Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

I've fished six days this week. The first five days I never hooked, let alone landed a fish over 16 inches. This time of year most of the big browns stop feeding on top and the rainbow population this year is mostly younger fish. But still, to not hook at least on big one is unusual. Today things changed a bit. Fished above Hale Eddy in the morning. More for peace and quiet (boats don't usually start 'til noon), than anything else. Was looking for fish sipping spinners - there were quite a few spinners in the slow moving pool and I found a back bay where there were several fish sipping them. Was only able to convince two of them to eat but they were nice ones. An 18 incher with a clean mouth (no hook marks) tore all over the river, was into my backing on the first run and never quit fighting. The second, a beautiful 19 incher was the "Chamber of Commerce" fish's twin brother, never made a run, just thrashed on the surface and came quietly to the net. Am

My wife came down to take in the annual Fourth of July parade in Lordville. It was a scorcher with both the car and porch thermometers registering 92 degrees. As predicted the BK, EB and BR gauges all were up over 70 degrees. Spent the day just trying to keep cool. Took a drive up the West Branch in the afternoon (more for the car air than anything else) and was amazed to see the river void of fishermen. We counted five wade fishermen and two boats. On Tuesday there were somewhere around 30 - 40 trailers at Balls Eddy alone. Watched a nice display of fireworks from the back porch to close out the holiday. The fishing on the 5th - Holiday weekends are not the time to fish the UE. There were over 20 cars parked at Al's in Shinhopple waiting for the kayakers and canoeists to arrive on their down the river journey from Downsville. It was a great day to be on the water and lots of people took advantage of it.. Tried the early morning again on the WB, it was a total bust.

With it promising to be one of the hottest days of the year I opted for a split day. Fished a riffly stretch on the lower WB in the morning and then fished the UE in the evening. The morning fishing was surprisingly good with a nice hatch of sulfurs, olives and cahills. Never saw a big fish but there was a nice mix of two and three year olds. My hooking was far better than my landing but had rising fish to throw at for three solid hours. Didn't fish again until seven in the evening when the hills on the UE provided some much needed shade. The UE was again busy with multiple cars in almost all of the pull offs. There wasn't much of a hatch or spinner fall either for that matter. There were some sulfurs and the fish ate enough of them that you had targets. Again I found an absence of the larger fish with three year olds being the biggest fish I caught. The hot sun on the water coupled with the reduced flows of cold release water resulted in the temps in the BK, BE and

With a four day weekend coming up I thought that the early part of the week would be quiet. Was I ever wrong. There was an unending string of drift boats, kayaks, pontoon boats and every other imaginable kind of personal floatation device on the WB Tuesday. Every pool on the UE had multiple fishermen in it. It was a cloudy overcast day that should have been good but the sulfurs didn't come in their usual numbers and the tiny olives that were on the WB didn't excite the trout who were busy dodging oars, anchors and fishermen's feet all day long. There were more boat trailers at Balls Eddy takeout than cars at the Tops Market parking lot in Hancock. The fishing? Not good. For a week or so around Memorial Day weekend the river system produced some of the best fishing I've ever seen. It then settled into a pattern a steady good fishing which ended for me (a wade fisherman) when the rains came and the reservoirs overflowed. The high waters again limited access and the f

Had numerous items on Mondays "To do" list and didn't leave town 'til after one. Unloaded the perishables at camp and went for a drive around the river system. With the releases reduced to near normal levels and a hot sun shining down on the river it seems inevitable that by the end of the week the fishable portion of the Delaware river system will be reduced to the Upper East and the West Branch. Fortunately this more or less coincides with the end of the big bug season. Fortunate because if the same number of anglers that fished during "big bug season" tried to cram into the summer tailwater area we would be standing on one another's heads. For the next few days there will be some morning fishing on the rest of the system and some "hour before dark" fishing will be available from time to time on the upper BR, but for the most part it's going to be like fishing Long Flat or Barking Dog. You get your space and fish to the fish that are