Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Stopped at camp yesterday.  All the rivers were much clearer than they were on Wednesday.  That said, they were all too high for wade fishing. Received an invitation from a friend to fish the South Holston and after mowing the camp lawn I drove 9 hours south on 81, bought a Tennessee fishing license and went fishing.  The "SoHo" is a TVA tailwater that is just full of fish from yearlings to fish of over 30 inches.  I've fished it perhaps a dozen times and have yet to catch a fish over 16 inches. There were sulfurs on the water today and I had a quarter mile of the river to myself (except for a constantly squawking Heron who apparently felt I was invading his water.  The river is fished quite heavily and the fish are nobody's fools but there are so many of them most people don't even bother to cast to rises. I fished from about two until eight and lost track of how many fish I caught.  The fish ranged in size from 9.5 to 12.5 inches and the browns are th...

Drove down to the river for a look see.  It wasn't pretty.  Water above Oquaga was high, cold, comparatively clear, but unwadable.  Oquaga was still very high and muddy.  The entire WB was muddy brown from just below Oquaga to it's merger with the EB at junction pool. Now for the bad news. The UEB is very high with water that is, (because of the warm spill) over 70 degrees.  Even with no rain it will probably take a week or more to reduce the flow to a fishable level.  As the spill decreases the river will cool as they are maxing the release at 700 CFS. At present it is both too warm and too high to fish. The EB and the BK are cooler than the UEB but are both high, very muddy and unfishable. The Big River at 11,000 CFS is still orange/brown and unsafe to even float. Without more rain there is a good chance Cannonsville can be kept from spilling.  With the maxed out flow at 1,500 CFS, wading will be very limited even when the tribs subside but...

All rivers in the system are too high to wade safely.  Both reservoirs are maxing out their releases and Pepacton is still spilling.  If the predicted rain amounts (almost another 1.5 inches) arrive both reservoirs will be spilling by Wednesday.  Because they have maxed out the releases, even the water up near the dams is too high to safely wade. Drift boaters are in heaven with no waders to have to go around.  But even drift boaters need to exercise caution at current water levels as the swift currents can lead to tragedy should a boat flip or take on water and sink.  If you're new at handling a drift boat it would be a good idea to leave it on the trailer 'til flows subside.  Fishermen with personal flotation devices should also find something else to do as a dunking in full fishing gear at current water flows would be a life threatening event. Believe me, I am more anxious than most to get back in the river but with a flash flood watch posted again t...