Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  It's not easy trying to figure out water levels here on the Delaware system. It has rained every day but the rivers go up and down like the stock market when Trump announces or pauses tariffs. Today they were down despite on and off showers all day long. Temperatures got all the way up into the mid fifties although it didn't feel any different than the past three days when it never got out of the forties. Jean came down so I spent a little time this morning sprucing up the place. Also managed to find time to tie a few flies. There was a band in the pavilion downtown and there were numerous booths set up with people selling their creations. Found a nice little garden store across from Bisbee's where we bought tomato plants, and then at about 2:45 we drove along the river looking for bugs and risers. Saw the first bugs at 2:55 and the first rise at 3:04. Both the bugs and rises came in increasing frequency after that. Found an unoccupied run just a short walk from the ...

  With Mark off to spend the weekend with his parents, I was left with no option but to wade.  With the monsoon season showing no signs of coming to an end, and a somewhat irrational desire to fish a pool unpopulated by either drifters or waders, my choices were very limited. Drove by miles of river with rising fish and no place to wade, but found a spot with bugs, (they seemed to be everywhere), and rising fish, (lots of them), where I could wade in.   Fished one of those new "Midas Touch" rods, (ask about them at the Troutfitter), and for about an hour and a half it was magic, every fly went where it was supposed to, and every trout came up and took a look. Most of them ate, and remarkably, almost none of them came unstuck. I got there at about 3:30 and it was over by 5:30, but it was sure an action packed two hours. Should have quit right then, but I spent an hour and a half trying to rekindle the magic in other places, (hooked and lost two fish for my efforts), b...

  The day dawned in a drizzle with the red stuff in the porch thermometer hunkered down at the 40 degree mark. The precipitation continued all day, with the air temp climbing as high as 48. The water temps throughout the system struggled to reach 50.  We sat in the house, fed the stove, tied flies and did crosswords until about 3:00. Today we didn't have to drive far, saw rises off the Lordville Bridge, continued up the PA side, said goodbye to river friend Chris who sold the family home, met the new owners who seemed very nice, confirmed that there were both bugs on the water and rising fish at the Buckingham launch, did a u-turn, went back to the Lordville Estate, got out gear, and went fishing, (forgive me Mrs. Haskins for I know not what I do).   The bugs - Didn't seem to care how cold and miserable it was, they hatched, March Browns, Gray Foxes, a Green Drake, an Iso, and the best Invaria hatch so far this year. If the hatch started before three, we didn't see i...

  It was another difficult day to be on the river. High temp of 49 with a light all day drizzle, with a wind   from the SE that really was no factor. We left the Lordville Estate about 1:30 in hopes of at least finding some olives. Stopped at every place where we could view the river. Drove up the PA side stopping two places on the BR and then all the way up the WB without seeing a single rise or bug, until we drove along the road above the Stilesville DEC parking area where we saw not one, but two fish rise. Chatted with two gentlemen walking back down the road to their car who said there were bugs yesterday but none today. Stopped at the Troutfitter to buy tippet and flotant, (did absolutely no mewling), and then headed back to the fishing camp. The car said it was still 49 degrees and we were ready to call it a day, don't know why, but I drove down to the river for one last look, and there were bugs on the water and fish rising everywhere. The fishing - We spent from 5...

  Woke to a temp of 41 degrees on the porch so we were in no hurry to get on the water. Left the Lordville Estate at 1:00 pm and again headed east. The pool I had hoped to fish was occupied by three anglers. We stopped at several other pools and saw no bugs or rising fish. Found a spot on the EB that had a few bugs hatching and no fishermen in sight. Saw three fish rise while we were eating lunch streamside and decided to give it a try. In the hour and a half we were there the bugs were a mere shadow of what we saw yesterday, and the rises were far and few between. We each managed to hook and land a nice trout before deciding to look elsewhere. Ended up taking a short float on the BR, (we had seen bugs at the Buckingham launch site on our trip out from the fishing camp). At 4:00 pm no one was launching and there was but one boat to be seen on the river. What we did see was a good hatch of invaria and a mixed bag the bigger bugs, and oh, by the way, there  were lots of rising f...

  Drove down this morning to fish with a long time friend from North Carolina who fishes the South Holston, a TVA stream that has an incredible number of wild brown trout. Unfortunately most of the fish are under twelve inches long. It's a fun place to fish but lacks the excitement provided by a hot Delaware River rainbow or lunker brown. Elected to go east and spent time on the BK and the BE. There were enough bugs to get fish rising and my friend landed a nice 17 inch brown in the first hour of fishing. There was a sneaky draft out of the north west than kept the black flies away. There was no feeding frenzy but we had fish to throw at until the sun got off the water at which time the cold temperature shut things down. Saw ragged robin, (the precursor of green drakes), along the banks, and newly hatched dragonflies that were darting around looking for mayflies to eat. There were caddis and sulfurs as well as March Browns on the water.  It seems that the freestones are starti...

 Since Jim N. wasn't happy with my last effort trying to explain "where it's at", here's a second attempt. The Hendrickson hatch was basically over at the end of April on the freestones and they entered the dreaded doldrums. The rivers were all blown out the first week of May and remained unwadeable until late last week. The BR at 20,000 cfs was too high to even float safely and no one went down river.  As the rivers dropped most guides chose to float either the WB or UEB. They did so because the tailwaters are usually colder and the Hendricksons normally hatch there throughout May. There was also the likelihood of finding alewives that were washed over during the spill. The fact that the spills  made the water in the tailwaters warmer than the freestones added an element of uncertainty into the equation.  The doldrums last about two weeks and the freestones should soon be seeing hatches of all kinds of bugs, (March Browns, Invaria, gray foxes, green drakes cornut...