Fly Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River. Ben Sheard

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      26 . West Branch Delaware River

       Location: Southeastern New York about a 1½-hour ride from New York City; a 2-hour ride from Newark, New Jersey; a 3-hour ride from Hartford, Connecticut; and a 4-hour ride from Boston, Massachusetts. Full-service airports are available in all four cities.

      The West Branch of the Delaware River is considered one of the finest wild trout fisheries east of the Mississippi. It is located on the western edge of the Catskill Mountains—the birthplace of American dry-fly

      fishing. Some of the most notable names in fly fishing called the Catskills home. Theodore Gordon and Joan and Lee Wulff are just a few of the well-known anglers who fished these legendary waters. This region is home to some of the finest trout rivers in the country.

      The West Branch is one of several tailwaters in the area created when the state built reservoirs in the mid-1960s to supply drinking water to New York City. Cannonsville Dam was constructed on the lower West Branch in the town of Deposit. This created Cannons- ville Reservoir—a roughly 30- mile-long impoundment. The reservoir has a maximum capacity of 95.7 billion gallons.

      The upper West Branch above the reservoir flows through farmland which has a

      negative effect on the reservoir due to siltation. This makes it less desirable as drinking water. Compared to the other six area dams, the West Branch generally has the best flow regime. The releases from Cannonsville are mainly used to keep the salt water from encroaching up from Delaware Bay.

      The section of West Branch below Cannonsville Dam is the most popular with fly fishers, thanks to the season-long coldwater releases. This section extends roughly 11 miles to the confluence with the East Branch, near the town of Hancock. It has some of the highest fish counts of any trout river east of the Rocky Mountains. Both