Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  Jim N. asked two questions this past week and Dennis, (perhaps in hopes of gleaning some information that would help him make up for the fact that he doesn't tie flies and has a truly miserable selection of sulfurs), chimed in on the request trying to get info on the downriver fishing. In answer to Jim's first question about the "wonder fly", no. I've gone into explicit detail about how to improve your flies and you can't even get mayflies into your house as models. You would need to get a far more ferocious creature into the house to have a model for the wonder fly. With regards to down river fishing - Because I get bored with the "Sulfur Zone", at least once a week I fish someplace downriver in the evening. If I've had a really good afternoon of fishing, sometimes I go down river twice in a week. What have I found? I have not yet been skunked, nor have I caught more that 3 fish on any night. Saw a few bugs and rising fish and hooked three fis...

 😊 Have been in Lafayette since Thursday morning and will not be able to return to the Lordville Estate until Monday, (social obligations). Glad Hackelhouse got in some fishing on Thursday, when I drove over the town bridge at 7:30am, the river was solid mud. I try to keep people from making a long drive for no reason. The gage at Stilesville is above Cold Springs Brook, (CSB), and only measures the release water from Cannonsville. Most times during a heavy runoff the water on the Stilesville parking lot side remains clear while the far bank, (where the bugs hatch), is muddied by CSB. During the first storm, (when Oquaga hit 600cfs), there were between twenty to thirty guys lined up trying to fish the clear water. Oquaga peaked just short of 3,000cfs Thursday morning and I assume that CSB was also proportionally higher, thus my recommendation to stay home. If you were already up here and were able to fish great, but to tell you to drive up with all but a few hundred yards of the r...

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 lot...

Could be wrong but I don't recall the rivers being blown out since back in April. Last night's rain was a soaker but it rained long enough and hard enough to raise Oquaga, (aka the little Mississippi) from 10cfs to 600cfs of mud laden water. The rain was traveling in a Northeasterly direction and also blew out the UEB, while missing the Beaverkill which is in dire need of water. The only fishable water today was in the Sulfur Zone from Oquaga up to cold Springs Brook. You guys are so good I didn't even give posting an update this morning a thought. Dave at the Troutfitter said half the river was clear at the bridge at noon. I didn't arrive until 4:00 and saw Mike the cop fishing above the town bridge and a line of fishermen below the bridge that extended all the way down to Oquaga. Could see two boats and several wade fishermen above the Butler Brook sluiceway and when I drove up along the river I lost count of the boats and anglers that were strung out from the "f...

  It had to happen, and today it did, drove through Hancock, got on route 97 and was halfway up the big hill outside of town before I remembered that the bridge on Lordville Road was being repaired. Turned around, drove back into town and drove down route 191 in PA  to Equinunk and then took Lordville Road over the bridge to the Lordville Estate without further navigational errors. Left Lafayette at 8:00 am to give myself plenty of time to tie a new fly that I dreamed up over the weekend. Tied eight of them and like all new flies there were both design and production problems. Tied a couple on the wrong type hooks, then put materials on in the wrong order, got things too close to the eye and finally on the last three flies I got my excrement together and made what I hoped were presentable flies. Got to the "Sulfur Zone at 12:10. There were more bugs and rising fish than fishermen, (by quite a bit), so I was able to try the new fly where I thought it would be most effective, an...