Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Picked one of the most beautiful November days imaginable to drive down to Lordville and shut down the estate. Bright sun, early morning fog, with flocks of geese on their way out to cut cornfields to feed. Temps varied from 45 to 35 depending on the fog density. The trees are bare, save for a few oaks  and larch with color but the hills are basically gray.  I've been busy in Lafayette. Spend an hour or two each morning and evening up in a tree hoping for a buck to come by. So far the only buck I've seen in real life has been what is now a unicorn. A week ago when he walked around not 20 yards in front of me he sported two slightly curved six inch spikes. Last night when he walked right under my other stand he was missing one of his horns.  In addition to the hunting we had loggers come and fell almost 100 dead and dying ash trees that had fallen victim to the Emerald ash borer. While they were at it they also took down a dying maple that leaned over the house and a...

 Home in Lafayette watching a logging company take down some enormous dead and dying ash trees along with some other trees that pose a hazard to the house, driveway and power line. Will not be back down to the "Lordville Estate" until at least Tuesday but thought it worth mentioning that as delightful as the past couple of days may have been, they were probably not good pseudo days. Why? Check the water temps that went from the high 40's to the high 50's. Pseudos like cold snotty weather. When I headed home Tuesday I stopped where the bugs were hatching the day before (at the same time) and there was not a bug to be seen. Also stopped in Deposit to check on the fish rising below the town bridge. There were a few rises but nothing like when the bugs were hatching the day before. If you want to go out on a positive note try to pick a cold windless day with water temps around 50. You may not catch anything but you should see both bugs and rising fish. If you've alrea...

 Continued work on the camp shutdown, am at the stage where everything can be finished with one overnight stay. Am not anxious to shut things down as the fishing has been good and the bucks have not  made an appearance in Lafayette since mid September.  Am heading home either tomorrow night or early Monday to be present when the dead ash trees are cut down around our house. Future fishing will depend on weather and deer activity. Left camp at noon today and returned to where my fishing was interrupted yesterday. Yesterday seven fish hooked in one hour, today three fish hooked in two hours. The bugs were going and the fish were rising, they just didn't eat flies with hooks in 'em. There's a lesson there for everyone (myself included, I should know better). With little bug activity when I arrived at my second stop, I took a long walk upstream. At about 2:30 both the bugs (just pseudos) and the fish got going. Unfortunately I was not invited to the table as my flies were pre...

 Learned a long time ago that you earn every fish you catch in the Delaware.  Don't know if I earned todays two hours of fishing during my two days in purgatory last week or if I'm going to be paying for them later this week but it was grand. Drove down this morning arriving at noon, did a mow grass/ rake leaves combo, ate a sandwich and at 2:00 I headed for the river. Was amazed at the number of fishermen until I realized it was Sunday and a nice one at that.  Sixty-five degrees, no wind, bugs and feeding fish. Who could ask for anything more? The fishing was great, while it lasted.  Hooked seven rainbows the first hour (the last one a big 'bow by the tail that came unhooked as I was pulling it up to shore. Watched a pontoon boat fisherman come down the river, row over to the far side and walk the boat down to me. Was about to thank him for being courteous when he stopped right across the river from me, not 35 feet away, got out his nymph rig and started casting rig...

 Today was just not a pleasant day to be on the water.  It was overcast, cold and windy, a deadly combo for the hapless fly fishermen. Got in the water about noon and saw but two other anglers all day. The car thermometer never got above 47 and it spent most of the day around 44. Looked at the water temps before leaving camp and all but Stilesville were in the forty's and destined to remain there. The release water from Cannonsville had the water temp at Stilesville at 53 and that's where I went. Looked off the town bridge around noon and saw at at least a couple dozen fish rising steadily, went back to the car, put on everything I owned and went fishing.. The fishing - Walked back to the town bridge and things had changed. In place of the rising fish were wind blown waves. Got back in the car and drove around looking for a place that was at least somewhat out of the wind. The first place I found  was in the midst of a good pseudo hatch. There were rising fish, wind and b...

Much to my surprise the air conditioning instillation crew that came to correct a D- instillation job done last August was finished by noon. A look at the job left me just shaking my head, the finished job is a C- at best.  I paid the crew the balance I owed them and will finish the job myself. The installers were very nice young men who have not been taught what good workmanship is and what a finished job should look like. But, they were done in time for me to pack the car and head down (without my cell phone) for a bonus two days of fishing. Tried to call Jean to let here know I was going and discovered the phone wasn't in the car. The U-turn only cost me ten minutes and I was in the water before the bugs even thought about hatching. The bugs - They just don't make'm like they use to.  Have seen pseudos hatch in a snow storm and they usually aren't smiling if the wind isn't blowing fifteen or twenty. Today with a gentle breeze (ask Jim N.) and temps in the upper f...

Home with commitments that will keep me here until at least Friday and by then maybe the deer will be moving and I'll be up in a tree instead of being frustrated by fish scorning my pseudo offerings. Dennis wanted to know when the fall caddis peak. Easy answer, they never do. Yes they are flying around  the near shore bushes and late in the day they can be seen migrating upstream somewhere between two feet and six feet above the water but has anyone ever seen them on the wet part of their waders (a sure sign that they are hatching) or on the water in the evening (a spinner fall)?  I haven't and I've never found the trout to be looking for them either. Checked Paul Weamer's book and he makes no mention of them which I find appropriate. ED S. - Congrats on your big evening on the Willow, each of your five big fish easily topped anything I've ever caught there. As to the Pumpkin caddis, I've been told that it crawls up on streamside rocks to hatch and is rarely see...

 Today I'm a day tripper. Drove down this morning and arrived in Deposit at 12:00, far too early for the pseudo hatch but like most day trippers I suited up and fished. There was nothing on the water and of course nothing rising. Fished an October (a/k/a pumpkin) caddis for a while (I've never caught a fish on one) and then switched to a caddis (not because I thought it would be any good, but I could at least see it). Got a big boil refusal from the "brush pile behemoth" but didn't hook a fish until the first pseudos appeared. It was a beautiful, sunny day but the gusty 5/10 mph wind out of the wnw was troublesome as it put the fish down and made casting to risers difficult if you weren't patient enough to wait for the lulls. My patience doesn't rate virtue level but I was able to hook and land four 12 inch fish by 2:30, at which time I reeled it in and headed downstream to fish the pseudo hatch bonanza. Reentered the water a little before three and there ...

 On battery saver mode. Will try to get the report out. Had planned, with the wind blowing 10/15, to do a pool hop on the BK. At it's current level the fish are easily spooked and often catching one fish sends the others for cover. Caught one and did nothing else in the first pool. Much to my surprise pools two and three were both occupied by multiple anglers. The pool hop plan came to an abrupt conclusion and was morphed into a river hop Second stop was the BR, which I had originally passed on because of the wind. Saw but one fish rise in 45 minutes with almost no bugs on the water. Reeled it in and headed for the WB  At 4:00 I walked across bare rocks in a place that had two feet of water back in May. The good news is that there were bugs, not much variety, just pseudos, but lots of them and there were fish up and sipping. In the wind casting was no problem, it was just that you had no idea where your size 22 pseudo landed. Spooked lots of fish but got a few to eat. Two big ...

 This will have to be short. Drove down yesterday with the PC but without the charger and the PC isn't fully charged. Left after my eye exam (still 20/15 corrected in each eye). Leaves are beautiful as was the bright sunshine (which came through the car side window at 12:30). The fishing - Fished both the lower WB and middle section of BR. Wading is slippery but you can wade anywhere in the low water. The usual fall bugs were present isos, (now size 14's), brown caddis and of course pseudos. With the sun on the water the flies were quickly air born and the surface sipping risers were hard to find until the sun got off the water. Was able to attract a few of the splashy risers and had about an hour on the BR with good fish, sipping tiny flies. The big brown trout have more important things on their mind than eating pseudos (at least I haven't been catching many) but the rainbows have continued to feed. Two big, heavy 18 inch rainbows, shared honors as fish of the day. If you...

 A social engagement preempted Thursday's fishing. Would liked to have been there today as there was an all day drizzle here that kept me from crossing things off the to do list. Tomorrow Jean and I are driving down to take in the fall leaves that are now at near peak.  Might possibly sneak in an hour of fishing somewhere but we will be having an early dinner so that we can watch our granddaughter's volleyball game. Will be driving back home Sunday morning for yet another social engagement in the evening. The coming week doesn't look much better as the eye doctor gets to dilate my pupils on Tuesday and quite possibly the loggers will be here by Wednesday. Will probably spend time up in a tree. The fishing - I'm out of the loop. If anyone does good feel free to let us know.  Congrats to Ed S. on his blind casting success. For those with keen ears the sound the trout make when engulfing a fly floating on the surface is a glup not a gulp which is what you do when chugging ...

 When the release from Cannonsville is only 130 cfs, 90 cfs of muddy water from Oquaga is more than enough to "stain" up the WB.  Drove up to Stilesville, not really because I wanted to fish there but rather to see what Dennis was talking about. Usually trout are willing to eat pseudos on top and I was curious. With no one in the pasture  pool and some fish rising I paid the $5.00 and waded in.  Got half a dozen refusals to my pseudo within the first half hour. Then fished for an hour in a decent pseudo hatch without a fish even glancing at my fly. Dennis asked what do you do when fish are feeding subsurface like that. Dennis, I reel it in and head for someplace else. Seriously, I don't have a clue what the fish were eating. All I know is that if you were to look at the water up close (yes, with your bifocals), you would have seen more living creatures than ever you could imagine floating down the river, none of which could be duplicated on the smallest hook that has...

 Personally I like to fish in the rain. Thins out the crowd, covers up poor casts, gets the bugs hatching and the fish up feeding. Yes, it makes my CDC flies harder to fish but I learned a long time ago that life is full of tradeoffs, it's why I like the color gray.  Drove down this morning with a band aid on each arm, one for the covid shot and one for the flu shot. It started raining at about Whitney Point, not hard but steady. If you pay attention to the weather there has been a more or less stationary rain event (Ian remnants?) sitting just south of us in Virginia and southern PA.  Despite predictions to the contrary it came up here today and is still, at 7:00 pm, depositing rain on the river system. Arrived at the Lordville Estate about 11:00 and after turning on the heat, unpacking food and clothes and having a bite to eat I was ready to go fishing. It was 1:00 and still raining quite hard so with the air temp a chilly 47 degrees I decided that I would  tackle ...

 It's Monday and I'm somewhat frustrated sitting home waiting for my 5:00pm covid booster shot appointment. Just talked with a logger that is going to come and remove some large dead ash trees from around the house and he has covid, no he didn't get the shots and he said he wishes he di d now. The cut back in the release from Cannonsville should be a good thing for waders on the WB. No boats and the fish will be up eating pseudos. Of course they will have a long time to look at your fly and won't be easy to catch. Greg Tarris you can include the blind casting info in the TU newsletter. Referencing the source and web site would be a nice pat on the back. Dennis -  When I first starting fishing here back in the late 80's fishermen were able to drive the railroad's service road and park in the pull offs. I actually slept in my van as many a train rolled by. As the number of  fishermen using the tracks increased the railroad closed off the service road to vehicular ...

If you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about - - well I just copied and pasted a page I did almost two years ago on blind casting in answer to Chris and Jim N's, question about blind casting. The feat was something of a miracle given my technological limitations. Todays schedule didn't allow for fishing, (NDSU) volleyball game at 11:00 and the SU scrimmage at 5:00), so I decided to take time to answer questions between games  and perhaps lower Dennis' blood pressure.   I've been blind casting for more than 65 years. When I started out in my Dad's hip boots cut off at the knees no one told me to just cast at rising fish. The only advice I ever remember getting was from a friend of my father, Roy Ryan who stood on the bank watching me and hollered "Never saw anyone yet catching a fish while he was waving the G-- D--- fly around in the air".  The advice sank in, anyone who has watched me fish knows I make very few false casts and the fly is ALWAYS...

Usually I'm careful about not naming specific pools where I fish. Wednesday I fished three pools on the Willow and BK. Let me be clear, the pools are not a secret. What was unusual was that the puddles in the  Hazel Bridge parking lot were gin clear, there were no cars or fishermen at Cairn's pool (thanks Chris Z.), and but one angler at Cemetery. So I screwed up and named the pools. Thursday with a 10/15 mph north wind blowing, I opted to forgo the BR and try to find a protected pool somewhere along the BK.  Exited 17 at Cook's Falls and drove up to Cemetery and there was hardly room to turn around in the parking lot. Not saying it had anything to do with the days blog post but I turned around and did a pool hop down the river. In the five pools I stopped at I saw a total of one other angler. The number of fish feeding (there was a fair hatch of the usual fall bugs) in the pools I stopped at were : 0, 1, 1, 0 and several. Spent quite a bit of time in the last pool after ho...

With the last day of September at hand it's probably time for my sporadic/ intermittent warning page. Bow season opens tomorrow and I will be dividing my time between wading the river and sitting in a tree with my stick and string. With the rivers at good fishing levels and the fall bugs hatching I'll probably spend more time fishing than hunting early in the month with a gradual transition to hunting as the bucks start to move more the later part of October.  I'll try to keep you updated when I am fishing. Judging by the decline in the number of comments it's safe to assume most readers have put their gear away and moved on to other fall time activities.  As always I want to thank all of you who have added comments, it makes it more fun for me. To those of you who just read the offerings, I hope you have found a nugget or two that has made catching Delaware River fish a little easier. The outlook - Next year should please most people. The 2018 year class are grownups n...

Those of you who have read the blog for the past few years should all have known where I would go today.  I drove up the PA side of the BR and checked out the WB at Shehawken and again at the Rte. 191 bridge but safe money was on me being somewhere on the BR. The where part was determined by the number of cars and trailers at Buckingham and Stockport. Today there was a combo of nine at Stockport and seven at Buckingham. Went farther downstream and found no fishermen, a modest bug hatch, rain squalls and no rising fish - -  except to my fly. The fishing - Don't remember ever having a day quite like today. Got on the river about 3:00 and hadn't been there fifteen minutes when the first rain squall hit. Pulled the raincoat out of the back pocket of my vest, put it on and kept on fishing. There were a few isos, some pseudos, Hebes and brown caddis. Not nearly as many bugs as yesterday on the BK but enough that some fish should have been up and eating.   They weren't. Nev...

Drove east at about 2:00 this afternoon in hopes of finding fall bugs and rising fish in either the Willow or the BK. Went to Hazel Bridge on the Willow where last year at this time the river was wall to wall fish and fishermen. There were two anglers in the parking lot getting ready to leave. Walked out on the bridge and was unable to see a single fish in the water. Saw one rise downstream next to the old abutment. Put on my waders and walked down to see if I could get a fish to rise. There were an assortment of olives on the water, not a lot but certainly enough to get a few fish up. Fished back up to the bridge without seeing a single rise. Reeled it in and headed for the BK. Stopped at Carin's pool where there was a good hatch of pseudos on the water along with some bigger olives. In about a half hour I saw maybe six or eight rises spread out over the length of the pool. Left there and drove down to Cemetary where the angler I had seen fishing when driving by earlier was standi...

 After a three day stay at home and a busy Monday morning which got in the way of an early departure, I drove down I-81 through a series of Thunderstorms coupled with high winds that required two hands on the wheel at at all times. The rain probably didn't amount to much as the showers were interspersed with blue sky's and little or no wind.  Arrived in Deposit about 1:30 right in the middle of one of the storms. Sat on the road below the town bridge for a couple minutes  with the rain coming down and the wind blowing more and more leaves into the river. Actually saw a fish rise during the melee but decided that the Lordville Estate was a better place to be. Arrived in a light shower, which was followed by bright sun that by 3:30, had gotten the grass dry enough to cut. Was about 75% done with the lawn when the wind began to blow and a bolt of lightning hit close enough that I heard the thunder boom over the mower's roar. Looked up and couldn't see the hill across the r...

 If you're wondering, I'm home. No matter what DRC might say it's not a nice day to be on the river. It was 40 degrees on the camp porch this morning with a 20/30 mph wind out of the north. The rivers are up,  and the WB water from the reservoir is murky and full of leaves.  Sat out yesterday too because of the high water, wind and leaves. The outlook - Not as bad as it seems today.  For good fall dry fly fishing you need low flows of cold water.  With the reservoirs well below normal levels, the releases have been reduced and they will be cut back further on October first. There is a frost warning for tonight with normal temps predicted for the coming week. If the temps drop into the 40's most nights we should get pseudos' hatching around mid afternoon (think Hendrickson hatch time), in the slow water pools.  With no fishing to report it's probably a good time to answer questions. Ed S. asked how I decide which fly to use when so many bugs are hatching and...

 The average temp for today is a high of 68 and a low of 45. It was in the high seventies with bright sunshine today with a predicted low of  sixtyone tonight. A beautiful early fall day most would say. Not us fishermen.  The bright sun and warm nighttime temperatures are keeping the river too warm for good fall bugs.  A front is supposed to come through tonight or tomorrow that is supposed to get things back to normal or even a little below, we'll see. Today it was just too hot and sunny. Didn't even think about fishing until 5:00 and that was way too early. Spent time trying to get the yard back in shape after the dry, hot summer, tied up a few flies, made some business calls, shot the bow (had to walk down to the target two times to chase one of  the apple loving deer away from the target), and just  maybe closed my eyes for a minute or two. The fishing - Left something to be desired. After two good days of fall fishing this one left a lot to be desired....

Woke up with a bit of a sore shoulder this morning. No, not from fighting fish. It came from patting myself on the back for putting myself in two places yesterday, both with rising fish willing to eat my flies.  Buoyed by yesterday's  success I opted to fish the BR this morning. Maybe the water is a little warm in the BR for fall bugs but the water temp is coolest in the morning and almost no one has been below Buckingham. At 9:30 I stopped on the Lordville bridge to watch an angler in a drift boat fishing the riff (no one arrives at the Lordville riff before noon). Drove up river and there was another drift boat in the lower section of the Buckingham water. Didn't know if I should abort the BR venture or be encouraged with my selection because guides (who always know when and where to be) were already on the water long before the designated noon starting time.  Decided to get above the drift boats and take advantage of the fact that I was in sync with the guides. Made a ...

 With the Cannonsville release down to about 300 cfs I was anxious to get back down to fish. Why?  The release water is cold enough for bugs and at 300 cfs the fish will come up for even the smallest ones. Arrived at 11:30 and there were heads coming out of the water below the town bridge. Was in the water after a brief stop at the Troutfitter and had rising fish until 2:30 when the thunderstorms moved in. The fishing?  Picked up an ant off the water as I was wading in so I tied one on and began fishing. Caught a hatchery fish and then suffered through a bunch of refusals. Never saw another ant but the trout kept right on rising. Bent down so that my eyes were bifocal level above the water and saw a myriad of insects floating by. Stuff the fish pay no attention to if the water is at 600 cfs becomes table fare at 300 cfs.  The big problem is that none of it fits on a hook. Fished with the smallest stuff I had and switched from that back and forth with the ants. Caught...

 As luck would have it our granddaughter's NDSU team won the 5:00 o'clock match in three sets. At 6:30 I put the second coat of paint on a beam on the front of the garage, put away the paint, washed the brush and at 6:45 headed out into the Lordville riff. The riff hasn't been kind to me this year but at 6:45 there only was one choice.  Surprisingly there were small olive spinners (lots of them) and a few big red ones. Saw several fish make subsurface boils. Two of them came up let me know my big red spinner and little olive spinner didn't pass muster. My iso and a white fly were ignored. Finally one fish ate a smaller rusty spinner. Landed a 17 inch older rainbow with fresh hook cuts on both corners of his mouth. Was back at the fishing camp before 7:45. Dennis - My good wife often tells me "Not everyone understands your sense of humor".  I welcome your questions. You obviously have made major improvements in your fishing and hopefully the questions you ask a...

A bright sun beaming down from a cloudless sky, a sky high barometer and a piping wind out of the north is a combination that chills the heart of of most dry fly anglers in the best of times. Add no bugs to the equation and you begin to get the picture of why so few anglers are on the river. Dutifully followed the directions on the fall fertilizer/weed killer bag and applied it to the dew dampened lawn this morning just after my 8:00AM call with Jean. The directions say that the milky spores that I bought at Tractor Supply last year at a 75% off close out sale (you need to put them on your lawn two years in a row) will have to wait until just before the next rain. With those two items on the "To Do List" resolved, I settled down with the laptop and studied ladder stands and see- through hunting tents (in case I'm uncomfortable using my little fold up seat and climbers that I screw into the tree). Before I knew it, it was time for lunch after which I headed up to Deposit w...

 Took another day off Tuesday, no I'm not showing my age, the rivers were up, "stained" as they like to say, and there were no bugs.  Having done most of my weeks allotment of camp chores yesterday I was ready to go right after lunch today.  Headed east on 17 and got off at the Sunoco Station and meandered up 30 all the way to the Corbett Bridge. Stopped at all my usual lookout places, saw two fishermen and no rises. The second fisherman was at the abutment pool above Corbett and I stopped to see what was going on. Within two minutes another car pulled in with two more anglers. There were a few (very few) olives on the water and a few (very few) yearling fish sipping them.  When the fisherman in the water called it quits and came over to where we were standing there was somewhere around 290 years of fishing experience within a circle with a diameter of less than 10 feet. Since we were not discussing politics we were all able to agree that it was the fishing that was ...

 Didn't fish last Friday. Our granddaughter's volleyball team was hosting a tournament and they were streaming the games. Turned out to be six hours of volleyball Friday (both matches went five sets) and another two and a half hours for the third match on Saturday. At 8:00pm Saturday I was back watching Syracuse beat UConn in football.  Would liked to have fished in the misty rain on Sunday but I had things to do back home and today was predicted to be a carbon copy. It wasn't. Drove down this morning with fog covering the tops of the hills. Goldenrod is in bloom and the roadsides and overgrown fields are a bright yellow. The recent rains have greened up burnt lawns and meadow mushrooms have sprung up everywhere. Had a batch with a venison steak on Friday at the camp and Jean cooked up some more on Saturday, we had them as hors d'oeuvre and then with a really good strip steak. Arrived at the fishing camp about 11:30 this morning in a  humid, hazy sunshine. Got everythin...

 From the beginning of May until the middle of August the fishing was as good as I've ever seen.  Then things came to a halt. Actually they didn't really come to a halt, conditions changed, it was harder to catch fish and I didn't adjust my expectations. No longer were 10 fish days a dead cert, as things stand right now catching a fish or two is an accomplishment. Is the good fishing over for the year? Almost certainly not; let's take a look where we are and what will probably make it better. What led to the decline? The freestones (BK,BE and BR) have all been too warm to fish for the past two and a half months. The UEB is no longer stocked and it will take another year or two for the wild trout to reach respectable size. The sulfur hatch petered out when the reservoir water below the thermocline became exhausted. The water now being released from Cannonsville is 6/8 degrees warmer than it was during the summer. The area is experiencing drought warnings that have led to...

It's 6:30 and I'm rattling the ice in my glass in hopes that a mermaid will magically appear and "top off" my Perfect Manhattan. Didn't fish today. Why? Checked DRC's most recent report and they said everyone would be throwing streamers this afternoon and that the water up at Stilesville was still at 383 cfs and my only option for wading. Drove up to Deposit and to my surprise found no one at the red barn. Continued up to the Stilesville parking spot only to find it full, with  more cars parked along the road. No one was in sight so I drove up stream a little further and found a line of anglers all standing a short cast from the mud line created by the water gushing in from Cold Springs Brook. Never saw a rise, never saw an angler cast and never saw a bug on the water even with my binocs. (Also never really thought about fishing because it had rained all night, the water was up again, and I do look at the flows before leaving home. DRC never made a new report ...

It wasn't a hurricane (or even a tropical depression for that matter), but it did the job and threatens to do more. Twenty four hours of rain, much of it no more than a light mist but it sure helped.  Unfortunately the rivers above the reservoirs didn't seem to receive as much rain as we did. Yesterday at 7:45 I crossed the BR with ease. Tonight I could run my flats skiff with it's 90hp Yamaha up it without a worry of hitting a rock.  The fishing - Yes there was some.  No, the river wasn't filled with boats with sports throwing streamers but there were six cars in the red barn lot and the Stilesville "Fishermen Park Here" lot was full, with overflow cars parked along the road. Never saw a boat, the Men's Club lot was empty and there was little if anyone fishing below Oquaga. My river friend Mike and I fished above the Deposit town bridge, one angler was below the bridge and one above us. The olive hatch was sparse, to say the least and I never saw an iso o...

Left Lafayette with a plan. It wasn't complicated. Saw David's video and read Dennis' report. I would be at Deposit by noon and fish the olives in 375 cfs of relatively cold water. Drove down in what you would call a heavy mist until I turned the corner at Binghamton. By the time I got to Windsor it was raining hard and the little creeks were colored. My first look at Oquaga let me know I wouldn't be fishing the no-kill. Arrived at 11:30 and if the olives were hatching no one would ever know. The rain was coming down hard and there was a heavy fog on the water.  Chatted with Dave for a few minutes and left for the fishing camp. Unpacked, ate lunch and checked river levels and temps. Oquaga had gone from 10 cfs to 200 cfs (it's now at 300 cfs) and the whole region was yellow on the radar.  About 3:30 the rain let up enough to get me in the car for a drive around. Went up the BR on the PA side and it was still clear and low. The 191 bridge in Deposit showed that the S...

 After basically meeting minimum flow requirements at Montague for two days and then substantially exceeding them for the next five days the River Master has allowed NYC to reduce the release from Cannonsville to 357 CFS. It takes about 40 hours for the Cannonsville release water to reach Montague so it would appear that the River Master is counting on the predicted rain to make up the shortfall. If  the nights remain warm and we get sunshine the rivers will all be too warm for good bugs. If we get substantial rain it could help redistribute fish in all of the rivers. If it stays cloudy and the flows are increased it could be good fishing. Basically there is no way to know. A-119 will probably be back down to the "Lordville Estate" on Monday and will try to sort things out. If the family has something planned for the weekend go and enjoy - you probably won't be missing much.  Any one who can supply on site information  -  feel free to jump in.   

  Took Thursday off as Jean came down and I enjoyed spending the time with her. We sat on the back porch in the evening and watched the deer come for the apples under the tree on the corner of the porch. A couple of the old girls seem to now recognize Jeans voice and don't spook when she talks to them.  The River Master cranked up the release at midnight Thursday morning to 1,000 cfs and cut it back to 900 cfs at midnight this morning. So far, it has continued at that rate. The increased flow coupled with last nights 44 degree temp cooled off all of the rivers. Yes, both the EB and BK were back up over 70 today in the bright sun but the BR started off around 58 and never got above 63. The results were predictable, bugs and rising fish from when I got there at about 5:00 until I left at 8:00.  Love seeing rainbows on a bright sunny day. To say the fishing is unpredictable would be an understatement. The fishing remains on the WB and the upper portion of the BR. If the incr...

For those of you that are just looking for a new blog post to read with your morning Joe, or worse yet, those of you that are still fishing, I'd say it's time to get out the honey-do list and start crossing items off. Never, in the thirty-two years that I have owned the fishing camp have I seen really good fishing turn to excrement as fast as it has the last ten days. Why? I've touched on most of it.  Too many fishermen in too little river, irregular flows, an endless string of sunny days with above average temps, no rain and fish that know the game and have taken their ball and gone home. The outlook - If the weatherman can't get tomorrow's prediction right, how do you expect me to give you a meaningful outlook? We are sliding down the mandated release scale due to the date (it's September 1st) and because of the dry conditions. Without major rain events there will be significant reductions in the releases, starting today with another decrease October 1st and a...

 On August 16th I was in the penthouse, on  August 22nd I moved to the outhouse.  How did this come about? Well, the River Master  ran from 900 to over 1,100  cfs of water down the WB for five days. The cold water resulted in large hatches of olives and reinvigorated the lower WB and the BR down to Stockport.  There were fish feeding on olive duns in every pool in the WB.  On the 21st the flows were cut back and late summer fishing returned. There are still olives hatching on the WB and there are rising trout but most of them are feeding on emerging nymphs just under the surface. There are very few open mouths appearing above the surface and seldom is heard the glup of a trout mouth closing on a mayfly dun.  The number of anglers crowded into the upper WB insures that every rising trout is constantly being thrown at. Even down river, which was lightly fished during the sulfur hatch, is now being both floated and waded by a sufficient number of ang...

 To be fair my heart just wasn't in it today.  At 5:30 I hadn't fished and was still driving around looking in awe at the number of fishermen crowded into the WB from the barking dog take out up to Butler Brook. Didn't even drive past the red barn, maybe no one was there. Saw very few bugs, almost no risers and never saw an angler with a fish on. Was driving back down river when I saw a friends car parked at his camp.  Hadn't seen him there for over a month so I stopped and we had a nice chat. A tad before seven we decided to give the river a try. In forty-five minutes I had seen one rise, one medium sized red ant on the water and  had one refusal from a fish on a blind cast.  A rubber boat came by and I asked where were the bugs? They said there was a good olive hatch with fish up that ended about 5:00 and they hadn't seen a rise since. I reeled it in and walked back to the car. My friend decided to stick it out, hope something happened before dark. Left my wad...

Clearly the River Master needs a remedial course in  basic math. The minimum average daily flow at Montague is  supposed to be 1,750 cfs. Yesterday the flow ranged from a high of 1,600 to a low of 1,380 and today's high appears to be peaking at 1,630.  Why do I care?  Because, given the current hot, sunny days and drought like conditions, without  increased releases from Cannonsville, most anglers  remain confined to the Sulfur Zone and the sulfurs are done for the year. There were hoards of anglers in the zone yesterday, so many that I didn't even consider fishing there. I got a taste of the better fishing available with the increased flows last week and have no interest in crowding into a pool on the upper river and trying to catch beaten up fish that are making a meal out of size 24 olives. What to do? A rain dance, or sit back and wait for the River Master to increase the release to meet minimum flow requirements. The fishing? For me it is now confined ...

Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist using the title.  Chris asked a good question, answered most of it himself but it gives me another opportunity to stress what I believe are the things you need to do to catch more fish  in the Delaware River. Casting - First, read  the Making the Cast page. Know that I'll never win a casting contest but I have learned to minimize drag better than most. Remember, if you want the fish to eat the fly it has to be moving at the same speed as the bubbles around it.  Flies - Read, Finding the Magic Fly. I tie my own but I'll never be more than a mediocre fly tier. What I  try to do is make my flies look exactly like the ones hatching. They don't, but I keep trying. Years ago when fly shops had one Hendrickson pattern and one sulfur pattern and one - -  you get the idea, the mantra was don't fish shop flies. Why? Because everyone was fishing the same fly and the fish learned not to eat it. Now days the shops carry more variat...

Tonight I'm sitting here drinking a Perfect Manhattan and it's not a celebratory one. I would say I was drowning (just learned there's no d at the end of drown), my sorrows but Dennis would surely accuse me of mewling.   As an aside - My college freshman year English teacher had each of us write a five hundred word composition about our hand. She said she would mark off a grade for each misspelled word (this was before spell check or even computers for that matter - back then we were happy to have indoor plumbing and flush toilets). I got a D. How come? Misspelled the word thum. Didn't know there wasn't a " b" on the end of it. Thumb appeared 7 seven times in my essay and my grade plummeted from an A  all the way to a C-. Argued that I only spelled one word wrong but to no avail. Spent some time today trying to write a spoof reply to the question Chris (notice how I avoided having to deal with the Chris possessive?) asked in "The Changes Keep On Chang...

 Got back to the fishing camp about 8:45 last Thursday night to find the phone light blinking and a message from Jean to call whenever I got in (almost never good news) but this time it was. The company installing our mini split AC had called at 4:30 to say they would be there at 8:00 Friday morning. Blame it on global warming or the Emerald ash borer that killed all the ash trees that shaded the west side of our house but in the last three years our upstairs bedroom has gotten much too hot for comfortable sleeping. Left for home at 6:00 am Friday and arrived ten minutes before the AC installers. It took them all day to install the AC but with the temp in the high 80's the AC was able to quickly cool things down so we got a good night's sleep. Spent Saturday taking care of the usual weekend chores and packed the car with clean clothes (thanks Jean) for the return trip to the Lordville Estate. Did a crossword puzzle and went to sleep in a cool comfortable 73 degree bedroom.  Wa...

 As everyone who fishes the Delaware  (or any other stream for that matter) knows, things change.  Yesterday I tried to follow a trail into the river that a Troutfitter regular opened up with pruning shears in early May. The last time I fished there ( probably ten years ago) you could just walk down to the river from where you parked your car. The "trail" now winds it's way endlessly through goldenrod, giant rag weed, multiflora roses, honey suckle and fallen trees. Everything is over your head tall except for the trip logs. It was bad enough that I made sure to come out before dark (something I never do).  The bugs - The predicted cloudy day turned out to be mostly sunny (except for one T-boomer that passed just south of me).  The water was still down in the fifties so according to my olive hatching theory, the sun shouldn't have mattered but for some reason the bug bonanza of the last few days did not happen. There were olives on the water and for about half a...

 In looking back over your comments I was surprised to see that the last Q & A session was back in July. Since I  have ample free time so there really is no excuse for not doing a better job answering questions promptly. Dennis - The word is mewling and you really haven't done any all year. The most abundant fall flies include olives of all sizes (I try to fish the size the fish are willing to eat),tricos, isos, ephorons (aka white flies), ants, brown caddis, October (aka pumpkin) caddis and finally pseudos. Jack M. - I had intended to fish a tailout of a small pool and a narrow riff that is best fished in low water. The increased flow made wading more difficult and picked up the pace of the water in the tailout to a point where I felt it was unlikely there would be fish up sipping duns. Stayed a half hour with olives on the water and didn't see one eaten. Chose a wider part of the river where the rise in the water was barely noticable and was glad I did. Greg T. - My bug ...

 Given the seemingly steady release of 1,100 cfs from Cannonsville coupled with the 200 cfs flow from the EB one could assume that Wallenpaupack Reservoir has been drawn down as far as allowed during the summer (I'll try too check on this tomorrow), and that the Delaware system will be responsible for most all of the Montague minimum flow for the next couple of weeks. What does that mean?  Right now the high flow of cold water is creating an olive bug bonanza that puts the sulfur hatch to shame.   Where?  From what I can determine (keep in mind that I went to one place each day and never moved), there were olives at least from the Barking dog launch site all the way to junction pool. At 1,100 cfs the trick is to find a place where you can wade safely and make casts to the rising fish (think big pool tailouts for starters). When?  There will be olives of all sizes on the water starting about 5:00, the fish are apparently enjoying their cocktail hour then bec...