Stilesville Weir to Deposit: the coldest water on the river
Everything about the West Branch starts at the Cannonsville Reservoir dam and the Stilesville weir just below it. The water that comes out is bottom-release cold, and the Delaware River Club's report for September 23, 2026 had the Stilesville gauge at 467 cfs and 51 degrees while the freestone Beaverkill downstream was reading 57. That gap is the whole story of the river in summer: when the Beaverkill and the lower East Branch are too warm to fish in July, the upper West Branch is still throwing Sulphurs in the afternoon. Dette Flies' September 1 report had Blue-Winged Olives and Sulphurs hatching in the afternoon on the upper sections, with Cahills and Isonychias lower down toward dark.
The stretch from the weir down through Deposit is the most crowded water in May and June for a reason. Flows are lowest here before Oquaga Creek and the other tributaries add to the volume, the fish see a lot of flies, and long leaders and 5X or 6X tippet are the norm. Hackett Fly Fishing's advice is blunt: move until you find rising fish, then watch before you cast, because the bigger browns are quiet, sleek eaters.
The two no-kill miles below the Route 17 bridge
From the Route 17 bridge at Deposit downstream for 2 miles the river is in NYSDEC's Catch and Release category: open all year, catch and release only, artificial lures only. The access at the south edge of the village off Airport Road puts you at the top of it, and the Charmed Circle field guide describes the float from Airport Road down to the OARS rental base as livelier riffle water, with a notable riffle at the mouth of Sherman Creek above Hale Eddy. Below the no-kill the river drops back to the Wild-Premier rules that cover the rest of the tailwater.
Do not read the year-round opening as a winter invitation to wade anywhere. From Stilesville down the West Branch is open to fishing all year, but from October 16 through March 31 every reach is catch and release with artificial lures, and the reservoir keeps it cold enough that the winter fishing is a Little Black Stonefly and midge game.
Hale Eddy to Junction Pool, where the river becomes the state line
Below Hale Eddy the river turns into the New York and Pennsylvania boundary and runs that way to Hancock, where it meets the East Branch at Junction Pool and becomes the main stem Delaware. This is the water most people picture when they say West Branch: wide, flat pools between riffles, drift boats sliding down the middle, and wade anglers working the edges. The access points are the Hale Eddy bridge on County Route 56 off Route 17, Balls Eddy off Penn-York Road on the Pennsylvania bank, and Shehawken at the junction of Routes 191 and 370. The Charmed Circle guide notes that most of the banks here are posted and that the lower river carries a higher share of rainbows than the water above Deposit.
The border changes your paperwork but not much else. NYSDEC's border-waters table says a Pennsylvania license is honored on the West Branch and the Delaware along the boundary, and the reverse is true, so you can fish either bank or float the middle on one license. That reciprocity stops where the boundary does: above the Pennsylvania game lands you need a New York license, and the East Branch, Beaverkill and Willowemoc are New York water only.
What the Cannonsville release means at Hale Eddy
The Hale Eddy gauge reads the release plus everything the tributaries add between Deposit and the bridge, so it runs a couple hundred cfs above Stilesville in a normal week. Dette Flies lists 400 to 700 cfs as the ideal wading window for the West Branch, and the Cross Current Outfitters chart fills in the shape of it: 400 to 450 cfs is close to fully wadeable but a drift boat has to be walked over the shallows, 600 to 800 leaves 60 to 70 percent of the river wadeable and is where floating gets easy, and at 1,000 to 1,200 only aggressive waders find much water. Hackett puts the line at 1,000 cfs for a challenging wade and says do not enter on foot above 1,500, which is streamer-from-the-boat water.
The USGS monthly medians at Hale Eddy explain why the river fishes from a boat in spring and from your feet in summer: roughly 1,700 cfs in April, 770 in May, then 600 to 680 from June through October as the release holds the level up. The Delaware River Club's daily report lists the current Cannonsville release at the bottom; when the release changes, Hale Eddy follows within hours.
Sulphurs into August, and the hatch calendar for this tailwater
The Delaware River Club's chart and West Branch Angler's monthly list agree on the sequence. Early Black and Brown Stoneflies and the first Baetis olives come in late March and April, Quill Gordons and Hendricksons run from mid-April into May with Grannoms alongside, and March Browns and Gray Fox overlap the start of the Sulphurs in mid-May. Green Drakes show in late May and early June with Brown Drakes right behind. What the cold water does differently is stretch the Sulphurs: the small Ephemerella dorothea keep coming into July, and Flylords notes the little summer Sulphurs on the upper West Branch after most eastern freestones are too warm to fish. Isonychias and Light Cahills carry the evenings from June to September, Tricos take the mornings from mid-July, and the DRC report for the week of September 23 listed tiny olives, Cahills, Isonychias and Heptagenia hebe. October brings Slate Drakes, tan caddis and flying ants, and the small olives never really stop.
One fish, any size, and which license you need
Under the 2021 inland trout regulations the West Branch is Wild-Premier from Stilesville Weir to the Route 17 bridge at Deposit, from 2 miles below that bridge to the Pennsylvania line, and along the border itself: April 1 through October 15, daily limit one trout of any size, then October 16 through March 31 catch and release only with artificial lures. The only different water is the 2-mile catch-and-release reach below the Route 17 bridge, which is no-kill and artificials all year. NYSDEC's border-waters page carries the same one-fish, no-minimum rule for the boundary reach and confirms the license reciprocity with Pennsylvania. Nothing in the tailwater is stocked; the browns and rainbows from Stilesville to Hancock are all wild, which is why nearly everyone lets the one fish go.