The season started off with lots of cold weather into the first week of May and the Hendrickson hatches were about a week late making their appearance on the Ausable and Saranac. Good hatches began occurring around the second week of the month along with lots of caddis. Things got progressively better with a proliferation of caddis, mayflies and stoneflies and the fishing during the entire months of June and July was exceptional. We had very good hatches of march browns, gray foxes and an exceptional hatch of Green Drakes from the eighth through the fifteenth of June. Our first annual Ausable Wulff Fly Fishing Contest contest took place at the peak of the green drake hatch and the winner, Joe Pallozzi, took the first place prize with a beautiful nineteen and a half inch brown.

The summer from July into the end of August saw mostly low water conditions but plenty of caddis and great numbers of stoneflies. Because of the low water and warmer water temperatures, fishing was best during the early morning and late evening hours. In fact, most of the larger trout, and there were plenty, were taken between the hours of seven and ten in the evening. About mid August, the Isonychias began to appear along with lots of caddis and continuing hatches of stoneflies.

Fall fishing was good and continued into October. To sum up the season, although it got off to a late start, the season was generally as good if not better than last year. We are still getting some good catches in the catch and release area and despite the exceptional cold weather for late October, trophy fish are still hitting during the mid afternoon on small blue winged olives and small olive bodied "Usuals". The most productive fly during the entire season was the Ausable Bomber and it accounted for a number of fish in the eighteen to twenty four inch range - most of these taken during the late evening hours.

2004 AUSABLE WULFF FLY FISHING CONTEST