Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

After yesterdays less than scintillating day on the Neversink, I was left with no where to go.  Both branches and the big river were at higher levels than I had ever waded them and 3/4 quarters of an inch of rain was in the forecast. When I looked out at 5:45am it was raining.  It continued to rain all morning.  The air temp hovered at 45, some 13 degrees below the predicted high.  The water temp everywhere was in the mid forties.  Talked with my wife who said "You know, they are predicting snow Monday and Tuesday and I'm going out  to be at my sister's tonight, so why don't you stay and see what happens?" What happened is it rained harder from 11:00 until 1:00 and then it eased off.  The water temp peaked at about 48 degrees (good enough for Paraleps but probably too cold for Hendricksons). The air temp "soared" up to forty eight and at 1:15 I went fishing. Picked the WB in part because it has the best hatches, in part because it has the most fish

With the Delaware system too high to wade I drove over to the Neversink ( it took about 45 minutes from Hancock) where the ghosts of LaBranch and Hewitt haunt the waters.  The reservoir was  99.8 percent full  but NYC loves Neversink water and the pipe to Rondout was no doubt open and there was no spill.  The air temp was 58 degrees with a chilly breeze.  Saw two Hendricksons, one Quill Gordon  and a sparse hatch of paraleps.   The fish ?  Saw two fish rise once each.  Didn't interest either one of them in any of my flies.  Two other anglers were a pool above me (the only other fisher persons - one female and one male - I saw) and they saw six risers and hooked and landed one. The River?  I did a recon of the six miles of trout water below the dam, saw only the two anglers, parked  at a fishing access site where I saw no paths along the stream, no boot prints along the shore and no one else fishing,  Walked upstream about a 1/3 of a mile. There were nice undercut runs along the

The river system has peaked from Monday night's storm but all rivers remain unwadeable.  The West Branch offers the best possibility for drift boat fishing as the area above the reservoir didn't get hit as hard as the East Branch did.  It will be full of alewives and should be clearing up by tomorrow if it doesn't get serious rain.  Bring your streamer rod and alewife imitations. Another possibility is the Neversink.  As of this posting the reservoir isn't spilling and the water levels are within reach of historically normal levels.  If I decide to take the drive I'll let you know how it goes. Or, you could start work on an ark.

The entire system got hit by a frontal system and is blown out.  The rivers are flowing orange and are not even safe for drift boats.  The reservoirs will be spilling again for days and the rivers are likely to remain too high for wade fishing all week.  If we don't get additional rain (rain is in the forecast all week) drift boaters should have good streamer fishing for alewife eating trout late in the week. Stay home, tie flies and cross items off the "honey do" list,

I usually head home on Saturday morning to take  care of household chores and fulfill social obligations.  This week I delayed my departure in order to take in the the "One Bug" launchings and to get a feel for just how many fishermen and drift boats would be on the river. On my drive up the UEB around two thirty I saw several boats and a significant number of wade fishermen all hoping that the reduced flow would trigger the hatch.  I saw no bugs but I left before three. Returned to camp and headed for home on the PA side of the river. Counted forty seven drift boat trailers from Buckingham up to Balls Eddy.  Also saw eight boats between Lordville and Buckingham. The personal flotation devices were as numerous as the drift boats. Stopped above the gamelands on the WB and sat by the water from 3:00 until 3:30 (prime bug time) without seeing a single bug.  There were boats on the WB but almost no wade fishermen. It hasn't "happened" there yet. The  BEB on