Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  The table was set. An all day drizzle was the featured guest. Ideal water level said he would come but only if all day drizzle kept his word to provide less than a quarter inch of rain. The bugs said they would come but only if Mr. Sun wasn't invited. The fish said if the bugs are coming count us in. All day drizzle started early to insure being on time but ran out of water about nine in the morning. When Mr. Sun saw that all day drizzle was out of water he crashed the party. When the bugs saw Mr. Sun they cancelled. When the bugs cancelled the fish went back to eating yearling trout. Thankfully, ideal water level showed up and let me cast my flies all afternoon and evening. He must have thought I needed the practice. A few fall fish showed up uninvited and ate my flies, either to be polite or they need glasses.  The fishing was a bust. Only salvation was a nice 18 inch brown that rose while I was walking out. Waded over to him and he ate a little olive on the first cast....

  Not a word of a lie. Two or three years ago I did the fall cleanout of the bluebird houses and the next morning I looked out the kitchen window and there were the bluebirds checking out the nest box as if to see if I did a good job. Yesterday I spent several hours repairing, replacing, and cleaning out the bluebird boxes and this morning the bluebirds (that I haven't seen since their second brood fledged in late June) were once again out there checking out the new bluebird box. I raised the rent and they didn't stop by the camp to sign a new lease, so I guess I'll just have to wait until April to see if they will be staying here next spring.  Never tire of watching the neighborhood deer and it appears that they never tire of watching me. Most of my deer watching is done either from the back porch or through the sliding glass doors in the kitchen. The deer will stand out side begging me to get my hooked stick and shake some apples off the tree at the corner of the porch. W...

   I've been busy mornings and early afternoons this week. Got what will probably be the last six gallons of water from the Lordville spring this year. Finished the bluebird house restoration project. Went over to the Equinunk garage and ordered two new tires for Jean's car. Mowed the lawn which took time from two days as it isn't dry until almost two o'clock. Cleaned and closed up the upstairs sleeping quarters for the year. Tied the olives that the fish liked last night and then tied another half dozen this morning only to find they weren't on today's menu. Was so pressed for time I even forgot about bow practice today. And, I finally realized that I was missing out on some good fishing. Why? Well first off, there were clues. Every day this week the fish were going when I got there. The guide yesterday said he had bugs and rising fish from 11:00 'till he took out at Buckingham about 4:00. A fisherman I talked to when I was leaving the Shehawken parking lot...

It was another mostly overcast day. Had to wait until noon to mow the back yard. Yesterday's fishing, while not great, gave me hope that the week wouldn't be a total loss. Left camp about 3:30 and once again drove up the PA side. Pulled in the Buckingham launch site (two trailers) and drove down to the ramp where there was a guy sitting in a pickup truck. Looked out at the water and there were risers, quite a few actually. Got on my waders and walked down to the river but saw only two fish within reach. One was a fall fish, the other an 11 inch rainbow. A drift boat pulled in while I was fishing and I walked over to talk to the guide. Said there were bugs and rising fish from Balls Eddy to Buckingham. As luck would have it, he had spin-fishermen in the boat. They caught a nice fish (on a nymph rig I think, while I was "fighting" my 8 inch fall fish.  Left Buckingham at about 4:15 and headed for the WB. Fished two places (the first offered ground up glass instead of gr...

After another rainy weekend trying to get things done at home, I was surprised to find that today was to be a much sought after "rainy, drizzly day". My enthusiasm was quickly dampened by a check of water levels which were still fine at bed time last night. It was clear this morning that this week would be a case of fishing where you could, not where you wanted to. Took care of the remaining items on the at home to-do list, packed the car, filled half a five gallon pail with drops from our Bartlett Pear tree (most are disfigured and small as the Bartlett needs to be cross pollinated and the cross pollinator died years ago).   Drove down the road and filled up a five gallon pail of apples at a neighbors and headed for the Lordville Estate only to remember  I forgot the sandwich rolls on the top of the refrigerator. Felt like I was attached to a bungee cord. Finally arrived at Lordville about 1:30. Humphries Brook was roaring and the BR was at 4,000cfs. With the WB and UEB ...

 With helpful commenters having answered some of the more pressing problems I'll have to meet my minimum word contract obligation with some random thoughts. Jim Dygert was quick with the info on steaming flies. I keep an old tea kettle for that purpose. Be sure to  use forceps to keep your fingers out of the steam. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to do much for CDC.  Black Boat mentioned Hank Locklin a country western singer who did "Please Help Me I'm Falling" and "Send Me The Pillow You Dream On". Looked him up to be sure and learned he also sang "We're Gonna Go Fishin' ". Who knew? Dennis 2 brought up the subject of trout preferences (or tolerance) of water temps. The rainbows in the Delaware River system are found most commonly in water that gets the warmest, ( BR and EB) while the browns numbers are highest in the colder tail water sections, (WB and UEB). Neither are mutually exclusive. While on the subject of fish distribution - Som...