Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

First day all week that things dried out enough to take care of yard chores.  Picked peaches (lots of 'em), mowed, pruned and weed killed.  By 3:00 I was tired but ready to fish.  The high water had dictated that I fish the upper WB all this week, so with dropping water levels I was anxious to try the UEB.  The water level was ideal, the number of wade fishermen was low but the number of boats was high.  Stopped at several of my "look outs" on the way upstream, all had rising fish.  Planned to start out near Downsville and work my way downstream.  In formulating the plan, sulfurs came into play.  In the real world, they didn't.  There were small olives on the water everywhere I fished but most of the risers were yearlings. As I moved downstream,  things started to happen.  Caught a 17 inch hatchery holdover at my first stop.  Three nice fish at my second stop.  The third stop had nary a riser and the fourth stop had tw...

With everything outside too wet for me to work on any of my projects, I decided to paint the bathroom.  It's tiny and only took about a third of a gallon of paint but the taping, cutting in and clean up took forever. Didn't leave camp until 2:30, arrived in the Deposit area and had my pick of several pools.  Don't know if fishermen had been and gone or just hadn't come.  There were no flies or risers for about half an hour then the bugs came and the fish rose. Found a pod of six to eight big fish gulping away in a riff 12 to 18 inches deep.  They took some nymphs subsurface but also ate hundreds of sulfur duns. I fished to them for two hours, got about two dozen refusals and never had a fish eat my fly - until - with the hatch waning, two nice rainbows ate my fly. Moved downstream below the "sulfur zone" to close out the day.  There were some bugs and the fish were looking up but there weren't enough bugs to keep the fish rising steadily. Some fish ros...

The "Sulfur Zone" had more than its share of fishermen and boat traffic today.  Found myself wedged into a small area where there were three good fish eating sulfurs. The fish know the game and are fished to by someone every day. Got several open mouth refusals but never got a hook into any of the three good ones. When the hatch waned about 5:00 I headed downstream.  The WB has cleared quite well and I hoped the increased flow and cooler temps would stimulate both fish and bugs.  There were little olives on the water along with a few of the usual suspects when I arrived.  Rose a few fish blind casting and had a few risers to cast to, then the sun came out.  In a matter of minutes the olives and fish both disappeared. The sun didn't stay out for long as another cloud bank put out the lights for the rest of the day. But neither the olives nor the fish seemed eager to reappear.  As darkness descended (if that's what it does?) a few of the bigger bugs (Isos...

When I left camp around 1:00 I was undecided on whether to give the Neversink a try or to do battle in the sulfur zone up in Deposit.  Headed west with the idea that it was early and if the WB was too muddy, high or crowded I could still head east on 17 and see if the Neversink had a sulfur hatch. The WB was clear above Oquaga, was at a nice height and there was room to fish.  Shared a pool with long time river friend Mike.  The sulfurs and olives got going about two.  It was a good hatch (probably the best sulfur hatch I've seen all year).  Mike hooked and broke off a good one and then landed a nice 17 incher.  When he left to take his wife to Binghamton the sulfurs were waning but the olives were still going strong. Saw a nice fish rise and got him to eat my olive.  When I landed him and reached into the net to get him out there was leader going in every direction.  Untangled the mess, unhooked my fly and then went to work on the other hook....

There's just nothing I can say.  When I can fish, I'm having a really good days.  But I've been rained out so many days this season that my total catch for the yeas is sure to be the lowest in almost ten years. Went to bed last night with flash flood warnings posted for Delaware County.  This morning the USGS gauges were going straight up and most of the river system was already unfishable.  Took my time running errands with little hope of fishing.  At three I looked at the Hale Eddy gauge and left for the camp. When I arrived in Deposit about 5:00 the water was clear  above Oquaga  and below, only a little "stained" as they now say.  Saw a few fish (good ones) rising in a flat water pool and decided to give them a try. Out of the six fish I threw at, two ignored, three refused and one ate (and came unstuck during its initial run). There were no wade fishermen where I was and only one boat (the flash flood warning effect again).  In my...

After four days of walking into empty pools and finding fly hatches with trout eagerly feeding on them I was pretty well convinced that if I wasn't the greatest dry fly fisherman in the world I was surely in the top three. Fully expecting that today would continue the "anointed one's" hot streak I rode my fully inflated ego up to Stockport where I was sure that the increased release of cold WB water would have the fish up and happily feeding. The bright sun was no deterrent and I was into a fish within five minutes.  Three hours and over a dozen refusals later I landed my second (and last) 12 incher).  There were some fish feeding (all splashy rises which would normally signal caddis as a prime suspect) but I never figured out on what until, when walking to shore I looked down at the twenty black caddis on my waders. The Hsssss you hear if you listen is the leak in my ego. Worked around camp right through the sulfur hatch (haven't I proved the hatches will app...

Got a late start today and didn't get on the river until 3:00.  Fished a pool on the UEB which had pitched a shutout against me all three times I fished it this year.  Last year it was full of 15 to 17 inch fish. Saw fish rising from the road but when I got to the spot where they were rising  - nothing.  My wake had put them all down.  It took about fifteen minutes for them to start up again and I then had rising fish until a thunderstorm hit.  Had to retreat to the car for my raincoat and sat on the bank for about an hour before the rain stopped and the fish started up again.  It wasn't the same.  The olives that had started hatching shortly after my arrival never got going again.  I decided to stay and wait things out, maybe sulfurs late or for sure a spinner fall.  There were a few fish eating subsurface, I got some looks and a few takes on a variety of flies but I never saw any sulfurs or spinners . Perhaps the heavy fog that envel...