Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 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...