Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Went out again in the morning and tried the lower big east - nothing. Drove over to the Beaverkill and found fish willing to look at/eat iso emergers and spinners. The Beaverkill is low and clear and the fish are not easily fooled. If one doesn't eat, move on. In the evening I tried two pools in the big river, farther down than I have been fishing. Stay above Buckingham. I hooked one fish in the first pool and saw one fish rise in the second pool. The weather forecast calls for a big drop in temps, which if it actually occurs, should put an end to thermal stress concerns for this year (it's almost October after all). The browns should begin moving towards their spawning grounds and the rainbows should be moving back to their year round homes after summering in cooler water.

Gave the morning fishing a try today and was glad I did. Fished several places on the upper part of the big east and the lower reaches of the Beaverkill. Found at least one fish every place I stopped but I never rose more than three in any one place. They were all rainbows and most took the fly on blind casts. If I were to fish those same places tomorrow my report would probably be less positive. There just aren't many fish that have moved back into the thermally stressed areas. It's heading towards October but the water has just been too warm. Stayed at the camp all afternoon. With the cloudless sky, bright sun and hot temps, I had no desire to fish. Left at 5:00 and drove up river without a plan. Buckingham had several fishermen and numerous trailers . Stockport had two trailers and one car. I thought about it and passed. It has been heavily fished lately and the lack of cars speaks for itself. Saw boats at every view point as I drove on. At Balls Eddy a lone tra...

Spent the morning putting up tree stands. Drove down to the camp and with the bright sum and warm temps, was in no hurry to go fishing. Decided to take care of a few things around the yard and before I knew it it was 5:00. With the recent fluctuations in the releases and the warm rain water, the temp had risen in both the WB and main stem. The increased temp was no threat to the fish but it has an adverse affect on the hatches. When I drove over the WB in Deposit it was muddy and unappealing. When I left camp I decided to try the upper EB. They have cut back the release from 130 to 100 but the rain water has kept the flow up. The water would be clear and no one would be fishing. How wrong can one person be? The water was at a nice level and clear, BUT almost every pool had an angler in it. At this level one is enough. I drove up past Corbett and couldn't find a pool to fish. Turned around and drove back down towards East Branch and stopped at a pool that I fish when the ...

This summer we have had several dry periods in the drainage system. Thunderstorms have distributed their water unevenly to say the least and the most recent series of storms is no exception. The west branch got the bulk of the rain with gauges above and below the reservoir recording flows of over 2,000 CFS. The water below the reservoir came from the tributaries (release was cut to 300 CFS) and was heavily silt laden. The WB, and by now, the big river are orange/brown in color and unfishable. The east branch is a different story as the bulk of the rain was to the west. Fish's Eddy was up to about 500 CFS with moderate turbidity. Both the upper East and Beaverkill are at fishable levels. The rise in flow may also start the fish migration back into the big east branch. At Montague, the gauge has fallen well below the minimum flow requirement. PPL abruptly shut off their release from Wallenpaupak yesterday and the storms failed to dump water on the lower river. I don't k...

The hummingbirds have gone, the camp buck is strutting around with his shiny new three inch spikes ( the does are NOT impressed) and last night the screens had more than a dozen pumpkin (October) caddis on them. I've been whining a bit about the lack of rainy, cloudy days and today we got one. So what did I do? Went fishing of course. Was it as good as I hoped it would be? No. Was it worth going? You betcha! Started at Lordville and kept my perfect record. No bugs and no fish. Third time I've fished there since they jacked up the water and still haven't seen a fish. Moved up to the WB to take advantage of the low water. Most of the river has been unwadeable for the last few weeks and I hoped maybe the fish had gotten careless. Apparently I was not alone in this thinking because I was surrounded by anglers and run over by boats in both places I tried. Did hook a few small fish and got refused by a good one in the melee. Got back to the car and headed down to t...