Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Am probably the only person in all of New York grumbling about the weather,  it's simply beautiful.  Fifteen degrees above normal, bright sun and the leaves are at their peak.  Driving up and down the river system (which I did today) afforded me one beautiful vista after another. However, the pseudos have decided they like it right where they are and are not hatching until they get some cold snotty weather. Yesterday I had a very good pseudo hatch with rising trout for almost three hours on the UEB. Today they were nowhere to be seen. The fishermen on the UEB also vanished, saw two drifters and zero waders. Maybe it got going after I left but I saw neither bugs nor risers. Spent some time in the afternoon on the bugless BK, rose three fish, two of which ate and were landed. Then on a hot sunny afternoon I drove back to the BR which was still 150 cfs above my comfort level, in hopes of finding rising fish. Stupidity knows no bounds. Never saw a bug  or a rise. It's no...

It just happened again. Tried to type the word AND and the entire blog page disappeared, the only thing on the screen was ND.  There is nothing near the missing A that could make five paragraphs disappear.   My Perfect Manhattan is watery and I'm sorry but I'm not typing it again, even for the faithful few of you out there that are still willing to indulge me by reading it. NEVER BUY A DELL (at least if you are well into your 70's)! The fishing was very good, the UEB has pseudos and rising fish. Caught a good number of quality fish in the UEB and in the BK (late). If you are staying at the Troutfitter this weekend, take the short drive, it's worth it.  

 Fall days don't get any nicer than today. Woke to fog this morning and the sun didn't burn through until after 11:00.  Grass was so wet I waited until after lunch for bow practice.  After a kind of erratic day yesterday I shot lights out today. Actually moved my aim point around so as not to endanger the nocks. My 8:00 am call from Jean didn't come until almost 11:00, she and her sister Pam were in the car on the way back from visiting their brother in Cleveland. Said the leaf color along I-90 was disappointing. With no further reductions in the releases I decided to take a drive over to the Neversink. Had two days of spectacular Hendricson fishing over there about four years ago and have been averaging down ever since.  Today was no exception. The river was covered with leaves instead of bugs. Stopped at a half dozen designated fishermen parking areas and never saw a bug, a rise or a fisherman. Maybe next year at Hendrickson time. There was very little traffic on 1...

With sunshine and an air temp in the 70's there would be no pseudos on the freestones this afternoon (if they didn't hatch with cloudy skies and 57 degree water yesterday, they certainly wouldn't hatch in 60 degree water today). Headed for the UEB, which with 700 cfs of 44 degree water being released from Pepacton has the only temps suitable for pseudo hatching in the system.  Arrived at 2:00 to find both pseudos' and rising fish in an "A" pool with no fishermen in sight. Geared up and waded in and for the next three hours had good bugs and rising fish. The fish were fussy and were eating both just under the surface and on top. Surprisingly 2/3s of the fish I landed were rainbows. The two biggest fish were 19 inch holdover hatchery browns. One gave a good account of himself while the other came in like that wool hunting sock full of water I've talked about before. At 5:15 there were still bugs on the water but the fish just plain stopped eating.  Reeled it...

It's five thirty and both my perfect Manhattan and laptop are on the table in front of me.  That should tell long time readers all they need to know. Left the fishing camp about 1:00 (both the bugs and fish were going when I found them yesterday and I didn't want to be tardy today), and went right to the UEB where the 43 degree release water has had the pseudos hatching. First let me say this - it's Columbus Day weekend (or is it?), the leaves are near peak, Route 17 looks like Talladega on race day, and the wadeable water is very limited, but it's the 10th of October and the wade fishermen were as thick as maggots on a two day old road kill. When I finally found a place with bugs, rising fish and no other fishermen I had to wait for about fifteen minutes for the fish to start rising again after two pairs of kayakers went by. The fishing - In twenty minutes I cast at six fish, one ignored, two refused (had to downsize) then three ate.  One came unstuck and the other two...