Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's days like this, with the temp pushing ninety and a bright sun burning down, that you gotta love tailwaters. Five hundred cfs of forty one degree water pouring out of Cannonsville, cooling off wade fishermen, stimulating the bug hatch and sending the trout into a day long feeding frenzy. What?  Not where you were? Well, not where I was that's for sure. It being Friday  afternoon I elected to fish downstream to avoid the crowds. For starters ten boats went past me. Then little  pool I was saving for the late evening feeding frenzy was filled first by one, then three anglers (who came in three cars all from different states). I was boxed in, had no risers AND couldn't even raise a fish blind casting. When I am fishing, I never sit down. Today I sat down. I watched an osprey defend its turf when each of the ten boats went by. A little green heron flew off the grass island I was sitting on and kept scolding me from an unseen branch on shore. When the sun went behind the h...

Bright sun in an almost cloudless sky is not what fishermen pray for. Up river sulfurs never really got going below Oquaga Creek.  With a fair number of fishermen on the water and little to throw at, I spent almost three hours in the WB no kill below the Gentlemen's Club fishing to four bank sippers who were eating tiny olives along a shaded side of the stream.  I was in waist deep water in the shade and almost froze.  Hooked and landed a nineteen and a seventeen incher on a tiny olive emerger.  One only rose a few times and I never had a chance to get a good shot at him.  The fourth fish was clearly smarter than me. He totally ignored my offerings and went on sipping olives until out of desperation I put on a sulfur. He came up to the sulfur and somehow sucked it under without eating it and then never rose again. I drove down river with the heater on and fished in warmer water. There were no bugs on the river when I arrived. Thirty minutes later the water was c...

Gave the upper EB Tricos a whirl again this morning.  Will wait 'til next week to try it again ('nuf said). In the afternoon I stopped at Joe Foster's (a long time Troutfitter friend) place up from Hale Eddy and had a nice chat with Joe.  Left to go fishing and saw rising trout all along the river upstream from his house. Went back to Joe's to save him from cutting the lawn. It didn't take much arm twisting to get him to don waders and go fishing.  Walked a long way upstream without catching a fish, then saw some splashy rises in a riff.  Put on an iso and for half an hour they ate it - then - they wouldn't even look at it. Not to worry, with the sun going behind the hills the sulfurs appeared in good numbers and the trout responded. Some of them might have even gotten a little careless and eaten the wrong fly.

With the variation in the water levels we have had in the WB this summer finding bugs and rising fish often times requires a visit to the local fortune teller. Yesterday there was a modest afternoon hatch of sulfurs up top. It was over by five o'clock. At five thirty, when I arrived there was a good hatch of small olives below the one ninety one bridge and the fish were on 'em. Today at the gamelands in early afternoon there were sulfurs and stenos enough to get the fish up (sorta). There was also a brief burst of olives which also got fish going. It was all over by four thirty, not a rise to be seen. If it started up again I wasn't there to see it. Drove up to the no kill and after chatting with an old river friend, Wayne Hess, I went out in search of bugs and fish. Found fish before I saw flies. First three casts (second one was way short of target) got me thirty nine inches of fish (pics below). There were sulfurs, stenos and olives hatching and the big ...

Last Wednesday was the first day of normal flows following the Cannonsville draw down.  The bugs hatched in profusion on the upper WB and fish  were on them with reckless abandon. So were the guides.  One angler of modest ability hooked at least a dozen large fish as his guide kept him in the same spot for over four hours.Fishermen came from all over to fish in the lower water.  There were boats and wade fishermen everywhere right thru the weekend. The result?  It was like the fish fish went to summer school.  I stopped in the Deposit area yesterday and to my surprise no one was there.  Knowing about the novice angler's success of last Wednesday I decided to try my luck on the same fish. The hatch came (a far more modest one), the fish fed (sub surface) and in over three hours of fishing I landed but two fish.  Did they look at my fly? You bet. Would they eat it?  Not so much. A five day summer school course in nutrition reminded them of the ...