Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Those who read my ramblings regularly know that occasionally I come up with a suggestion that helps them be a better fisherman. Sometimes I point them to a part of the river system that I think will be hot and it actually is. But sadly, most of you who read this blog start your car at your house knowing where you are going to park and where you are going to fish. You remind me of a broken clock that is right but twice a day. I'm sure you've had good days where you go but if you follow the hatches and try new places you are far more likely to find success on a regular basis. Back, it must be twenty years ago, when I knew the survey takers on the river, we played a game of hide and seek. They said they knew where everyone parked their car and where they were fishing - except me. They made it a point of finding me and most days they were successful. Why? They wanted to find out what I caught and where. The reason for fishing different places is quite simple. Hatches generall...

With the sun shining for a change this morning, I stayed at camp and mowed the lawn. This eliminated any opportunity for me to again fish the Hendrickson spinner fall. I'm heading home for the weekend so it'll probably 2020 before I fish Hendricksons again. May - Mostly because of the high water, this May was, as of the 24th, on course to be my poorest since I bought the camp. Then NYC lowered the releases from both reservoirs. The transformation is still hard to believe. Instead of walking the banks, looking for a fish you could cast to, you were in the water almost anywhere you wanted to be, casting at fish (lots of them). It was the best fishing (considering both size and numbers caught) that I have ever had on the Delaware River System. Those five days transformed May from a complete disaster into a low average month. The bugs - Hendrickson boxes can be put away. If you are a nervous Nellie, put a few duns in with your olives and keep some Hendrickson size spinners h...

If you ever are going to catch fish in the Delaware, now is the time. The water levels (as of 9:00 pm) are great and will, absent serious rain tonight, be even better tomorrow. The big river has yet to reflect today's cut backs in the releases from both reservoirs and should be wadeable tomorrow.. The fishing? In my over 30 years on the river I have never put together a better week of fishing, both in numbers caught and the size of the fish. It's not even close. Today I caught more and bigger fish on dries than I ever have in this river system. A 20 inch trout came in third in my "fish of the day" contest. Nuff said! The Bugs: Based on my observations today the Hendricksons are finally winding down. The spinner fall dwarfed the meager hatch on the UB (never made it to the WB). On the plus side (and it's a BIG PLUS), there was good bug activity on the BE in Hancock when I stopped on my way back to camp about 8:00 pm. There were gray foxes, sulfurs and march...

As if to spite me after yesterday's posting, mother nature served up one of those cloudy, rainy, "great days to be fishing", and you know what? It was! We're down to the last three days of May and the Hendricksons and apple caddis are still on both branches in good numbers and the BK, EB and BR have yet to come out of the doldrums. Was on the UE today about 11:00 hoping for morning spinners. It was warm (in the 60's) and I thought maybe. Well there were enough (barely) to get a few fish up which was entertainment until the apple caddis started to wake up around 1:00. The action was slow but steady until about 2:30 when the hatching heated up and the majority of the spinners appeared. For the next 45 minutes there were feeding fish everywhere and they weren't fussy about what they ate. Then the rain came. Got in the car (dozed off for a bit) and when the rain stopped pounding the roof I woke up and drove up to the next pool. It was too foggy to see risers,...

Without stirring up controversy I'd like to share my personal observations on how sunshine or lack thereof affects fishing. Specifically, sunshiney days vs cloudy days. Far to often lately I've read about how it's going to be a good fishing day because the weatherman is predicting clouds and rain instead of those awful sunny days. It's just not that simple. Let's take it by seasons: Springtime - The water is cold. Hendricksons need the water to warm up to almost 50 degrees to hatch. Sunshine is almost a requirement for early season Hendrickson hatches. The Hendrickson hatches move up stream as the water warms. At present they are in the upper part of both branches where the release water comes out of the reservoir at about 44 degrees. Without sunshine (like today) the water doesn't get warm enough where the hatch is occuring to allow the bugs to hatch. Caddis (the other early season bug) love sunshine. If it's warm and sunny they hatch in the morning ...

The high water had kept me and all other wade fishermen confined to the Beaverkill and even that was often unwadeable due to the high water. And then - NYC cut the flows on both branches. Understand, that we are just one good rainstorm away from high water levels again, (the WB is still spilling and the EB is brim full), but the difference in the fishing has been hard to believe. Combine my two skunkings last week with my last two days, which are sure to be top five for the season and you have the classic example of going from the outhouse to the penthouse. The upper portions of both branches have bugs that you would expect to see in the first week of May. It's Hendricksons and caddis, both duns and spinners as thick as maggots on a road killed deer. The fish are still spread out all over the river where they were during the high water and are feeding non stop on the plethora of bugs. The state of affairs - As is the norm on the Delaware River, the fish are hard to fool. Dur...

Spent Sunday touring the river system with my wife. After a week of fishing the "day off" wasn't a bad thing. Drove west along Cannonsville reservoir and came out at Stilesville. For the first time this year the wade fishermen clearly outnumbered the drift boaters on the WB. At the current level of 700 CFS the upper river can be waded and/or floated. The bugs were phenomenal with both Hendricksons and apple caddis covering the water. There were rising fish everywhere! If you can get a pass for Monday, be on the WB somewhere above the Hale Eddy bridge. It's the closest thing to a "dead cert" that the river system will ever offer. With the year long period of high water the fish were spread out and rising everywhere. Drove over to the UE expecting to see a similar scene but didn't. It may have happened before our arrival but we didn't see rising fish. Long flat and powerline had a good number of anglers but the blitz of flies was lacking. ...