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This coming Labor Day should offer some quality opportunities for both warmwater and coldwater fish. Largemouth Bass and Panfish have been very cooperative in July and August. Recent cooler nights will have them thinking about fall and should get them to begin feeding in earnest. I've been enjoying fishing with poppers and large streamers for the Largemouth Bass. I even began to fish the #4 Black Woolly Bugger as a rubber worm with a lift and drop motion with some nice results.
Water temps in area rivers and streams are improving overall, flows are a bit above normal for this time of year and it looks like we should see more consistently cooler conditions in the upcoming week after Labor Day. Having said that pick your opportunities, anglers are successfully catching and releasing trout early in the morning and again at dusk. Water temps have risen a bit over the last couple of days. Nothing horrible but it means that fishing is best before 10 am and after 7pm with water temps between 64-68 degrees. I see no reason not to recommend an early morning session for trout and as reported in my last post, Isonychia or Slate Drakes and Light Cahills are showing in the early evening.
As far as tactics, look for trout to be found feeding in the swifter flows of rapids and fast well oxygenated runs. These are the most productive areas to fish subsurface with a variety of nymph and streamer patterns. Keep moving, don't expect to catch a dozen fish from the same location. These holdovers are wary and a positive development has been that increasing numbers of Brown Trout are being caught in the Ken Lockwood Gorge. Don't be afraid to gibe Point Mountain TCAQ on the Musky or the Pequest TCA near the hatchery. You may want to add some small Caddis larva and emergers to your list of choices, I am noticing increasing numbers of Caddis; most of them are smaller, #18 in either Olive or Tan. Very soon, the true fall Caddis will be coming off in better numbers.
Local Hatches 8/28/2019:
Morning 5-10 am:
Trico Trorythodes spp. Trico #22-24
Spotted Sedge Hydropsyche spp. Tan Elk Hair Caddis #14-18, Green Rockworm or JC's Electric Caddis #14-18, LaFontaine's Sparkle Pupa #14-18
Evening 7-9pm:
Hex Litobrancha atrocaudata and L. rigida Ausable or Grizzly Wulf #10
Slate Drake Isonychia bicolor Iso #12-14
It's Isonychia time again so here are a couple of Tim's videos on this underappreciated mayfly. Matt's Iso Emerger and Tim's Iso Nymph.