It's Summertime, Summertime Sum Sum Summertime - -6AM UPDATE RIVERS BLOWN OUT

UPDATE -A severe thunderstorm following the same track as the last one has blown out the entire Delaware River System. Oquaga went from 100cfs to 3,000cfs and no matter what DRC says it is not fishable up at Stilesville . Heading home 'til things settle down.


It's that time of year when you wish the next bug to hatch would get started. The sulfurs are still hatching in good numbers and the fish in the zone are eating them with relish, however, more and more, the anglers are being left out of the equation. The fish that have been hammered the most are looking carefully at every fly. Yes you see them eating duns, but are they eating yours? We are at the point where a refusal of your fly is high praise. Any fish that actually eats a fly with a hook in it is either sent to the optometrist or to summer school.

That said, if you come and fish in the Sulphur Zone you will be treated to two hatches a day, one starting about noon the other around seven. There will be bugs galore and lots of fish feeding on them, eating duns right before your eyes. At first you think your cast was a little short or a little long, then you believe the fish just happened to eat a sulfur just before or just after yours arrived. Finally reality sets in, the fish know the difference and no one in this line of fishermen is doing any better than me.  

The fishing - You won't be bored, frustrated, yes, but not bored. 

How'd I do? Arrived about noon, drove the length of the Sulfur Zone and saw almost no bugs or rising fish. Decided to fish a place below the barking dog launch. In an hour I saw a handful of sulfurs, hooked three yearlings (you know it's bad when I tell you about yearlings). Reeled it in and drove back up to the Lee Conklin plaque tree. No one was fishing and there were some fish rising. Waded in and in an hour of fishing, hooked four more yearlings and was treated to three refusals by their older kin. Reeled it in again and headed upstream, (the water below Oquaga was in the high 50's which probably didn't help the hatch). Found sulfurs and trout that were rising enthusiastically and would have had an impressive day were it not for the fact the I landed but two of six 'bows hooked, and lost an 18ish brown that was half, (the wrong half), in the net. About seven, a popular spot, that is full of fish, opened up and with the gracious permission of the other angler who was there ahead of me, we had at 'em. For an hour and a half, two reasonably competent anglers threw everything they had at multitudes of fish gulping sulfur duns. Result? One 16 inch hatchery holdover and one 12 inch wild trout. The hatchery trout is now in a remedial summer school program and the 12 incher is scheduled to have his eyes checked.

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