Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 With the rivers high and muddy and a cold wind blowing I decided to cross items off of the camp to-do list today rather than drive around looking for a place that I could get into the water and fish. First on the list was the annual cleanup of the upstairs bunk room where a significant portion of the world's population of lady bugs spend their winter.  They have no trouble finding their way in in the fall but they never seem to be able to get back out in the spring. Filled a vacuum bag full of the little buggers.  I then removed the baseboards on the porch to get it ready for the new carpet which I ordered. Made up a batch of hummingbird food and hung up the feeder (with the flowering quince, apple and peach trees all in bloom, the hummers should be here shortly).  Mixed up a new batch of fly floatant and filled all seven of my little jars. Marked the new screen door for trimming, which will not be done until I bring a couple clamps down from home.   Decid...

The river system got a badly needed soaking today.  Much of the river has been too low for drift boat fishing and with FUDA's "One Bug Tournament" scheduled for this weekend the rise in water levels was a God send.  That said, the forecast for tomorrow leaves something to be desired.  Twenty to thirty mile per hour winds with gusts up to fifty-five are predicted. If you were planning on coming to fish forgetaboutit. Saturday the wind is predicted to gradually subside with things settling down on Sunday.  At present the West Branch is blown out. The eastern half of the system is at fishable levels but the rain is still coming down.  The Big River will probably remain floatable but turbidity will no doubt be a problem. The best advice for those not in the tournament - stay home and wait for both the wind and water to settle down. Todays fishing -  There was almost no rain in Lordville this morning and I set out for the WB hoping to find Hendricksons.  Fo...

Forgive me for I have sinned.  Left Lordville at noon, stopped on the LV bridge and there were fish going everywhere.  Drove up the PA side towards Buckingham to see what the incoming boat traffic looked like, did a U-turn and headed back to fish the "Home Pool".  It wasn't meant to be.  I could only see one angler in the pool but the parking lot under the bridge was full and there was a four car traffic jam right by the railroad tracks.  Squeezed through the tie up, drove up to 97 and headed downstream towards Callicoon - right out of the bugs and rising fish. Spent the rest of the day looking for the caddis I told you were on all of the freestones, without finding a significant hatch, spinner fall or rising fish. Got thinking about it and I've only seen one heavy hatch of Hendricksons.  Haven't seen a single "popcorn" hatch of the apple caddis either for that matter.  Until today I've had "fair" hatches of both bugs, which gets the fish l...

With the prediction calling for a warm sunny day I went looking for caddis.  They aren't hard to find as there are both hatchers and egg layers on all of the freestones (BK,BR, BE).  Went out at noon with the little red line in the thermometer at 60 (up from 32).  The egg layers were active but I didn't see apple caddis duns on the water until about two.  The Hendricksons made but a token appearance from 3:00 until I headed back to camp at 4:30. Rested up and went back to the same area at about 6:30.  With the temp going up into the 70's, I expected to finally see some may fly spinners, I didn't. There were fish rising in the slower parts of the big pools but many of the rising fish were eating something subsurface. There were spent caddis (a few) on the water and some were being eaten  You had to look for noses. It was not the night I hoped for. The fishing?  You won't hear me complain, not even a little bit.  Why?  It's still April.  M...

  Got an early morning call that my tooth cleaning appointment was moved back from 10:00 to 11:00.  If the temperature wasn't still in the 30's I might have been p---ed.  If the cold temperature wasn't enough, another blue norther pushed the car all over the road on the way down.  Got to the river about two with one plan - try to get out of the wind.  Thankfully, the sun had done it's magic on the water and there were fish up and feeding on the cold water loving paraleps.  Fished a place "out of the wind" which meant that the gusts blew up the river at 20mph and then they blew down the river at the same speed.  The fishing?  For two hours there were rising fish.  The number one challenge was locating the size 18 paralep on the end of the leader after making the cast.  The 12 foot leader went where the wind told it to go and of course the fly went with it.  It was cold, the wind was impossible, but it was way more fun than sitting in...

 Today  dawned overcast with a steady drizzle. The rain ended mid morning but it stayed in the low 50's with heavy cloud cover until mid afternoon.  Left camp around noon and drove around the river system for over two hours without seeing a bug or a rise.  It appeared that most of the weekend fishermen had departed as the parking lots weren't full and there were only a modest number of boats and wade anglers on the river. The sun loving apple caddis refused to make an appearance until the sun found a few holes in the clouds about 2:30.  The Hendrickson were right behind them with duns trying to get off the water around three. When I started seeing risers I put on my, almost dry, waders and waded in. Was ignored or indigently refused by most of the fish I cast at. With the wind picking up, presentation was undoubtedly part of the problem.  The bigger issue, however, is that most of the fish in the river system have already been hooked or at the vary lea...