Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Hope everyone who fished the last two days did well.  After six days battling the high water, diminishing  hatches and the absence of adult fish feeding on top, I took the last two days off. Looked at the flows this morning expecting them to be cut back.  Cannonsville was reduced by 100 CFS yesterday but remained at about 1400 today.  Pepacton held steady just under 700 CFS.  It's 7:30 pm on Saturday evening and I just looked at Cannonsville and they have dropped it another 100 CFS. The 200 CFS drop is not enough to open up the WB and BR to wading but it is a start.  The gradual (stepped down) reduction will give the nymphs and other stream life time to relocate.  Assuming (always dangerous) that the flow reduction will continue on a  slow and gradual basis, wading opportunities will increase daily. Will a 200 CFS reduction get me in the car tomorrow?  Probably not.  I don't want to battle Mondays holiday weekend traffic so my return to the river will probably have to wai

If you're thinking of fishing Thursday or Friday - think again.  The last two days have been dreadful. The wading is difficult (haven't seen another wade fisherman in the water), the bug hatch is declining and the bigger fish are not rising. I've been fishing since last Friday and had four relatively good days but with the high water wading opportunities are limited and I've had to fish most places a second time.  In each case there were fewer bugs, fewer risers and more refusers. Last Saturday over 20 boats floated past me.  Today in the same place there were two.  I have seen one angler hook a fish from a boat all week (he lost it).  Those in boats that I talked to were not setting the world on fire (some were having trouble even getting the kindling to burn). Why?  Beats me.  It was hot and humid the last two days but the water temps (except for the BK) were ideal.  Bright sun has never bothered fish in the sulfur zone and with all the cold water one wouldn'

Planned on taking a long walk to a place where I could wade the WB at 1750 CFS.  After working in the yard for three hours in the hot sun, that plan was saved for a cooler day. Decided to fish the UEB and EB.  I've seen no one wade fishing there and only a very few boats.  Now I know why.  Saw no bugs or rising fish above Shinhopple, a few bugs and small fish rising between Shinhopple and Harvard and nothing below Oxbow Campground. Started at the Pleasant Valley pool.  Saw a couple of rising fish.  The first fish ate my fly but it came out of his mouth when I hooked.  Worked up to the second fish and he ate the third cast.  Once again I felt the fish but didn't hook up.  Pulled in the fly to check the barb - and lo - there was a half hitch tied around the bend of the hook.  A blue haze quickly enveloped me.  It's rare after over 60 years of fly fishing that I find a new way to screw up, and this was NOT ONE OF THEM.  I don't like stupid!  Always check your fly after

After a long overdue dump run, I headed back up the UEB.  The ease with which I found bugs and rising fish yesterday left no doubt in my mind that that was the place to go. There was only one boat trailer at Ox Bow Campground and not a single car parked along the river.  At 3:00 pm, roughly the same time I found bugs yesterday, there were none.  Risers, I saw not a one.  Boats, I saw one with a fly fisherwoman in the bow double hauling what appeared to be a streamer right up to the bank on every cast. That told me all I needed to know about bugs farther upstream. Did a u-turn and headed for the WB. Took a long walk upstream (not an easy thing to do after high water bends the shoreline grass downstream).  Held up my vest and tiptoed through a deep area to get to where I wanted to fish.  It was well worth it.  The fish ate my fly like an M&M fresh out of the bag.  As is usually the case this time of year over half of the risers were 1.5 year olds ranging in size from 9 to 11 inches

Four days ago in my "killin' time" posting  I said that with the warm spill water, hatches would be restricted to the last hour before dark.  Also said that any tricos or ants would likely go uneaten at "current water levels" which on the big river was at 8,000CFS. Well, welcome to the Delaware. The spills have stopped, the water is very cold throughout the system and there are olive and steno hatches in the middle of the afternoon.  As for the ants - I don't know if the trout would have come up in 8,000CFS to eat them when I wrote the article but they had no problem slurping them down tonight in 3,500 CFS. After two days of limited wading in the WB, I opted for the "ideal" wading conditions being offered by the BK.  It was like fishing in early May (without the Hendricksons) or any other bugs for that matter.  In about two hours of fishing I never saw a bug or a rise except to my fly.  Rose four fish, hooked two (one a good one) and lost them bo