Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

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...