Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Home for the weekend watching the sunfish in the bass pond guarding their spawning beds and counting the trout the heron has yet to catch in the trout pond.  Most of the trout have scars across their back from narrow escapes. The trout have changed the way they eat the pellets I throw them. When a heron has been visiting the pond they come up from under each pellet and quickly go back down.  Before the Heron arrived the trout would swim just under the surface gulping pellet after pellet. Wish I could teach the Heron the merits of catch and release fishing. On to the questions - Chris - In "A Season on the Delaware" I listed 12 things I know to be true. One is that on the Delaware it's harder to fool a fish with a big fly than a small one. Your experience supports my belief.  It's not that trout don't like the big bugs, it's that a MUCH higher percentage of them have hooks in them and within a day or two into a hatch most fish have suffered a bad experience ea...

Earlier this week I said guides would be leaving for gigs out west and that many fishermen would be hanging up their rods for the season.  With everyone who was floating or wading limited by high water temps to the WB and the BR down to Stockport you would think the drakes had just begun. It was nothing I wanted to be a part of and for the most part I wasn't. This morning I drove over to the EB where all the fish had been feeding yesterday morning, just to look.  There was nothing to see. Glassed the river and never saw a rise. Returned to camp to begin the peach thinning project. I have a tall, wobbly old step ladder that came with the property when I bought it. Carried it out to one of the freestone trees and began pulling peaches off the already sagging branches.  The freestones wont be ripe until September and if the number of peaches isn't reduced by over 80% the trees will be destroyed by the weight of the peaches. While I was picking peaches the hen turkey walked b...

Today would have been a great day to have my wanderings around the river system on film just to show those of you who still go to your "spot" every time you visit the Delaware just what you are missing. The AM trip was to the BE.  Water temp was 66 when I got there at 9:00 and 67.8 when I left two hours later.  The entire time I was there there were fish feeding like crazy sub surface with hard splashy rises.  What were they eating?  Well the water was covered with one of the best olive spinner falls I've ever seen.  Never saw one eaten.  In the two hours I fished I got two very indignant refusals one on an iso and one on a Cornuta. That was it.  Every cast was aimed at a fish and there were dozens of them, not a sniff. Maybe there were olive spinners that had been washed subsurface by the riff upstream, maybe they were eating some kind of fry that was moving downstream. Obviously I didn't have a clue but it was sure amazing to see so many fish feeding...

 For several years my wife has had to remind me that "It's only six weeks, it'll be over soon".  What's only six weeks? The "Big Bug Season", and I couldn't wait for it to end. Why?  With the high water we had the past few years there were boats on every river. There was no where to fish without looking over you shoulder for the next boat.  Thankfully, with lower water levels this year, the B.B.S. was, for me, one of the best ever.  For the majority of the time there were multiple rivers you could fish without being run over by boats or crowded out of pools by other wade anglers.  The river system is full of fish this year and to be able, day after day, to quietly fish to big feeding fish on what is one of the most heavily fished rivers in America, was for me a real treat.  What comes next?  For sure, fewer fishermen. Out of area guides will soon be on their way out west for their peak bug season. Many fishermen will put away their fishing gear an...

With thunderstorms and rain predicted for this afternoon and evening I decided to try to get some fishing in this morning. Was thwarted by a tractor trailer that was trying to turn half of a sectional house around right in front of the Lordville bridge (and across the railroad tracks). Did a U-turn, drove back to the camp and walked down to the river. The water was covered with the same little spinners that I found on the EB yesterday but there were no fish interested in them. Blind cast several flies in the riff for about an hour without raising a fish and was about to leave when I noticed little may fly duns floating down the river. The trout noticed them too (they knew they were coming all along). Spent the next two hours casting my smallest flies at dainty little sips made by trout eating the duns. Pretty much got my tail kicked. Got refusals from probably a dozen fish. Hooked and landed the village idiot, a 15 inch rainbow, whose mouth looked like he worked as a taster in a glass ...

Left home about 6:00 this morning so that I could get in a couple of hours of fishing before things heated up. Was on the EB (water temp 65) by 8:15 and had rising trout shortly thereafter. Problem was they weren't rising to my fly. They were eating pseudo spinners.  My smallest spinners are at least 2x's as big as the pseudos and the trout let me know they did not pass muster. By 10:30 it was over and I headed for camp to cut the lawn and thin the peaches. Drove into town this afternoon to get my signature notarized at the bank only to find out that they didn't have a Notary Public. Two smiling tellers sent me to the Town Clerk  where they had a notary. Got my signature notarized and got a new dump sticker (free to those of us over 65). Then, foolishly, decided to drive up to Deposit to see what was hatching. As far as I could see the only things on the water were drift boats and the fish were happy to let them pass by. Drove down to a run below Balls Eddy and at about 4:3...