Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's all clear to me now.  September and August have switched places. Today was another scorcher with temp in the eighties, bright sun and the freestones hitting 70.  Did chores around camp, tied some flies and took a little siesta before heading out about 3:00. Decided to take a look at the WB in Deposit.  It wasn't pretty.  The water beneath the thermocline in the reservoir is gone and the murky water that has been sitting on top of the thermocline is now being sucked out the pipe and into the WB.  In the silt laden water I saw no bugs, one rise and but one fisherman.  I left town without putting a toe in the water. By 4:30 I was in a pool on the UEB with a good number of rising fish to cast to.  A very few olives and stenos could be seen on the water but the fish were on top feeding like hatchery fish when the pellet machine turns on. Tied on 7X for only the third time this season and tried some of the tiny little flies I tied this morning. ...

With the unseasonably cool nights and cloudy, rainy days we had in August and early September, the entire river system was again open for fishing.  The recent spate of warm nights and hot sunny days, however, has raised the water temps in the freestone sections of the system to or above the "no fish" level of 70 degrees. With the tailwaters "the only game in town", I was forced to face reality.  The olives that have been something both the trout and fishermen could count on for over two months are waning.  The decline was masked by the appearance (at least where I was fishing) of prolific numbers of ants. When fishing the BR the hatches of isos and white flies made the decline of the olive hatch seem unimportant. Today I went looking for olives  -and - didn't find any.  Stopped at half a dozen places on the UEB without seeing an olive or a rise.  Once again with zero chance of rain I got caught in a downpour (with raincoat this time - taking no chances)...