Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's 8:00 pm on Friday.  I'm home trying to cross items off the "Honey-do" list .  Some things have gone well, others not so well.  With the bright sunshine I didn't miss the fishing today but the breeze has quieted and there will be a late hatch and if in fact it's calm, a spinner fall.  I will miss both.  Will miss tomorrows fishing also as there are things here at home yet  to be done. Sunday, however, is another story.  If you get to pick and choose your days, the Sunday forecast looks like a winner.  Rainy overcast days this time of year are like money in the bank. Bugs hatch all afternoon and most likely sulfurs, gray foxes, black caddis and perhaps drakes will go near dark.  There should also be a smorgasbord of spinners served up for trout to eat.  Be there by noon, stay late, bring a sandwich because there won't be any place open by the time the action is over.  Look for me I'll be there!

Was finally able to get the lawn mowed here yesterday before the first storm and am heading home to tackle some chores there.  Spent an hour last night reflecting on the season to date and came up with a few statistics of interest at least to me. My fish total for May came in 9th out of the 25 years of record keeping.  There seemed to be plenty of fish and the number of fish caught would probably have been somewhat higher but for the high water that wiped out the first eight days of the month. The % of browns caught that were over 17 inches (15%) was the lowest since I've kept track.  Some of that is due to the high water limiting where I could fish. ( Never got a chance to cast to the big browns sipping hendrickson and caddis spinners in the big river tailouts.) The % off rainbows caught that were over 17 inches (40%) was right in the mid range of prior years.  This number might have been higher if I hadn't lost so many of them the last few days. On the positive side,

It never happened - or  - I was in the wrong place all day.  Never cast to a rising fish.  Saw less than ten rises.  Suffered through two thunderstorms and a temperature drop of about 20 degrees.  Saw almost no big bugs.  The few spinners I did see were drowned by the second "severe T-storm" of the day. Did have a nice chat with a Troutfitter regular during the first T-boomer.  Said he reads the blog religiously but missed the hint I gave him about a new place for him to try.  T, if you read this don't go there if the Callicoon Gage  is over 1700 cfs. Spent the last hour of the day blind casting the big river.  When the lightning and  thunder of the second "severe" storm were about 10 seconds apart I made my last cast of the day.  It was eaten by a 19 inch brown that deprived an 8 inch rainbow of being "fish of the day" two years too soon. If you want to find out how good the fishing really was today read DRC, WBA or even better Baxter House'

After yesterdays marathon 10;30 am until 9:00 pm fishing  spree, I took it somewhat easier today.  Left camp around noon and did a tour of the EB, lower BK and UEB and BR.  Saw a few big bugs hatching on the lower part of the BE but nothing going farther up or on the BK and UEB. It was overcast, raining (very heavy downpour on the ride back to Hancock) and quite breezy.  Not seeing bugs at 1:00 doesn't mean they didn't come later but when I got to the BR there were all kinds of bugs on the water and fish up after them. Waited until the heavy rain let up around two, geared up and went fishing.  Glad I did!  There were a few sulfurs coming off when I got to the water and within half an hour there was a very good sulfur hatch.  Caught fish before it got really got going and after the hatch started to wane. During the peak of the hatch the trout couldn't be bothered with my offerings.  As was the case yesterday I did well hooking fish, it was the landings that proved difficul

Dave and Rick from the Troutfitter took advantage of the Memorial Day holiday and came down to fish the BR. It spit rain all day out of a heavily overcast sky.  An upstream wind at times created instant drag on the best of casts.  But the bugs got going mid afternoon and the fish looked up often enough to let you get a cast off in their direction. Bugs of almost every kind imaginable were seen on the water.  There were black caddis, tan caddis. march browns, gray foxes, green drakes, olives in various sizes, sulfurs and isonychias.  Despite the smorgasbord the bugs presented, there was not enough food on the table to get the fish feeding steadily.  Risers had to be marked and approached with care.  Often times they weren't seen again.  If you did get a fly in front of them, however, chances were good that you would at least get a look.  By the end of the day we had all hooked a good number of fish (some landed more than others).  For the full story you should stop by the Troutfit

The number of fisherman on the river today was much lower than on Saturday.  My wife and I toured the river system during the afternoon.  Buckingham easily won the award for most trailers.  There seemed to be very few boats in sight on the WB.  Perhaps the flow of 400 cfs is proving difficult to both navigate and catch fish in.  The UEB at about 200 cfs had no boats and very few fishermen.  The BE is also quite low making passage through the riffs difficult  for drift boat oarsmen.  The reports I have heard  from the BE have been that the fish population seems to be down this year. The number of people fishing the BK today seemed to be less than half of yesterdays total.  Either the fishing was slow or people are heading home to family gatherings on Memorial Day. On the brighter side the sulfurs have started to hatch on the BR and the fish are on them.  Fished the BR from 7:30 until 9:00 tonight.  The action was all in the last half hour but fish were up and ready to eat.  Hopefully