Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 I've been "blind casting" for more than 65 years. When I started out in my Dad's hip boots cut off at the knees no one told me to just cast at rising fish. The only advice I ever remember getting was from a friend of my father, Roy Ryan who stood on the bank watching me and hollered "Never saw anyone yet catching a fish while he was waving the G-- D--- fly around in the air".  The advice sank in, anyone who has watched me fish knows I make very few false casts and the fly is ALWAYS in the water. Blind casting (prospecting if you will) puts the fly in play. You will never catch a fish standing with your rod over your shoulder waiting for a rise.  Fish have to do three things, avoid predators, eat and reproduce.  If they don't know you are there and it's not spawning time you have a chance. What exactly is blind casting?  It is casting your fly on water undisturbed by a rise in hopes of enticing a fish to eat it.  Just last year I was fishing with a F...

With the freestones blown out and both tailwaters colored, a 15 to 20 mph wind blowing and bow season opening tomorrow, I went home.  The good news - when things settle down again the fish should be back where they belong, except for the big browns who will be busy doing their best to insure that there is good fishing two to three years from now.  The days are much shorter and the fish will be feeding on top about the same time as they do when the Hendricksons are hatching.  Two until five is when the action will be taking place.  Warm days may result in some early evening spinner falls but don't count on it. Your hourly catch rate can be good, there just aren't enough hours. If you want to enjoy the fall colors get in the car now.  Last Friday north of Binghamton was beautiful, today it was more subdued, a lot of rusty orange has replaced the brilliant reds and oranges.  The Catskills with their huge stands of oak still have a lot of green but the hillside...

Hats off to Jim N., Keith and Dennis for sticking with me while other fair weather anglers are golfing, raking leaves, watching football games or perhaps wearing out the bull's eye on their archery target.  Would like to tell the quitters that they are missing the best fishing of the year but Dennis blew my cover.  The last two days have been dreadful.  Today I fished a pool in the lower EB that I know has fish, never rose one.  Went to the coldest water in the WB and found pseudos and rising fish.  Pseudos are tiny but they taste good and fish like to eat them - in very slow water, think tail outs, back waters and little eddies where the current moves the little buggers around in a slow circle. Got close to the risers and was amused by the fish's reaction to my flies. The now 1.5 year olds mostly ate the fly. The 2.5 year olds either came up slowly under the fly and then sank back down or came up fast and pulled out at the last moment.  About 5:30 it was t...

It you are wondering, it's been much better weather for sunfish fishing than it has been for trout fishing. Up until yesterday our attempts to restore a breeding population of sunfish in the bass pond had been a dismal failure.   We (Jean and I) caught 'em, brought 'em back to the pond and they were promptly eaten by the bass.  Finally this Saturday I saw two survivors from last weeks batch swimming around in the pond.  Armed with the knowledge of how big they had to be we went back to the Erie Canal and fished more selectively, caught a dozen, too big to be eaten sunfish and brought them back to the pond.  It was interesting to watch, the sunfish seemed to know they were ok.  The bass would swim right up alongside of them and they didn't even flinched. The bass may be hungry now but next summer they should have lots of little sunfish to eat. The unseasonably warm weather again stifled the bug hatches on the freestones and I made the mistake this afternoon ...