Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

The rain yesterday caused the Big River to rise over 900 CFS while all the other rivers in the system remained virtually unchanged.  I've enjoyed three good days on the BR this week plus yesterdays near rainout.  Decided it was time to play on another field. The Big East has good iso hatches and most places can be waded at 1,100 CFS.  Left in time for the iso hatch and headed for a riff in the middle section of the BE.  I've seen good iso hatches there in the past and the river there is easily waded at current levels.   I wasn't there twenty minutes when the first isos started hatching. I was there forty-five minutes, however, before I saw a fish rise.  Had fun casting to fish that were nosed up into a riff eating both iso nymphs and duns.  Unfortunately the fun was short lived as there weren't more than a handful of fish in the riff.  When the BE fish population is up and the riff is fully populated with iso eating fish, I've seen 50 or mo...

Spent over an hour in the early afternoon tying iso duns and emergers for a renewed assault on the big river 'bows.  Just as I was finishing up at the tying bench, a bolt of lightning and clap of thunder put my plans on hold.  The grounds crew was quick to roll out the tarps so the infield is dry.  If it stops raining we'll try to get the game in. 3:00 pm.  The weather radar doesn't look good and the current prediction is for the rain to continue until eight thirty tonight. 5:45 pm. When the thunder and lightning were but a memory it continued to rain - hard.  It wasn't until after six that the rain let up enough for me to drive down to the river for a look.  The river was up but clear.  The fog was too thick to see anything from shore so I suited up and waded out.  The isos  must have waited for the rain to let up as there were a good many on the water  long after the hatch should have been over.  The fish on the far side of t...

I'm not asking for snow, but enough of this heat and humidity.  Came in soaking wet from cutting the lawn (on a riding mower). Spent a couple of hours repairing some flies that were injured in battle and tying new ones to replace those that were beyond repair or that went MIA in the knot weed and other shoreline vegetation on my errant backcasts. By one o'clock I was ready to go, but with the temp in the nineties I managed to find things to do out of the sun until almost three.  It was still way too early.  The hot sun and the warmer water coming down the WB pushed the big river iso hatch back until almost four. Was joined on the big river by a veteran Delaware angler.  We shared what turned out to be a very good afternoon/evening of fishing.  It wasn't that the hatch was great, it was more that the fish wanted to eat.  The bugs were coming off the water quickly in the hot sun and the fish tried hard not to miss any. In their eagerness they ingested m...

It was clearly not a Big River day with bright sun and mid summer temperatures.  Buckingham parking area had 0 boat trailers and 0 cars at 2:00 pm..  For a guide to float his sports on the BR on a day like today requires either sports who are willing to take a scenic ride with the hope of catching fish or or a guide willing to throw his tip out with the trash if his hunch is wrong. Two boats put in at Buckingham and went by me heading for Long Eddy at about three o'clock with four anglers still casting with great enthusiasm.  When I got back to my car at 6:30 there was but one trailer in the lot, awaiting someone who had dared to fish  the BR from somewhere up river  down to Buckingham.  Hope they all did well and no guides were shot. For wade fishermen (now that the water has dropped enough to get into the river)  the risk is not so great.  You park your car, walk down to the river and fish until you realize that it's the wrong time, place or...

With NYC continuing a 100 CFS a day stepdown of the releases, there are now good wading opportunities throughout the system. The releasing of 1,500 CFS from Cannonsville for the past several weeks has resulted in the depletion of the cold water below the thermocline.  Water temps at Stilesville which have been around 44 degrees all summer are now above 50.  This late in the year (even with the current heat advisory) it's not a threat to the fish but it will affect hatch times of the bugs. Drove down early to avoid the Labor Day traffic, emptied the car and got ready to go fishing.  A trio of fellow Lordville anglers stopped by to say hello.  They said they had been fishing for four days.  They had found the big river bugless and were concentrating on the  WB where they had good olives and rising fish.  Their report did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for fishing the big river.  When it's cold enough for the fish and low enough to wade, it's wh...