Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's been a quiet week blog wise, thankfully no kerfuffles, (hats off to a new reader Keith who used kerfuffle in his introductory comment, haven't heard it or seen it used for years).  Thanks also to the others who shared their fishing experiences on trips this week. With no questions asked, no answers have to be given which gives me time for a rant. Regular  readers, I'm sure are aware that it has been tough fishing the past two weeks.  This week turned the corner. What that means is that I am catching good numbers of fish again.  I fish the river system a minimum of five days a week and have been doing so for 30 years. Fly fished for over 35 years before that. The fact that I'm catching fish doesn't mean that you will.  It means that there are fish willing to eat dry flies, if  you are in the right place at the right time with the right flies and the necessary skill to present them properly. The Delaware River System is the toughest place I know to consistently c

 After yesterday I was afraid to go out today and find that it had all been a dream. Didn't want to go back to the tough days of the past two weeks.  So I found things that I needed to do.  Finished painting the garage and razor bladed the paint off the last two windows.  The only things left to paint are the storm windows.  It rained enough that the grass needed cutting so I mowed again and before I knew it it was 3:45.  Bit the bullet and headed out. Found a riff on the lower WB that had no cars parked and walked down to the river only to find a boat anchored in the hot spot. Was tempted to fish up past him and say "Watch your back cast." But I stayed below him and hooked a nice rainbow.  When he left two more boats came through.  Caught two more nice fish after they rowed by, with another boat bearing down on me, I remembered it was Friday night. Reeled in and got out of there.  It was 5:00 and time to head someplace where both the boat traffic and wade fishing pressur

As I sat down to write this, a size 30, winged black ant lit on the rim of my perfect manhattan glass and - - - fell in. He didn't drink much.  Will get back to ants later. With the BK up over 1,000 CFS from the rain, the eastern half of the system, the BK, BE and BR were out of play.  The BR was fishable at today's levels but I don't try to cross it at 2,500 anymore and with the limited number of fish in most pools doubling the flow reduces your chances of finding a fish by more than half. The rise in the water is just what we have needed.  When things get back to comfortable wading levels the BE will not only be fishable but it will have fish in it and the fish will be better distributed in both the BK and the BR. Today I had little choice but to fish the WB.  It has by far, the most fish and also the biggest fish. With the sulfur hatch over those yellow flies you are seeing are probably Hebes, (which I use to call lemon olives), Cahill's or golden drakes.  There was

 Woke this morning to a nice steady rain.  Not the kind that blows out the rivers in less than an hour but the kind that soaks in and replaces what the sun removed from the soil during the scorching days of July and August. An olive day if I ever saw one.  Unable to work outside I spent the morning tying iso emergers and flomps (floating nymphs).  Also tied up some white flies.  Have a box of them from over thirty years ago when I fished the Salmon River, Fish Creek and the West Canada Ephron hatches. Even I have to admit that I tie a better fly now than I did then. With the flies tied and nothing else to do  I even oiled the hinges on my olive and iso boxes so I could quickly replace flies destroyed by hungry trout (just think about that for a minute before you go out to the garage for the oil can). By 1:00 I was ready to go. At 6:15 I had seen more deer and almost as many eagles as I had olives and isos.  Saw three trout free rise and four trout that came to my fly. The only one that

 Today was freestone day. The water temps have cooled in the last week and today all could be fished without endangering the trout. Started with the Beaverkill.  Fished three pools between the downstream  no kill and jaws. All had fish cautiously willing to eat a fly. More important was the fact that the rocks along the shore were covered with iso husks left in the last few days as the water dropped. The bugs weren't hatching while I was fishing but the fish were looking for them. The fish have become very careful about eating isos but the iso husks on the rocks told me that was the fly to use. Tried two pools on the BE, one near a thermal refuge and one in the lower river where the upstream migrants might have been spending the night. Never saw a rise or a bug at either stop. Last stop was a pool up high on the big river that I hadn't fished all year.  It was after seven when I got there and I was in the car driving home at 8:10.  There were a few white flies but little surfac

Spending most of my time in the bustling metropolis of downtown Lordville it's easy to find myself "out of the loop".  Needed a couple of little parts for my bow so I stopped at Walmart and Dick's, only to find that neither carry archery equipment or guns any more.  Not to worry, the archery pro shop in Tully is only a short bit out of the way on my return trip to the river. Turned out when I got there that they are closed on Mondays.  Got here in time to mow the lawn and then head out seeking revenge and retribution after last weeks performance. With the cool air temps over the weekend the BR was in good shape to fish.  Picked a couple of places  in the upper middle section of the river where some fish might have spent the summer and where some fish might have moved back home.  There were bugs, (isos, olives, Ephron's and Hebes).  There were some rising fish and for tonight at least there were no other fishermen. The fishing - If tonight was any indication, we