Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  It's Saturday night, I'm back in Lafayette attempting to type a report on a notebook.  Yesterday's fishing was the same as the previous three days. Fished both the BR and the EB. Found very few bugs during the day, but if you floated a fly over a fish that hadn't been hooked since last June, he ate, (no matter what fly it was). If you cast at a recently hooked fish the best you could hope for was a refusal. How do I know? Just for the fun of it, I went back where I fished Thursday again on Friday. Caught five nice rainbows, none of which had a recent hook mark in their mouth, The fish that were willing to eat were all caught either upstream or downstream from the area I fished the day before. Got three refusals in the area I fished on Thursday.  Fished two other places with similar results. Had several fish eagerly eat what I offered while others that I saw rise wouldn't give my fly a look. Ended the day with nine rainbows all but one of which was between 14 and 1...

  A couple weeks ago I caught the laptop charger cord with my foot, yanked the laptop off the table and in the process bent the charger cord prong. Today I finished the job, by once again catching my foot in the cord and snapping off the prong, in the laptop. Future reports will be dependent on both removing the prong and obtaining a new Lenovo Ideal Pad charging cord. And yes I'm still wading without a wading staff. In hopes of finishing the report before the battery dies, I'll get right to the fishing. After Monday's sorry effort, (notice I blame it on Monday, not on me), of but one fish, I've put together three solid days. Today was the best of the bunch. Started out at 3:00 and with the bright sun and hot temp, I picked a place where a steep hill provided early shade. When I arrived the fish in the sun were rising while the shaded part of the river was quiet. Found fish more than willing to eat my fly and in seemingly no time at all, I had landed seven fish. Then I ...

Spent the morning filling another five gallon bucket with apples , (which went directly onto the screened in porch), shot the bow, (didn't find the missing arrow,but shot well), finished my blind alteration/repair project, vacuumed, (put two c's, one u and one m in on the first try), up the grass I tracked into the house from yesterday's mowing, did the breakfast dishes, and presto, it was time to have lunch. Encouraged by yesterday's good hatch of bugs, and the resulting good fishing, I decided to fish another section of the BR today. It's a longer walk, so I left about 1:00, two hours earlier than yesterday. I needn't have bothered. With the sun beating down from a cloudless sky, I was hot and sweaty by the time I got to the chosen pool. Apparently the bugs had been told by their parents to stay out of the sun because, while there was an assortment of bugs hatching, they fell far short of the numbers necessary to get the fish up and feeding like yesterday. How...

  It's fall, no matter what the calendar says. Except for the two fawns that live in the backyard, all the deer in Lordville are proudly wearing their new winter coats. The orphaned fawn of last year is sporting his one, three inch long horn, sans the velvet,the sun is in your eyes all day long, the goldenrod and fall asters are in bloom, there's space behind the hills, and at least today, the fishing was over before dark. Spent the morning mowing the lawn, tying a half dozen caddis, and shaking down a five gallon pail full of apples. Set the bucket on the porch steps, put out the archery target and shot the bow. Moving from twenty to thirty yards I buried an arrow in the grass when I used the 20 yard pin at 30 yards, ($hit happens when you're over 80). If I'd gotten a job at Mickey D's, I could have purchased a dozen arrows in the time I spent unsuccessfully, (why do you have to double the c's, s's and l's), trying to find the short shot. Finally said ...

  Had a number of things to do before departure today and decided to take my time and limit my fishing to the evening hours. Have been doing quite well during those last couple of hours of light. The waters have cooled off and are all in good shape to fish.There has been enough flow of cold water on the Delaware from the increased releases at both Pepacton and Cannonsville since earlier this month, that most of the fish should be back in their home pools. The problem with the fishing has been the dearth of bugs. If it's because of damage done by Debby there is little likelihood of improvement. If, however, it's because the water has been too warm, things should be picking up. Went out tonight at about five-thirty. It was overcast and chilly with little to no wind. Picked a place farther down the BR, (Charlie, BR is the Main Stem a/k/a the Delaware River from junction pool down to Callicoon), than I have fished this fall and it may have been a mistake.  Stepped into the water a...

  Home and thankful to be here rather than trying to battle the wind on the river today. Put up a couple of trail cams, and will be heading back down to the Lordville Estate tomorrow morning. Now is as good a time as any to answer the weeks questions. Glenn wanted to know where have all the tricos gone? If anyone found good trico hatches on the UEB before Debby hit please let us know. I didn't make a trico trip to the UEB until after water levels got back to normal and didn't see more than a dozen of the little guys. I've also failed to find any good iso hatches. There's no grackles eating them along the shoreline rocks or cedar waxwings flying out to pick them off over the water. The obvious culprit is Debby as the flood waters moved tons of rocks around in some of the rivers. Many nymphs were probably crushed or washed down to Delaware bay. Greg Tarris wants to know what the clouds of little bugs he saw were. Best guess is either mating pseudos or midges. Tricos do th...