Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Jim N. -  Page 240 of the paperback version of   "A Season on the Delaware" was the bio page which contained everything you ever wanted to know about Angler 119.  It seems that page 239 which contained high resolution color photos of Angler 119's favorite flies is also missing from the published addition. A bipartisan panel has been commissioned to look into the matter. Jack M. - You asked how I go about deciding which fly to use when there are multiple flies hatching.  I've touched on the subject briefly before but with only one question to answer perhaps more detail is in order. When I was a kid and got to stay at Ruth and Roy Ryan's camp on the West Canada Creek with my parents, Roy would tie on an Adams at the dining room table before going fishing and announce "If they don't like it, they can shit in the creek".  That was back in the day of the 10 fish limit and most all of the fish in the West Canada were newly stocked hatchery fish. Things ha...

Just yesterday I went to great lengths to tell you where to go to meet bugs and rising fish.  Got up this morning and went in the opposite direction.  Why?  It was all a plan to keep you away from the good fishing.  No, it was just a spur of the moment decision  to say good by to the BR (at least the middle section) until fall.  The last two cold nights brought the BR water temp down into fishable levels and the predicted temps for the next three days will probably end the fishing there. Guides seldom venture below Buckingham after big bug season on bright sunny days and I just love to fish the BR when no one else is around.  So I just went.  About the only mistake I made was putting on two shirts (temp was 54 when I left the car).  Not an hour later the second shirt was in the back of my fishing vest. Saw one boat early and if they were going all the way to Long Eddy, I hope they were shad fishing. The fishing - After about 10 days of almost...

 In my blog entry  "It's only just begun.", I said it would be a challenge until the summer sulfurs kicked in and that you needed to get into a rhythm with the bugs and the river. Well to be honest A119 floundered a bit.  Took three trips a day, drank lots of Gatorade to avoid late night leg cramps and had trouble putting things together.  The evenings have been very good but in the hot weather it doesn't happen until it's dark. The last couple of days (temp in the 30's at camp this AM) the bugs hatched earlier (just after the sun went behind the hills).  The opportunity to catch fish  in the evenings is the surest thing on the river, you just have to put the 5:00 Perfect Manhattan on hold. The mornings have been a bust. One morning had a great olive spinner fall and a bunch of fish feeding like crazy on something else. All the other morning trips were dreadful. It's the afternoons that got better.  It's not really that complicated, bug hatches move up...

 With the temp down in the 40's this AM and a forecasted high in the 60's,  I was assured of being able to fish the freestones this evening. That made it easy to cancel the morning fishing, finish mowing the yard and work on the peach trees. Thank God for the late frost last year that killed 99.87% of the peaches.  If  I had to spend as much time on the peaches last year the camp painting job would never have been finished. Didn't head out until almost two, sucked it up and headed to the "Sulfur Zone".  Hate the SZ because I have to fish it for two months, it's crowded and I love solitude, something that doesn't exist there.  Went because I haven't found daytime bugs anywhere else - - - and - - - it came through.  It wasn't great, but the big spring sulfurs have arrived there and enough were hatching to get fish up.  Spent a couple of hours trying to make perfect presentations in a sneaky little draft (10/15 out of the north).  It didn't go r...

 It was just "That kind of a day".  It rained where I was about ten times, It was cloudy and overcast most of the day.  The freestone temps stayed in the "OK to fish" zone, all three peaking at about 67 degrees.  With lawn mowing (as soon as the grass dried out) and peach thinning on the work agenda, I decided to give the Lordville riff a try while the lawn was drying.  There were no bugs to be seen, none.  Risers?  Yes, sorta.  You've all seen the rise a trout makes when he/she is eating an iso nymph.  The nymphs are fast swimmers and the trout go after them with gusto and create a splashy boil.  Well this morning, in the hour that I fished I saw about a dozen "iso boils" only the boils were at least twice as big. I also never saw a single iso. Threw an iso at the six or eight of the boils I could reach and never got a sniff.  In the hour I fished I got one rise on a blind cast and hooked and landed, after a good fight, an 18 inch ...

For those of you who haven't been on the river for the last week or so, know this, the rules have changed and judging by my results today, the fish are just delighted. Arrived at the fishing camp in time to put the food in the fridge and still be on the water by 9:15.  Tried three pools in two different rivers, saw no bugs, alive or dead and was reeling it in to head home when a hatchery trout started practicing his rises. He was about 100 feet downstream from me and rose two more times before I got close enough to cast. My fly was apparently on his approved list 'cause my index finger went in his mouth right up to the third knuckle getting the hook out. Spent the afternoon spraying fruit trees, pruning off  branches on the cling peach tree that the deer had pulled down and broken and continued my peach thinning project. Left the Lordville Estate in time to deliver more copies of "A Season on the Delaware" to Dave at the Troutfitter, thanks to all who have bought a co...