Week of April 26, 2026: Midges in the film & a little rain
It was another banner week for fly fishing in New Jersey. While the big mayfly hatches have been elusive, the caddis, and midges have made up the difference. There were fish rising all week - all day long. Naturally, there are times when you could lose count of the rising fish and others when the boils seem few and far between, but the chances for top water takes are ample. The challenge is, of course, figuring out what they are rising for…
A little trial and error can reveal the bug of choice. A quick scan of the sky, rocks on the banks, or often our waders themselves, reveal the hatching insect. Recently, there are little black caddis, BWO, and midges in the air and on the water. If you are fishing for rising trout, think small. After an afternoon when the CDC caddis emerger was the hot fly, things inexplicitly shifted and the fish ignored the caddis variations that had worked before. I ran a small black midge behind the caddis and suddenly I was catching fish. I tried RS2, WD40 and zebra midges - all black - and they produced. Once in a while the caddis or a BWO emerger catch, too.
After a gorgeous week, a cold front came in again. Saturday morning was cold and wet and rain got heavier as the day went on. Despite this, a client and I went out and caught his first trout on the fly. It came about 8:30 am and with cold fingers. A BWO emerger was the killing pattern and the fish made the day.
Our newest employee, AJ, guide and local tyer, Kayla, and I were out recently and witnessed something I have not seen before: a crane fly hatch. Not only that, they were small (for a crane fly) and yellow. At first I thought the sulphurs were early, but something was off about the ID. Later, I was able to grab one and, LO!, it was a small yellow cranefly. That would explain why Kayla immediately caught fish with her small yellow mop fly and my rig was ignored. Can you find a dry pattern for a crane fly? You betcha! Tim Flagler put one out last summer that is pretty neat.
Eventually, after moving upstream, my caddis emerger caught the attention of a nice brown - my only fish on a rather rough afternoon after the overnight rain. The water came up and started back down Sunday (April 26th) morning. It was stained and pushing - but still below average across NJ. This week looks pretty good weather wise and the bugs will continue to pop.
See you out there,
Roy B.