Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Played a triple header today. Early morning on the BR where Tricos were no shows and the olives made only a token appearance. Fish were looking up and most risers gave my fly at least a look. Early afternoon on the UE was indeed sulfur time. Good hatch, bright sun and clear water made for fussy fish. Late evening found me on the middle section of the WB. The fish there are relatively well rested but have completed their doctoral program. Got refusals by spinner sipping fish in the dark. The fishing? For me remains good. Today, not counting yearlings (now about 9 inches long), I averaged a couple fish per hour. You are not going to do that standing in line at one of the sulfur hot spots. Most of the river system is not getting fished and you need to go where the fish are less pressured. The fish are as much of a challenge as you could ever want but you have the room to move from fish to fish instead of standing in one spot casting to a fish or two that know you are there and exactly w...

Neglected to say in yesterday's report that the Tricos I saw were on the BR. Today I started out on the lower WB and there were none. Tricos aren't overly fond of cold water and are only found in the lower portions of the UE and WB. Without Tricos the waxwings were nowhere to be see. There wasn't a bug of any kind for a good hour. Noticed a waxwing over the water and within minutes started to see olives. There were never many of them but they got the fish looking up. Had one brief flurry of rises but for the most part it was a blind casting morning. Sucked it up and went to the "Sulfur Zone" this evening just to see if the gentleman on the UE was giving me good information. He was. Fished a short way below Deposit and there were sulfurs (a good hatch) from when I got there (at about 6:00) until dark. Is my arm sore from fighting fish? Nope. There were feeding fish everywhere (anglers too), but I saw exactly one fish eat a dun. All feeding was subsurface. It wa...

Back on the 6th of July I felt the need to downgrade the fishing to poor. At that time there were still dozens of boats on the water and wade fishermen everywhere. The big bug season had finally ended and the fish were badly beaten up. They rose infrequently, if at all and showed a reluctance to eat anything with a hook in it. Today things have changed. There are far fewer boats and wade fishermen on the river. While the hatches (outside the "sulphur zone") are modest fish are again looking up and feeding on top. Their mouths are healing and they have some of their old fight back. This could change in a hurry if an armada of boats and fishermen again descended upon the river but its midsummer and that usually doesn't happen. If you are willing to fish early mornings and the last couple of hours of the day (right up to dark) the fishing is good. In fact for me the last week has been very good. Come down (one at a time), look for a pool where no one is fishing and give ...

With the temp this morning in the 50's, I had time for breakfast before heading out to watch the trico mating dance and spinner fall which occurs when the temp hits about 69 degrees. The trico hatches have been nothing to write home about but if you watch where the waxwings are feeding you'll probably find trout under them waiting for what's left of the spinners when the waxwings get done. This morning I found trout lined up along a knotweed covered bank. They fed on trico spinners for about half an hour. The good news is that there were enough tricos to get the fish up. Following the hors d'oeuvres the fish were served olives as the entree. When the trico spinners were falling all of the fish were along one bank. Never saw a rise anywhere else. As soon as the spinner fall ended, rises started appearing all over the pool and I could no longer get a rise where 10 minutes earlier there had been a dozen fish feeding. The trout know where dinner is being served. The oli...

I am somewhat out of touch with the activity in the "sulfur zone" as I have always tried to avoid the most heavily fished areas of the system. However, sulfurs are supposed to hatch about 2:00 and go until 5:00, unless there is an extra release of cold water or cloudy skies, both of which keep the water cooler and delay the hatch, or there is warm rainwater or a cut back in the release either of which heat up the river and cause the sulfurs to hatch early. That said, at 2:30 in Deposit, sulfurs were to be found in good numbers only in fishermen's fly boxes and the Troutfitter fly shop whose empty sulfur bins have been restocked with backordered sulfurs. A Troutfitter regular (TFR) who had been fishing since noon came into the shop and asked, "Where are the sulfurs?" Discouraged, not by the number of boats and fishermen but by the lack of afternoon bugs, the TFR and I headed to the UE. For the UE this time of year, it was crowded. Most of the pools had an a...

After the two very good days on Thursday and Friday I was anxious to get back to the river. The forecast calling for an all day rain with the temp in the 60's did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. Set out about 2:30 and drove up the PA side. Saw a few little olives at Buckingham, more at Shehawken and quite a few at the 191 bridge in Hancock. Decided to try it on the lower WB and was glad I did. Had rising fish (mostly rainbows) from the time I started until 7:00 when I reeled it in and headed for the camp. As often happens, something made me stop and take a peek at the BR, which because of the thermal release has stayed cool. Temp on PA side was 62 but at 7:30 there were neither bugs nor risers. Still had my waders on so I decided to wait it out. Wasn't more than 10 minutes before olives started to come (big ones) and the fish started to rise. From then until dark I had rising fish to throw at. The fishing? Already told you - very good. Early on the fish were eating nymphs...