Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Dave and Rick at the Troutfitter said send some pictures with your reports. Today was a carbon copy of yesterday minus the morning trip. For the full fishing report reread paragraphs 2 & 3 of yesterdays report. Hooked exactly the same number of fish but landed four more. Catch included the brown and rainbow attached. If you're not fishing the Delaware, you're missing it big time.  

Got out early and fished a place on the big river that I hadn't been to yet this year. There were no bugs or risers. Hooked four rainbows and landed two. Came back to the camp and took a nap. Went out a little after two to take on the sulfur sippers.  They won. Sulfurs hatch in the sun, they just don't stay on the water as long and the fish don't get into a rhythm eating them.  Fish don't like to feed in the bright sun and they seem to be fussier.  Got a lot of refusals, hooked three and landed one. It was about five and the sulfurs were on the wane when the stenos got going.  They don't cover the water but they are big and come in assorted flavors (lime green, cotton candy pink and a fruity orange) and the fish love 'em. There were more than enough of them to get the fish feeding on top. I had three hours of non stop action. Yesterdays crowd of fishermen? A mere aberration. Parking lots were again empty.  I saw one fisherman wading up along the shore and two dr...

Ever since the DEP maxed out the release from Cannonsville I have had the river to myself. Today wade fishermen were everywhere. On the upper EB, Long flat's 4 cars was topped by the 5 at the power line pool. The big EB had one or two fishermen in every pool I could see in my wanderings. There were four cars in the upper game lands lot and a pickup truck at the lower gamelands lot. A fisherman walked in on me in the first place I picked to fish. I walked in on a fisherman in the second place I tried to fish. Seven canoes and three kayaks went by me in the next place.  Ended the day in relative solitude offering a souvenir to any fish willing to eat my fly. Aided by an excess of adrenalin from a mildly frustrating day I gave away two souvenirs. Going to get up early tomorrow and beat the crowds to the stream.

Stopped at Buckingham launch site to see if there were any bugs. There were enough big yellow ones and little green ones on the water to lure me into a walk down the "trail"  towards the river house pool. Big mistake, anyone who hasn't walked that path in midsummer after high water has flattened the grass doesn't know what they are missing. Felt soled wading boots and mud are a deadly combination. Made it back to the car in one piece, just before the afternoon T-boomer, without seeing a single rise. Next stop was on the WB at the scene of a 2/6 performance against sulfur sippers earlier this week.  Went 2/5 this time (sometimes if you quit early you come out ahead). Tried another pool (now a fast paced run) and found fish eating stenos (slower water, bigger hook, better results). On the way back to camp, I stopped on the EB where isos were being greeted by hard rising rainbows.  The place has been fished hard and the fish have learned to eat the fast swimming nymphs a...

Today's big question.  Where to fish? With the DEP playing it safe and drawing down Cannonsville with the !,500 max. release and old mother nature adding additional water via thunderstorms the WB and the big river were pretty much out of play. The Beaverkill?  Old mother nature spared it the rain but poured down enough sun to make fishing there unconscionable. That left the EB. The big east, warmed by the Beaverkill water and a wide streambed also heats up quickly. The upper EB, at 500 cfs, is cold the entire 15 miles from Downsville to East Branch. Like Lorelei, however, she entices you into the water and then watches you flounder on the rocks. The upper EB has fish, bugs, deep pools and at 500 cfs, challenging riffs and runs. But she suffers no fools.  If you go there be prepared for the worst.  Fish stop rising before you are even close to your casting range or (most times) they don't even rise at all. One cast, after a careful approach, senda every fish within 10...

I fish a lot and pay attention to the factors that make it both good and bad, but I am still mystified by what greets me on the stream each day.  On the best day this week the water temp on the WB hit a high of 49.  There were a plethora of bugs and the fish fed like crazy.  Today the water temp was 50 degrees, the hatch was sparse and the fish couldn't be bothered.  Why?  Air temp you say.  Yes, it was much hotter today but the fish and bugs are in the water, they can't know that. The water is up a little bit from T-storms (one going on here as I write) and there was no one wading (both game lands parking areas empty as was Stockport - when have you ever seen that) and almost no one floating today, after a flotilla of boats on the water yesterday. The fishing was ok.  You had to look for risers and make good casts. If they were up they gave your fly a look, some even ate. Thunderstorms came and went like yesterday. This fulfills my need for cardio exe...

It was almost too easy, seven casts, five fish hooked and landed. I had walked a long way up stream.  The bugs were just starting, sulfurs mostly but a noticeable number of stenos.  Why not?  I put on a steno and it was like a kid at the state fair with cotton candy.  They couldn't resist.  One was busy eating another fly when mine went by and he turned and chased it downstream three feet and ate. Visions of a twenty fish day filled my head, and then they changed the question.  In the time it took to hook and land the fifth fish, dry my fly and cast again, they went from, "What's big and tastes good?", to "What can we eat that doesn't have a hook in it?". I got seven refusals in a row with that very same fly that got five straight eats. Changing flies several times produced a combination of refusals and ignores (for sure they were not at all interested in olives). The thunder which had been rumbling for quite some time got louder (rain coat in the car ha...