or maybe the rainbows just haven't moved into the river in significant numbers yet. I did receive reports last year from a couple of upper East anglers who claim to have caught some rainbows.

If they are in the river, there aren't many of them. You probably will not have the opportunity to catch the high-flying Delaware rainbows during the upper East drake hatch; you'll just have to settle for shots at 20- inch browns.

The Drakes

I have chosen to discuss Green and Brown Drakes together because they overlap much of the time. Green Drakes largely outnumber Brown Drakes when the hatch first begins. Although fewer Brown Drakes hatch initially, the number of these insects surpasses the Green Drake duns and spinners (Coffin Flies) before the hatch ends. The ratio between the numbers of Green and Brown Drakes in the trees along the river is a good gauge for how long the hatch has been taking place and how long it will last.

Both the Eastern Green Drake, Ephemera guttulata, and Brown Drake, Ephemera simulans, belong to the family of borrowing nymphs known as Ephemeridae. The nymphs of both species require fine gravel to create a burrow from which they periodically emerge to molt, under low-light conditions, during their two-year life cycle. They prefer living in slow-moving, silty pools, but they can be found in the riffles if proper habitat is present. Emerging Ephemeridae nymphs swim to the surface to escape their shucks and ride on the river as duns waiting for their wings to dry, enabling flight. Once airborne, the duns fly to streamside vegetation where they molt into spinners and wait for twilight to mate, lay eggs over waters, and die. This is where the two species can have a small but important distinction.

Green Drake spinners, or Coffin Flies, a name coined by Catskill legends Walt Dette and Ted Townsend during a tying session after a funeral, usually lie spent on the water's surface once they have mated or deposited their eggs. Brown Drake spinners have the unusual tendency of riding upon the river's currents with upright wings after mating. Noticing this small discrepancy in posture is vital to catching upper East Branch trout. Switching from a spent "spinner to one with upright wings or even to a dun has done the trick more than once.

Fishing the Hatch

Customers in my fly shop often ask what size and length of leaders are ideal for fishing the three branches of the Delaware. The answer is simple-the longest leader you can comfortably tum over and present accurately. I seldom use leader and tippet combinations shorter than 12 feet. I may go longer if river conditions are low and clear. Cast slightly quartering downstream whenever possible to get optimum drift and to avoid lining the fish. For drakes, I most often use 5X tippet, but I switch to 6X when the river is low and clear. At sunset, I shorten my leader to about seven feet and cut the tippet back to 3X. The largest fish are on the prowl after sunset, and they are not leader shy under low-light conditions. Don't let laziness cost you a big fish.

Fly pattern choices are crucial, and after years of fishing Green and Brown Drake hatches, I have finally settled on a few nymph, dun, and spinner imitations that work for me. The upper East Branch substrate is full of Green and Brown Drake nymphs in various stages of their two-year development throughout the year. They are an important and sometimes frustrating element in fishing the hatch. Drake nymphs swim with a distinct up-and-down undulating movement that is enticing to trout but difficult to imitate with feathers, fur, and steel. Standard nymphs can be effective but must be swung or quickly stripped to mimic the actions of living insects. Movement is key, and using dead-drifting nymphing techniques at this time usually fails.

Wiggle nymphs are the most effective subsurface patterns immediately before and during the drake hatch. These jointed flies move well in the water when stripped and are often aggressively taken by trout. Drake nymphs usually become active under low-light conditions such as cloud cover, approaching darkness, or shade from mountains. The upper East Branch runs in a more north to south direction than most of the other Delaware tributaries, which tend to run east to west. Because of this trait, the river's drake nymphs are often active during the day in those pools where the mountains have blocked the sun for large portions of the day.

Be sure to use sturdy enough materials so you do not lose the fish of the day on a broken fly. Charlie Meck's version of a wiggle nymph, the Quigley Wiggler, uses the hooks themselves to form the connection between the two hooks. Charlie ties these flies by placing the lead hook's point into the eye of the rear hook. This forms a strong connection, not easily broken by a trout, and retains the necessary movement to imitate Green and Brown Drake nymphs.

The size of upper East Branch Green and Brown Drake duns and spinners varies more than most mayflies. Duns and spinners range from#12 to #8, but the average is #10. Drake abdomens are especially long, so I always tie duns and spinners on 2XL dry-fly hooks. Fine-wire hooks also help such large flies float.

It is important to use dun and spinner patterns that realistically copy the form of the drakes if you want to catch fish. I designed my Truform series of flies specifically for imitating large mayflies and have used them to fool some of the wisest upper East Branch trout.

The hackle on the Truform flies should be one to two sizes larger than the hook size and should extend just shy of the hook point. I use Wabbit dubbing from Montana Fly Company, but you can substitute a range of dubbings, from natural rabbit to synthetics such as Superfine. I coat the flies with Frog's Fanny desiccant before fishing them and reapply it after catching a fish.

The slow pools, where most of the drakes are found, make it easy for trout to scrutinize a fly before accepting or rejecting it. Flush-riding patterns such as Compara-duns, Sparkle Duns, and parachutes with trailing shucks also consistently produce fish. It is a good idea to have a selection of all of these flies tied as both Green and Brown Drakes to deceive the often independently thinking trout. It is not unusual to have a single fish take one pattern only to have the next trout refuse the same fly.

Spinner falls can be prolific and are best fished with larger size flies for two important reasons. First, so many flies are usually on the water that it is impossible for either angler or fish to distinguish artificial flies from the naturals. A larger fly helps to get the fish's attention and is also more visible to the fisher­ man, so you can see the take when it happens. Second, much of the best spinner fishing occurs just before and well into dark. If there is a little moonlight, sometimes you can see a large fly on the water, which makes for better presentations and hook sets. Size 8 Truform spinners work well as daylight begins to fade, but I prefer size 6 Dette Coffin Flies at dark. This old pattern rests high on the water and is surprisingly visible under moonlit conditions.

How to Get There

A lot of property along the upper East Branch is private, but there are also plenty of places to access the river. The easiest way to reach the river is by driving along New York State Route 30 located at Route 17's exit 90. Route 30 parallels the river from its confluence with the Beaverkill all the way to Downsville. Access areas are marked with small DEC signs, so drive slowly or you may miss them. Some of these areas are only foot­ paths through private property. Be sure to obey all posted signs, and do not tram­ ple through farmers' fields.

Two years ago the DEC had to move one of the access points because of inconsiderate sportsmen. Most of the property owners along the river are friendly, and by picking up someone else's discarded garbage or by thanking landowners you encounter along the river, you may even get invited to a private access. The DEC publishes a map that shows many of the public access areas, and it is a good idea to get one before you go. Most of the local fly shops provide these maps free of charge or you can download it at https://extapps.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/pfreastbranch.pdf.

If you have never had the opportunity to fish a truly great Green and Brown Drake hatch, give the upper East a try. Beautiful scenery, large wild trout, and one of the most prolific Green and Brown Drake hatches in the eastern United States will create a special memory you will not soon forget.

Other Drake Hatches

The upper East Branch isn't the only Delaware River tributary with fishable hatches of Green and Brown Drakes. The Beaverkill, lower East Branch, West Branch, and the Delaware's main stem all provide excellent opportunities to find rising trout eating these mayflies.

Beaverkill drakes are usually sizes 10 to 14, smaller than those found in the tailwater tributaries to the Delaware. The hatches progress upstream from the lower section of the river near its junction with the East Branch, eventually reaching the upper Beaverkill and the Willowemoc. I've seen hatching drakes at the Covered Bridge Campground on the upper Beaverkill above Roscoe, New York, as late as the end of June. The only deterrent to fishing Beaverkill drakes is the popularity of the hatch. 1f you choose to chase drakes on the Beaverkill, you won't be doing it alone.

The lower East Branch, beginning at the junction of the East Branch and Beaverkill, near East Branch, New York, may be the least-fished river within the Delaware River watershed. Because of the Beaverkill's water, the lower East looks more like a smaller version of the main stem than the spring-creek­like upper East Branch. It's characterized by long riffles and large, silty pools that create perfect Green and Brown Drake habitat. Anglers often bypass the lower East because of unreliable fishing conditions due in large part to water temperatures. It is too far, approximately 17.5 miles, from Pepacton Reservoir to receive the cooling effects of limited bottom releases and receives flow from the lower Beaverkill, which is often warm. However, water temperatures are usually acceptable for trout until mid to late June–after the Green and Brown Drake hatches have ended. The lower East has few boat launches and may be your best bet for fishing these hatches in relative solitude.

The West Branch contains the smallest population of drakes of all the Delaware River branches and is usually the last place I go in the area to fish a Green or Brown Drake hatch. However, last season, the West Branch provided some of its best drake fishing in the past several years. I'm not sure if the increased numbers of West Branch drakes will be permanent or if last season was a short-term result of increased water temperatures due to higher than average runoff and reduced bottom releases during the last two years.

To find drakes on the West Branch, concentrate your efforts below the Hale Eddy Bridge. The largest numbers of drakes hatch from this point downriver to the junction of the East and West branches outside of Hancock, New York.

The main stem of the Delaware is blessed with large numbers of Green and Brown Drakes, rivaled only by the hatches of the upper East Branch. Brown and Green Drakes hatch throughout the entire Catskill portion of the Delaware's main stem from Hancock to Callicoon and beyond. The main stem is a large river and is best fished, especially during higher flows, from a drift boat.

Timing the Hatch

Because hatches on the East Branch, West Branch, and main stem of the Delaware are all affected by the tailwater releases from Cannonsville and Pepacton reservoirs and the weather, planning for a drake hatch can be difficult. Generally, Green and Brown Drakes begin hatching on all the rivers after the March Browns hatch and around the same lime that the large Sulphurs (Ephemerello invorio) begin emerging. Call local fly shops for their predictions based on the current insect hatches.

Drakes hatch later on the Upper East Branch, so you can predict emergences there based on whether they are hatching on the Beaverkill or lower East Branch. Drakes usually begin hatching in the lower Beaverkill, main stem of the Delaware River, and West Branch around the last week of May and last for around a week. After hatches wind down on these rivers, drakes begin hatching on the upper East Branch and last for a week.

Truform Brown and Green Drake Fly Recipes

Weamer’s Truform Brown Drake Emerger

• HOOK: #8-10 Daiichi 1230.
• THREAD: Olive 8/0 Uni-Thread. SHUCK: Dark brown Antron.
• WING: Three brown and two black CDC feathers.
• PARACHUTE POST: Olive Antron.
• HACKLE: Grizzly dyed olive.
• BODY: Light Golden Stone Wabbit dubbing (tannish olive).

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Weamer’s Truform Coffin Fly

• HOOK: #8-12 Daiichi 1230.
• THREAD: White 8/0 Uni-Thread.
• TAIL: Black Microfibetts.
• WING: Clear Antron (can substitute white or light-dun Antron).
• PARACHUTE POST: White Antron.
• HACKLE: Grizzly.
• BODY: White Wabbit dubbing.

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Weamer’s Truform Green Drake Dun

• HOOK: #8-12 Daiichi Truform 1230.
• THREAD: Olive 8/0 Uni-Thread.
• TAIL: Black Microfibetts (dun).
• WING: Three olive and two black CDC feathers.
• PARACHUTE POST: Olive Antron.
• HACKLE: Grizzly dyed olive.
• BODY: Green Drake Wabbit dubbing (cream with yellow tint).

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Weamer's Truform Brown Drake Spinner

• HOOK: #8-12 Daiichi Truform 1230.
• THREAD: Brown 8/0 Uni-Thread.
• TAIL: Black Microfibetts.
• WING: Clear Antron (can substitute white or light-dun Antron).
• PARACHUTE POST: Olive Antron.
• HACKLE: Grizzly dyed olive.
• BODY: Dark Golden Stone Wabbit dubbing (brownish olive), ribbed with heavy yellow thread.

Green and Brown Drakes are two of the most heavily fished hatches in the Catskills. Thankfully, the upper Delaware River watershed offers anglers a vast array of rivers to pursue these amazing mayflies.

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Paul Weamer co-owned Border Water Outfitters, previously Ultimate Fly Fishing Store, in Hancock, New York. He is the author of Favorite Flies for Yellowstone National Park (Stackpole Books, 2022) and Dry Fly Strategies (Stackpole Books, 2021). Currently he is a program coordinator with the Institute on Ecosystems at Montana State University, and runs the Yellowstone Fly Fishing Volunteer Program.

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