Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 In view of the results, I thought it might be interesting to compare yesterday's fishing with today's. Thursday, I fished a pool on the Big East, it had fish rising to ants and/or pseudos. I rose seven fish, four refused my fly, three ate and I landed one.  Next stop was a pool on the big river where I saw two risers, hooked and landed them both. Third and last stop was another pool on the BR, walked a long way without seeing a fish until I found some risers in a glide above a riff.  Was refused by one, hooked three and landed them all. On the way back to the car I saw another riser that I hooked and landed.  During the time I spent fishing I rose 14 fish, was refused by 5, hooked 9 and landed 7.  It was as nice a day of fishing as you could ask for. Friday, I started at an often fished pool on the BK, where there were fresh iso husks on the rocks and the fish were in the riff looking for and feeding on isos.  They would not even look at the iso I was fish...

 If you've been reading the reports this week you know that I talked with two fishermen on Monday (one of whom wasn't even fishing).  Did not see a single fisherman on Tuesday and had one boat come by yesterday.  Today I had to go into Hancock to get my archery license so I decided to see if I could find  unoccupied water further upstream.  First stop was a pool on the BE.  The river is too low to float and so far has not had fish or pressure.  Found a few fish that had obviously spent the summer getting their doctorial degree at junction pool. Got four to come up and look at an olive and one to eat an ant which he managed to get rid of as I was reaching for him with my net. Left the EB fish for someone with better skills than I, crossed over the WB on 191 and headed downstream. Shehawken had seven trailers and as many cars.  There was no one upstream from the ramp and I considered fishing there. Just then two fishermen who were getting geared up ...

Today I ventured downstream on the BR, the water has been in the 50s and reports I've heard, say there are fish throughout the river from junction pool to Callicoon. Got in the water about 2:45, just in time for a drift boat to appear up river from me. The guide had to walk the boat down through the riff due to the shallow water.  Asked him how they were doing and he said they had already caught fish upriver.  He was very courteous, fishing from the far side of the pool and rowed down river without doing serious damage to my fishing.  The fishing - There were some isos and pseudos hatching with a few splashy risers chasing iso nymphs. Hooked a couple of fish on isos but got enough refusals to let me know that if I wanted to catch fish I'd have to fish a different fly.  In the quieter part of the pool there were fish sipping something from the surface. Stared at the water for a couple of minutes and saw several ants float by.  Tied on one of my new irresistible w...

 If you want to talk about perfect days for a wade fisherman to be on the river this was one of them.  The water temps were ideal.  The flow levels make wading easy (not so for the floater/draggers).  The wind was negligible. The isos hatched more or less on schedule.  There were fish in the pools and they ate.  The forecast doesn't include clouds or rain for the next few days and that will probably change things on the WB and BR.  With the BR about 800 CFS at Lordville and 700 CFS at Callicoon???, changes are coming. The minimum flow at Montague is not being met when the Wallenpaupack power plant isn't running and the shortfall has to be made up by releases from Cannonsville. There was already a "minimum flow" release but more are sure to come and they may well be much larger than the 500 CFS we just had.  Best advice, look at the Stilesville release before starting out so you know what you are getting into on the WB and BR. Back to the fishing....

It's the fall solstice, things are changing at a rapid pace. Lordville has had four straight mornings with heavy frosts.  Days are getting shorter by about three minutes a day which doesn't sound like much until you realize you are losing half an hour of daylight every ten days.  I'm reeling it in at seven, just when the fishing was starting to get good about two months ago.  It's a time of transition for me.  Spent the weekend at home putting up tree stands, watching trail cam photos and shooting the new bow.  Even threw in another sunfishing trip. Got some bigger ones this time and hopefully they will  help the lone sunfish in the pond produce food for the bass next spring.  Got a late start and drove right by Hancock about 2:00 this afternoon in hopes of finding isos and feeding fish and for once I did.  Fished six different pools on the BE, BK and BR and caught trout on four of the stops.  Got to the BR a little later than planned and the...