Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Dennis - You are at least in the game having both bugs and rising fish.  If you are getting fish to come to your fly but refusing to eat it, you have joined the ranks of summer sulfur fishermen.  If the fish aren't coming to your fly it's either the fly or the cast. Summer sulfurs are small (think 18s and 20s).  The cast has to drift drag free down the trouts two inch wide feeding lane.  If you've made what you think are good casts with no result, find another fish.  Fishing to a trout that knows you're there is not a recipe for success. Jim - I apologize for the simplistic statement in Wednesdays blog.  An 18 inch fish can sip a sulfur in a rise that disappears inside a tea cup. You never know for sure what you are casting to but the yearlings tend to rise quickly, don't move much water, are often splashy and you don't see body parts.  The larger fish tend to produce a bigger boil or rise ring, often show the roof of their mouth if eating on top an...

Had a party at the No Kill in Deposit with an old friend today.  We didn't plan it, we just ended up there at the same time. There were some no shows, early departures and some late arrivals. For starters the sun never made an appearance, neither did the usual Friday afternoon onslaught of fisherman (perhaps quelled by the flash flood watch).  Early departures included almost all of the fishermen and driftboaters who had staked out prime positions for the sulfur hatch by 11:00 this morning.  Late arrivals, Angler 119, his friend, the sulfurs and the feeding fish. Started at 1:30 and spent a fruitless two hours on a long walk, saw no bugs or feeding fish. Drove down towards "Barking Dog " to assess the crowd and at about 3:30 there just wasn't any.  It was crowded earlier when I drove by but apparently the driftboats moved on downriver and the wade anglers went in search of where it was happening.  Know this; any empty pool in the No Kill this time of year is w...

With the temp predicted to go into the 90's, I decided on a plan.  Take the day off from the painting project, mow the grass, tie sulfurs and spend the rest of the day standing in the coldest water the WB had to offer. Plan went like clockwork, tied flies until the lawn dried, mowed, ate lunch and headed to the upper WB.  Was in the water at 2:00 and didn't come out until 6:00.  The hatch was slow and steady, enough to get fish feeding but they couldn't just eat the emerging nymphs, they had to look up.  The river is full of 12 inch browns, they're getting smarter every day but some of them can still be fooled. Can't really figure out the fishing, the fishermen or the boats.  The action is all above Hale Eddy, until at least 8:00 at night and yet there are not a huge number of boats on the river. The fishermen seem to have taken a lesson from the fish , they are intermittent and sporadic.  One day you can't find a place to fish, the next day you have yo...

Went up to Deposit about 1:00 today and found an empty pool right off the bat.  It's a pool that is heavily fished by the "They bite, they die." crowd in April and the number of big fish is limited.  It's mostly one and two year olds but there's lots of them.  The trick is to pay close attention to the rises and try to throw only at the two year olds.  It's a good way to improve both your ability to see rises and your casting accuracy. After two very good afternoon hatches this one was a step backwards.  Flies hatched and fish fed but there weren't enough bugs to keep the fish feeding steadily.  You had to mark a riser carefully as he probably wouldn't  rise again for several minutes.  Spent three enjoyable hours casting at rising fish, some of them even ate my flies. About four o'clock the hatch quieted down and I moved downstream to another pool where I was again the only fisherman.  With thunder rumbling in the background I hooked and ...

Over thought the sulfur hatch timing problem this morning.  With a cloudy, cooler day forecast I thought that the water would take longer to warm up and the hatch would be later.  Arrived at a pool with hatching sulfurs at 1:30, only trouble was they had been hatching for over an hour. Hatch was basically over by 3:00. The river that was deserted yesterday was crowded with both boats and anglers today.  Norbord had cars parked on both sides of the road and the Gentlemen's Club lot was full.  With the number of boats on the upper river, barking dog launch site had to be full of trailers. Had to share pools on all stops today. Had 6 or 8 nice fish feeding in front of me in the first pool. Got looks from all of them but only two ate.  The first fish, a 17 incher, turned out to be fish of the day.  When fish know you are there they become very difficult to fool.  Being able to move from fish to fish is a huge advantage for the fisherman.  Standin...

With Friday having been a one fish day, and Saturday and Sunday having been spent painting (with my wife's help), I was anxious to get back to fishing.  At the very least, the cold water would feel good. Finished the mandated three hours of painting by 10:30.  It was my intention to be in the coldest part of the WB by 11:00 just in case there were sulfurs and they came early. As is often the case, things just seemed to get in the way.  Don't recall what the holdup was but it was 1:00 o'clock when I got to the river. There were sulfurs hatching, fish rising and the river was deserted.  Had my choice of pools, was joined by an old river friend, and only one boat came by. Got out of the water about 4:30, made use of the Troutfitter's air conditioning, drank one of their peach Snapple's and went back out at about 5:00.  Found another pool devoid of anglers.  It had sulfurs hatching and fish rising. When I am fishing, I'm seldom standing in one place. If I s...