Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  First, a thank you to Andy G. for taking the time and trouble to drop off Ed Van Put's "The Myth of Dan Cahill" which I read with interest. By far the most common story about the origin of the rainbows in the Delaware is that they were dumped from a train when it broke down, (or crashed) on it's journey from California to Long Island. Back in the 1800's live rainbows made the journey often enough that the story has a ring of truth to it. I'm sure Mr. Van Put was diligent in his research and that there was no news of a train wreck. If you read my single sentence on the subject it says only that rainbows have been in the river since the eighteen hundreds. If anybody knows from whence they came, they're clearly not telling. I also will readily admit that stocked fish could occasionally find their way into the trout water above Callicoon. Since I've been fishing here, however, I have not heard of any intentional rainbow stockings above Callicoon. Delawar...

After yesterdays dearth of rising fish, I felt it was time to go find the Dorothea's. They were hatching below the 191 bridge late last week and earlier this week there were Dorothea spinners below Balls Eddy. Shortly after one today, I found the little rascals being blown around in the wind under the Hale Eddy bridge. Fished above the bridge a ways, and there seemed to be enough bugs to get the fish up but it was a lot like yesterday, just a few fish rising, but they were all big. Today I took it on the chin. Hooked the first fish and he came unstuck, got refusals from the next two fish I cast at, checked the fly and the tail fibers were bent under the hook. Whenever you get refused, check the fly, if I'd checked after the first fish said no, perhaps the second fish would have eaten. Fourth fish never bothered to give me a look and the fifth fish changed his mind at the last minute with a big boil. So much for the Dorothea hatch. The hatch petered out, the wind picked up, and ...

  Started the fishing day at twelve thirty, drove up Lordville road and encountered two hen turkeys crossing the road with their combined broods. The kids were mostly off the road when I first saw them, stopped where they went off the road and couldn't begin to count them all. Two different sizes and close to twenty young birds.  Arrived at Deposit and drove up to the red barn where I counted eleven cars, the Stilesville lot had nine and there were boats everywhere, two anchored below the pool, four in the pool and several more from there up to Cold Springs Brook. The heat wave has warmed the water which had probably speeded up the Invaria hatch's demise. Best guess - there won't be a "fishable hatch" by Sunday. Down river, (say to the Men's Club), there are still sulfurs hatching and fish feeding on them. The fish have learned to eat only the nymphs and to be careful about which emerging nymphs they eat. Flies that, earlier this week, readily took fish are no...

It's  6:30 and once again I'm back at the Lordville Estate writing the days blog while eating dinner. It was hot again today but when you spend three or four hours waist deep in cold  release water, you don't mind the heat one bit.  Arrived in Deposit at about one thirty and drove up to the red barn, it was a sight to behold. As most anglers know, the spring sulfurs, (Invaria), move upstream starting, (for our purposes). at Callicoon sometime in mid May and ending up at Cold Springs Brook where they depart the river. Anglers in large numbers gather along the river from Butler Brook to Cold Springs Brook to bid them adieu, (and perhaps catch a few of the fish that are feeding on them). If you want to take part in the festivities best hurry as it will be over sometime in the next week. What did I do? Drove downstream a couple of miles and fished in relative solitude,(until the Armada came by). There were still a few of the Invaria hatching with fish eating them and looking ...

  It's seven-thirty, and I'm back at the Lordville Estate dutifully rehydrating after spending five hours on the stream. Actually I was a bit chilly for a while when a popup shower passed just south of where I was fishing and the clouds and cold moist air over the river brought the temp down. Started at 1:00 and did a walk away Joe at 6:00. Why? Well I didn't plan on staying that long, brought no water with me, and I had caught enough fish. Everyone knew that today was going to be hot and despite the couple of hours of cloud cover, it was. When I drove through Hancock both on my way fishing and on my return, no one was there, the streets had almost no cars parked along the curbs, there were no moms out pushing baby carriages, and almost no traffic on the roads, (including route 17), it brought the covid year to mind. Yesterday there were fishermen and drift boats everywhere, as one sport said as the guide rowed by me, "It  was a s--t show, up river". Today, I had ...

  It's 8:00am Tuesday morning, an attempt, yesterday, to "clean up" A-119's computer did not go as smoothly as anticipated. The blog, (among many other things) disappeared, it was too late to call the grandkids, so I had to await regular business hours for our techie to resolve the matter. Yesterday was hot, not as hot as the next four days are predicted to be, but hot. The bright sun warmed the water, the sulfurs (still Invaria) came early, and the fish fed. As you would expect, it was crowded. In a way, it was like a class reunion with fishermen you don't usually see until everyone is crowded into the "sulfur zone" all back fishing in the WB above Hale Eddy. The fishing - Saw rising fish from the car, geared up and fished a riff/run where you seldom see a fish rise. Yesterday it was full of fish. Spent twenty minutes throwing a dun with no effect. The fish were feeding on the emerging nymphs. There was nary a nose to be seen. Historically, I have done ...