Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 If you are looking for a fishing report, you've gone to the wrong site. Got a call at 5:00 AM this morning that we now have a swimming pool in what was the basement. The house is almost 40 years old and we never had a water problem  -  until a month ago. In the past month we have been hit with three torrential rainstorms, Tuesday night we got four inches of rain and water came in.  Last night I don't know the amount of rain but there was two inches of water on the basement floor.  We have gutters and drainage that carries surface water away from the house.  That wasn't the problem. We have an artesian well and water occasionally bubbles up out of the ground in areas near the house.  In the past the drain tile under the house would carry away any water that built up under the cellar floor. This morning the water was coming up out of the two cellar drains.  Why? Over the years there has been a significant build up of limestone in the pipes. The dra...

 With the sun poking through the clouds there was little point in rushing out to fish the lower section of the WB. Left camp at 3:30 and when I saw no bugs on the water at Shehawken (one of my look/see places) I went over to 17 and drove up to Hale Eddy. Stood on the bridge for a good ten minutes without seeing a bug or a rise. Drove down the "PA" side thinking I'd fish the game lands. Two cars in each lot changed my mind. This time of year the fishing can be good if you have room to move around and cast at fish that haven't been disturbed. If the crowds that blanket the river in May were to appear in August no one would catch anything.  Completed my loop of the lower river when I arrived back at the 191 bridge.  During the drive I began to realize just how good yesterday's fishing was.  My rating system has been skewered by the last six weeks in the sulfur zone where there are enough bugs hatching to sometimes get a dozen or more fish up and feeding in easy casti...

 It was an olive kind of day right from the get go, dark overcast sky and a steady rain almost all morning. Was in no hurry to get on the river as olives are notoriously late sleepers. Set out at one thirty with the knowledge that I didn't need to go back to the UEB and that I had no desire to fish the "Sulfur Zone. That left the  BR and the lower WB.   Drove up the PA side of the BR  and stopped at Buckingham to look for bugs and risers, saw none. There were a couple of guys loading their drift boat onto the trailer.  Asked how they did. "Caught both trout and walleyes, saw some rising fish and lost a really big fish we never got a look at." They had put in at Shehawken early and were soaked by the time they got to junction pool. Based on their report I tried the BR, in two hours of fishing I hooked the only fish that rose within casting distance (a 15 inch fall fish).  Moved to a riff/run on the lower WB. Didn't see the first olives until almost 4:30...

 Finished up Monday morning to do's by 9:00 and was on my way to the fishing camp.  Didn't stop in Deposit on the way down and had no urge to drive back up to the SZ after lunch. The sulfurs are waning, the fish are paranoid about eating dry flies and I'm sick of fishing the same pools day after day.  Worked around camp until about 4:00 then headed east. Haven't been over that way since the high water.  The BK was in the 80's last week and the mid 70's the last three days. No point looking there. The UEB, however is still enjoying a "flood mitigation" release of 300 CFS. The release has given the UEB and the BE a refreshing flow of cold water good for both fish and bugs. Drove up the UEB and saw but a few parked cars and fishermen. Did see rising fish in a slow water pool. With the binoculars I could see sulfurs. Donned waders and waded in. It wasn't long before I found out why no one was fishing there. The risers were almost all 7 to 8 inch yearli...

 Dennis wants to compare advantages and disadvantages of studded boots and felt soles. Studded boots are much better on banks with mud or wet grass, they are noisy in the water and can put fish on alert, they are good on slippery rocks.  Felts are a hazard on wet muddy banks, wet grass and leaves.  They are much quieter in the water and  are quite good on slippery rocks. I  wear felts, my only experience with studded boots is on the Salmon River. People with differing opinions feel free to chime in. Ed S. - Call David at the Troutfitter. Jim N. - If they aren't sipping flies large enough to see, you (and everyone else) are in trouble. Spent two hours a couple weeks ago casting to almost a dozen fish that were eating on top.  One ate a sulfur, the rest ignored my flies and kept right on sipping, often waiting until just after my fly had drifted over their back. If you stare at the water surface in a slow moving pool from bifocal  range you will be amaze...