Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

There were traffic jams at launch sites and full parking lots.  Wade fishermen vied with guides in drift boat each seeking to fish the prime locations. Where?  On the upper WB where sulfurs have been hatching and big fish have been feeding. The area has seen little pressure this year as the bug hatches have been poor and rising fish have been scarce. During the past six weeks the area was unwadeable due to eight inches of rain in June and then the Cannonsville drawdown. When the release was lowered to five hundred cfs wade fishermen flocked to the river and found good hatches of sulfurs along with good numbers of big fish. Where did they come from?  No one is sure.  Some say there were lots of big reservoir fish that washed over during the spill.  Others say that the high water triggered fish movement within the river.  No one knows, perhaps both the spill and fish movement contributed. It really doesn't matter just enjoy! Me? I will continue to fish away f...

Word has gotten around that the WB is down to under five hundred cfs and anglers have arrived to make up for time lost during the spill and drawdown of Cannonsville. The upper EB had numerous fishermen lookingfor Tricos this morning. The upper WB where the sulfurs have beengoing strong had fishermen and boats in every pool. Rumors of washovers in the upper WB no doubt added anglers to the area. JunctionPool parking lot had nine cars at 6 o'clock when I stopped by. Just three days ago there was only one. The fishing? After lighting it up yesterday morning, my Trico effort this morning netted a zero. Found Tricos in abundance but no fish on 'em. In the afternoon I retreated from the upper WB and fished down low. Found quite a few fish, some rising and some willing to come up to a blind cast. For the first time this year I caught a good number of fish born in April/May of last year. They are now about nine and a half inches in length. It's always good to ...

With the entire system wadeable for the first time in over a month, fishermen were back on the river in numbers. With boats and wade fishermen everywhere the question for me became, "Where can I find good bugs and rising trout without being interfered with by boats and other fishermen"? My first choice was to look for tricos as that is the least crowded time of day. Early afternoon found me in the sulfur hatch near Deposit as the river there has been unwadeable for over a month. When the sulfurs died down I opted for the lower WB as that has also been unwadeable and the easy access places on the upper big river were crowded with boat trailers and cars. The tricos were hatching and I got into good fish with no one around. The sulfur hatch was epic. Haven't seen as many in years. But the fish either haven't forgotten to look at each fly carefully or the boat people have been reminding them on a daily basis. Nevertheless I had both good bugs and rising fish (even fool...

With the WB release being scaled back to five hundred cfs by tomorrow and the EB already down to one hundred forty cfs, the amount of fishable water in the big river is about to be significantly downsized. The factor determining how far downstream you can fish is of course water temperature. Trying to figure water temp in advance is about like predicting the weather.  No one does very well more than about three days in advance. Air temperature, amount of sunshine and the amount of warm water coming down the EB all factor into the big river water temp. With a release  of five hundred from Cannonsville the river is usually fishable down to about Stockport.  Unfortunately there is no temperature gage there (Lordville being the nearest), so you have to check the temp before fishing. For the long term good of the fishery everyone is urged not to fish when the water temp exceeds seventy degrees. Fishermen should, of course, also avoid fishing in thermal refuges ...

They have made sufficient progress on the work at the dam that the DEP has begun to step down the release. Starting today (Sunday) the release will be stepped down over the next five days until it reaches the currently mandated flow of five hundred cfs on Thursday.