Catskill Outfitters

The West Branch of the Delaware is a tailwater fed by Cannonsville Reservoir near Deposit, New York, and it is guided both on foot and from a drift boat. Wading anglers work from the many marked pullout areas along the river, while drift boats float down to Hale Eddy and into Hancock, reaching stretches that are hard to get to any other way. Brown and rainbow trout are the fish, and the outfitter describes them as unusually selective because of how much food the river carries. Flows rise and fall regularly with releases from the dam, which shapes where and how a day gets fished. Below Hancock the West Branch meets the East Branch to form the main stem of the Delaware. Alongside float and wade days the outfitter runs backcountry outings on small, out-of-the-way mountain water and beginner fly fishing lessons.

Catskill Outfitters also guides the Esopus Creek, a freestone stream that rises at Winnisook Lake and runs to the Hudson at Saugerties. Cold water from its tributaries and controlled releases through the Shandaken Tunnel hold the trout population through the warm months, making it a year-round fishery. Brown trout run in the autumn and rainbows in the spring, with the tributaries closed over those spawning periods, and brook trout hold in the headwaters and feeder streams. Source: the outfitter’s own Esopus Creek fly fishing guides page at catskilloutfitters.com, verified September 2026.