Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Did house and yard work this morning and then took the time to tally up the results of my fishing in July. Keeping in mind that I do not count yearling fish (those that hatched in the spring of 2019 and are now 9 inches long) this July was the third best in the 28 years that I have kept records on the Delaware. The brown population through the system seems healthy. The population of big (over 17 inches) rainbow trout is down. There are very few rainbows over 2.25 years of age now in the system. There are a good number of rainbows that are 2.25 (about 15 inches long) and 1.25 (not quite ten inches long) in the system. Historically in July the number of browns over 17 inches caught drops off significantly while the number of rainbows over 17 inches caught remains fairly constant. This year the large rainbow catch rate hit an all time low of 7% in July. The validity of my catch records are influenced by several factors: As a wade fishermen I have been unable to fish much of the riv...

With yesterday being cloudy and the nighttime temps dropping into the low 60's the upper BR was once again available for early morning fishing. Last weeks morning fishing was very good and I was looking forward to taking up where I left off. The bugs? - There weren't any (actually I saw zero tricos and three olives). Risers? Saw a total of four, all to far away to cast to. The fishing? Sometimes you have to just put on a fly and "blind" cast. A friend said "It isn't blind casting, it's prospecting". I say it's nymph fishing on top. Whatever you want to call it, I did it for two hours. Rose six fish. Two said no thanks. Four nice rainbows ate and I landed them all. The best one was an 18 incher. Two fish an hour on a bright sunny morning when there no bugs is like making ---- Didn't go out again until 5:00. Should have waited another three hours. Fished a big slow pool on the UE where there were a few fish casually sipping the odd su...

In over thirty years of fishing the Delaware I've never seen bugs behave the way they have this year. Hendricksons wouldn't end and the drakes wouldn't start and when they finally did get going the went almost into July. The Tricos should be on both branches by now but the only fishable hatch I've seen was on the big river. The summer sulfurs are something you can usually depend on. Be in Deposit by 2:00 and fish until 5:00. This year I've seen them at 11:00 and at 7:00 and everywhere in between. How have the bugs affected the fishing? Well, if you are where the bugs are hatching you are into feeding fish. If you are standing on the Town bridge in Deposit at 2:00 and see no bugs you have two choices, either fish where there are no rising fish and hope the bugs come or go and find where they are hatching. The first two weeks of July I tried the first option and struggled. There just weren't bugs where they were "supposed to be". In week three I start...

After yesterday's UE bonanza there was no question where I was going this am. There were two cars parked on the lower part of the river at trico spots and two fishermen in the pool I had fished yesterday. I was unable to see waxwings or tricos anywhere from the Sunoco station up to Shinhopple. I wasn't the least concerned by the fishermen or lack of tricos as I don't go back to the same pool two days in a row and I was going to fish the olive hatch and spinner fall - except there weren't any olives, spinners or risers. Reeled it in after half an hour and drove over to the WB. At 10:00 it was already hot and I was glad to get into the cold water. Fished an hour before I saw the first olive hatch and it was 30 minutes later that the fish started to rise. Most of the rising fish were yearlings and even they showed little enthusiasm for what was a reasonably good olive hatch. Trudged back to the car at 12:30 and returned to the camp. If there was air conditioning in the c...

Left Lafayette about 6:30 this morning hoping to fish a trico spinner fall on the Upper East branch. With the temp already at 66 degrees the chances of getting there in time were slim to none, but you never know. At Binghamton the car thermometer hit 70 - no hope of arriving on time now. Was pondering my next move when I drove into the WB fog at Deposit. The temp plunged back to 66, maybe just maybe. The BE water is too warm for fog and the temp began to rise again. I kept going anyway and sure enough there was fog on the river at East Branch and the temp went back to 66. There was already a fisherman at the best trico spot on the UE (they must be hatching I thought) so I drove on up the river to the next vacant pool. Was so anxious to get to the river for the spinner fall that I didn't notice that there were no waxwings in the air (or tricos either for that matter) until I was right down to the water. What to do next? Stood there watching the bugless water flow by when a fis...