West Branch Ausable, Wilmington NY

[EJS]

I returned on Tuesday, sorry for the delay in my response, I was busy cleaning gear to getting ready for the next trip.

The largest fish of the trip was a 22" bow, caught on a size 4 cone head Olive wooly bugger. The weather really beat us up this trip. The rain, winds, temperature swings and water conditions made it a real chess match on the water.

Currently, size 18 Yellow Stone Flies, size 12 - 14 March Browns, Large Black Stones size 2 - 4, Blue Wing Olives, Size 16 Sulphers and Rusty Spinners are all in play right now.

This was my second trip to this river, so I knew the basic lay of the land. I took this trip to really explore the river away from the access points. The river can go from pond like calm to class 5 water in less than 50 yards, making this river a real challenge to wade. I have seen more people fall in this river than any other river I have fished in the U.S. < Hint, wading boots w/ Carbide cleats & a wading stick should be on the packing list >

As far as the number of people fishing. Its not different than NJ, fisherman gravitate to easy, so get away from the pull-off areas! Hike a 1/2 mile down or up stream, and you will be fishing with no one in sight.

The Black Flies were not bad, I used the Repel 100 to keep them off me.

Saturday - Sunday: the conditions were changing by the hour, so I carried a dry fly rod and a czech nymph rod with me. We could see the March Browns, Sulphers, spinners in the air 15' overhead, but the temperature drops killed the top water action both nights.

Monday, we fished all day in the rain, landing 12+ Browns before dinner time. We took a break to eat and went back out in hopes of good dry fly fishing. The rain stopped at 8pm, by 8:30 the top water action heated up. By 9pm the water was boiling with hits. We put on head lamps and fished until 10:30pm. The average fish for the night was 17".

In all, it was a great trip dispite the challenging conditions.