Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

I am no computer wizard but for the third time with my new laptop I have erased three paragraphs of a blog with one touch of something I'm not even aware of touching. Pisses me off!!!! Awoke this morning to a bright sun burning through the fog.  Decided to clean out the blue bird boxes (they are on the shut down list).  Assembled the necessary tools and walked out to the back yard where the two bluebirds that I haven't seen in over two months were waiting for me.  The female was sitting on top of "their box" and the male was on a fencepost near by.  It was as if they came to make sure I did a good cleaning job and to say goodbye.  Left camp about 1:00 to returned some hooks I bought by mistake and to drop off another load at the transfer station. With the WB high and colored I headed east. There were bugs, rising fish and fishermen on the BK. Found two pools with bugs, rising fish and no fishermen.  Spent a couple hours trying to get subsurface feeding fish...

 Didn't fish today and it didn't bother me a bit.  Why? After four back to back days of the best fall pseudo/iso fishing I have ever had there was no need to punish myself.  Today was that high pressure day that follows the previous frontal system's departure.  It's marked by bright sun, below normal temps, brisk winds and high pressure. The fish just don't like it and are reluctant to rise. Today there were a few clouds, temp never got above 55,  the wi What did I do?  Sadly, began the shutdown process on the camp.  There's a list two pages long and I take my time, usually the draining of the pipes happens about the end of October. Today I tackled the fly tying room.  With CDC feathers of various colors piled up on the tying bench all season the room never gets a good cleaning.  A vacuum is like a tornado sucking up feathers and blowing those not near it's intake all over the room so I never get the vacuum anywhere near the tying bench. Got ...

 It was an unusual day to say the least.  With the prediction of gale force winds there was little likelihood of getting in any meaningful fishing.  Looked out in the morning and not a leaf was stirring. Filled the car with trash and headed to the transfer station and then drove up to Oquaga Lake to help Jean unload a car full of household goods she was delivering to a friends house.  When I drove through Deposit there were bare rocks out of water in the middle of the riff above the town bridge.  The water was dead calm.  Not so at Oquaga Lake where foot high waves were breaking against shore. On the return trip about 11:30 I found fishable conditions and decided to try to get in a little fishing before the wind hit. Put on the gear, walked to the river and the wind and rain started.  Reeled it in and headed back to the Lordville Estate for lunch. The storm didn't amount to much and I set out to fish again in a relatively light breeze at about 2:00....

 It's October 6th and I feel like a minister preaching to empty pews during the pandemic.  Why?  The salmon run is on up on the Salmon River and with both the WB and the EB far too low to float and even the BR a challenge to get down, all the guides have followed the money.  They gone.  The fishermen, they gone too.   Had a popular riff/run to myself all afternoon.  There were the usual bugs, little brown caddis that are always flying upstream and never land, pseudos and in some places isos. Even with the bright sun there were risers. In the early afternoon they were yearlings (rainbows now 10 to 11 inches, browns now 9 to 10 inches).  Certainly not the pulse pounding fish you come to the Delaware for but you have to make the same casts and it's a great way to improve your skills.  When the sun got lower in the sky the hatch got better and the bigger fish fed.  It wasn't as good as yesterday but it was good. At about 5:30 I headed t...

 Stayed in this morning and tied flies. A couple of  innovative iso patterns that I hoped would work, a  very small spinner, four brown fall caddis and half a dozen pseudos.  Before going out I checked the release at Stilesville and found out that they are shutting off the water to make a repair to the pipe.  The dewatering of the upper WB will probably do serious damage to the caddis population that has added a new dimension to the upper WB in recent years. The caddis nymphs can't follow the water drop as well as the mayfly nymphs and many will be left to die on a dry stream bed. Armed with the knowledge of  the planned release decrease, I headed for the BR, unfortunately so had everyone else.  Changed plans and decided to try the BE, which after the rise of water late last week should be full of fish.  Had gotten down the steep bank and walked several hundred yards along the stream before I noticed that the shoreline had changed.  The out o...

 After seven trips out to my tree stands I'd had enough.  Saw more golden crowned kinglets (2) than deer(1).  With the full moon, the deer are moving at night and have been nowhere to be seen during daylight hours.  Was on the road by 10:00 this morning and in Deposit by 11:30.  The pool below the town bridge was full of both fishermen and rising fish.  You needed a magnifying glass to see the bugs the fish were eating but there were lots of them and the yearling trout were enjoying an early lunch. Put on my waders and gave it a try.  The trout were zoned in on micro and my size twenty pseudos didn't get a look.  Finally tried a string thing and got both refusals and takes. By 1:00 it was time to go looking for a pseudo hatch. Got on 17 and drove over to East Branch. From 1:30 until 4:30 I divided my time between the UE and the BK. There were pseudos and rising fish in both places. An 18 inch rainbow from the BK and an 18 inch holdover hatchery br...