Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's the end of the week and I decided to do a split day, opting to skip the mid afternoon madness of the "sulphur zone". Started at the lower gamelands (my first visit this year) and fished about an hour and a half. Never saw a bug or a rise. Reeled it in and started up the trail to the car. Ran into a Troutfitter regular heading down the trail and convinced him to do a 180 and head somewhere else. Saw him and several other TFRs at the shop in Deposit about 5:30. Said he fished in the sulphur zone and had rising fish to throw at all afternoon. Returned to the camp to rewater the new lawn (there is actually now some green showing) and then set out for the evening fishing. Without a clear plan in mind I drove to several spots which already had anglers (it's Friday night afterall), and finally settled on fishing the BR up high. It has been cooler the past two days and there has been quite a bit of cloud cover. The water temp (on the PA side) was fine, if only there w...

Got so caught up in my rant about drift boaters violating my space that I forgot about last nights moonlight fishing experience. Once or twice a year things fall into place. You need a bright enough waxing moon (over half) but not so full that it isn't over the hills at dark. You need a good spinner fall that has the fish up and gulping. You need to be on a part of the river facing the western sky. The wind can't be blowing and you need to have an insanity pass to give to your wife when you get home an hour or two late.. Last night everything fell in place. I had waded back to the trail that led up the hill to the car and was zipping up my vest pockets when I heard gulping sounds (lots of 'em). Waded quietly out from shore facing the western sky and saw eight to ten fish chowing down on spinners . Hooked the two closest fish but the hook pulled out of both right away. When I checked I found I had tied a knot around the bend of the hook (I had pulled the hook out of the...

One of the first things I do each morning is to check water flows and temps. It is an important step in deciding where I'm going to fish. This morning I knew where I was going to fish and never even turned on my PC. Went to one of my favorite morning places, it's a long walk but usually well worth it. This morning, not so much. There were no bugs and no risers. The water seemed colder (50) and higher (in the grass) than I expected. Got back to the camp and looked up the water flows - sure enough they had sent a thermal release down the WB. While thermal releases are good for the river they often stifel the days bug hatch (it usually doubles up the next day). If I'd only known, I could have saved a long walk and a lot of cast to fish that weren't eating. In the evening I fished above Hale Eddy and had lots of bugs and rising fish in post thermal release water. The fish eating sulfur duns were hard to fool but when the spinners came - the advantage went to the angler. ...

There is no question that the WB has more and bigger fish than any other part of the river system. During the big bug season anglers flock to it in hopes of catching that elusive twenty incher. Upwards of forty boats a day were on the river most days from mid April into early June. Due to the high water and the flotilla of drift boats most wade fishermen didn't even attempt to fish the WB during the major hatches. Last week I said the fishing was poor. Why? There are a number of reasons. 1- The reservoir releases have been cut back making the river flows much lower. 2- Anglers that couldn't fish in the high water flocked to the river last week. 3- The bug hatches are now concentrated in the upper few miles of the UE and WB. 4- The freestone parts of the system (BK BE and BR) are too warm to fish. 5- High concentrations of both drift boats and wade anglers into a few miles of river means nobody catches fish. Fortunately things have a way of working out. It seems by th...

We are now into early/mid summer fishing. It happened rapidly as we had high water and drakes 'til the end of June. With the lowering of the releases came hot sun. The lower BK and the BE should not be fished. The water temps have been consistently above 70 and the fish are migrating to thermal refuges. The Big River is day to day. The river from Buckingham down is too warm to fish. Above Buckingham it depends on the amount of WB release, cloud cover and the BE warm water input. At best it is an evening and rainy day option. That leaves you with two options. The Upper East (UE) : At the present time the flow is a little above 200 CFS. It is not floatable without spoiling the fishing for every wade fisherman you row by. Ethical guides took their drift boats elsewhere when the flow dipped below about 450 CFS. The river was crowded with wade anglers last week. At 7:00 this evening I drove from East Branch to Downsville and saw but two anglers. Either spouses have tig...