Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Instead of driving around like a maniac all day looking for rising fish I decided to mow the lawn, tie some flies and then drive around like a maniac for half a day looking for fish. I saved a little gas by starting later but I had a part break on the mower - so call it a wash. It was a bright, sunny and warm day and I'll bet from the cars on the road lots of people snuck out of work early to take advantage of the weather.  Hopefully it was the weather they were trying to take advantage of  and not the fishing. My travels took me to the BK, UEB, BEB and the WB.  If the Troutfitter would up my wages I could afford a typist who would either type the names of the rivers in full or provide its customers with a list of my acronyms.  (Actually I'm just trying to get even with the computer geeks whose use of acronyms make it impossible for me to fix anything on my computer). I digress.  My travels took me to the Bk which was again so crowded that "when possible...

I knew yesterday, which will be a top ten for sure, would be a tough  act to follow. The big river, at current levels is boats only.  It is warming up and  there are Paraleps and Hendricksons on my screens but you can't step  off the bank without going over the tops of your waders. The UEB and WB are still cold from the big releases and the bugs are behind. The Big east is wadeable in some places but better fished from a boat.  There were apple caddis starting about 3:00  (when the sun finally  appeared) but very few Hendricksons and a dearth of good fish rising.. The Beaverkill is at the best level and temp in the entire system and  both the bugs and fishermen know it. It can be waded (watch out for  the big flat rocks, they are greased to the max), and there will be  bugs. How was the fishing today?  Somewhere between poor and awful.  Perhaps the boats did well with  streamers on the WB but the boats I saw on the BEB had...

The dandelions have been in bloom for almost a week.  The shad bush is  in full bloom. The water temps have for the most part stayed below the  magic 50 degree mark.  The reservoirs are full and spilling.  The West  Branch, upper East Branch and big river are too high to wade safely.  The rivers are filled with alewives and the trout are gorging on them. Boat fishermen have been throwing streamers at the alewife eating  fish. The wade fishermen have congregated on the Beaverkill where  warmer water temperatures have produced a modest bug hatch and the  more moderate flows have allowed for wading. The fishing?  Poor to nonexistent.  Some lucky anglers have had  success on the newly stocked hatchery fish and a few of the big  alewife eaters have indeed been caught, but for the most part  fishermen have been saying "soon, it's gonna happen soon"  and TODAY  IT DID !! It didn't get cold last night, th...