Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It was an olive kind of day - only without the olives - never saw a  one. Fished two pools on the upper east.The first had no bugs and no  fish up.  The second was one of the pools that on Tuesday  was full of  big fish gulping  Hendrickson spinners.  This time the fish that were  up were sipping midges and they were nine and ten inchers. Fished a pool on the big east, two boats went by giving me a wave and  a wide birth.  One angler appeared and walked up and down the bank  looking for risers but never got in the water.  Saw four fish take  March Browns and they all ate my fly.  Landed three nice rainbows. When things seemed to quiet down I left and headed to the big river.  It was misty and there was a good shower. Just before the sun went  behind the hill it came out and produced a beautiful rainbow.  There  were March Browns on when I arrived but no risers.  Then the sulfurs  started to hatch.  It was a good enough hatch to get some fish up and  I hooked and landed three.  The last

Over fifty years ago Robert Traver in his famous "Testament of a  Fisherman"  wrote "---because mercifully there are no telephones on  trout waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without  loneliness---". Clearly those words don't apply to the Delaware River as we know it  today.  The Delaware is the best trout fishery east of the Mississippi  River.  It is also the most heavily fished. Yesterday there were no  parking places at access points, boats were lined up waiting their  turn to launch and every vista of the river showed a line of wade  fishermen and boats. I stopped at the gamelands yesterday morning at ten hoping to find the  missing spinner fall (I didn't) and there were already seven cars  parked, the total reached twenty-one later in the day. The fish?  It  was easy to tell what the two I caught were feeding on - razor blades  - their mouths were so cut up I wanted to send them to an emergency  room for treatment. The Hendricksons?

Tied spinners and march browns to prepare for what I was sure would be  another all day fishing bonanza. If you had sent me to an arroyo I  would have gone willingly, sure in the knowledge that I could float a  fly and catch fish. The feeling was enhanced at my first stop on the  big east when a nice bow ate my march brown. And then - The frosty morning turned into a hot sunny day.  I never  saw a march brown hatch, the Hendrickson's never showed and even the  sun loving caddis failed to make an appearance. I never cast at a  rising fish and at 6:30  I had caught just the one fish. The boat traffic on the WB was heavy.  I pulled into one launch site  for a look at the river and couldn't get near the stream.  There were  four boats in the water loading fishermen and another on the ramp  waiting to put in. Every vista of the river showed a row of wade  fishermen with an endless string of boats weaving though them. By 6:00  many of the anglers were off the river or standing  along

MondayI had a plan - Start early fishing March Browns on the big EB.  Be on the upper EB at three to fish the last of the Hendricksons.  When the Hendricksons shut down head for the WB spinner fall. Monday turned out to be a little bit too bright, way to breezy and it got too cold too quick for the spinners to do their thing.  I caught two fish. Tuesday it still seemed like a good plan so I tried it again.  There was cloud cover by noon , there was no wind and it got warm enough to get the spinners going. How'd I do?  It was by far the best day's fishing I've had on the Delaware in over three years.                 

Left for camp early hoping to get the lawn mowed before the bugs  started hatching. I did.  Set out to fish at about one - tried two places on the lower EB and  found March Browns and Cddis hatching with fish showing no interest.  Moved to the upper EB around 2:30  and sat on the bank in the sun  watching Yellow  Warblers and Myrtle Warblers catch bugs in the  Multaflora roses.  By 3:00 there were Apple Caddis and Hendricksons  but only one fish showed any interest.  Gave it plenty of time for the  bugs and fish to get together but they never did. Saved the best for last and drove over to the WB to take in the  spinner fall around 6:00 .  Arrived to find the wind still  blowing and the air filled with Caddis egg layers.  The fish?  No  where to be seen. And then it happened - The wind refused to lay down,  the sun went behind the hill, the temp plummeted , the Caddis  disappeared and all those bugs that hatched last week stayed where  they were. The fish?  They knew what was going to h

Finally got around to adding up Aprils catch and comparing it to those  of the last twenty-five years. This year ranked fourth for number of  fish caught. It is clear that the best April fishing occurs when the  reservoirs aren't spilling and there is plenty of sunshine to warm up  the lower water flows.  This of course gets the bugs going sooner which results in better early fishing. Exactly fifty percent of the fish caught this April were at least  seventeen inches long.  This percentage fluctuates quite a bit from  year to year especially with rainbows as they are comparatively short  lived and a large year class can cause big swings in the percentages. Back in the nineties the percentage of big fish usually ran about  fifteen to twenty percent.  In recent years the percentage usually  runs between forty five and sixty five percent. Assuming my fishing  ability has remained fairly constant, this would indicate that there  are either more big fish now in the river or less small f