Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's all clear to me now.  September and August have switched places. Today was another scorcher with temp in the eighties, bright sun and the freestones hitting 70.  Did chores around camp, tied some flies and took a little siesta before heading out about 3:00. Decided to take a look at the WB in Deposit.  It wasn't pretty.  The water beneath the thermocline in the reservoir is gone and the murky water that has been sitting on top of the thermocline is now being sucked out the pipe and into the WB.  In the silt laden water I saw no bugs, one rise and but one fisherman.  I left town without putting a toe in the water. By 4:30 I was in a pool on the UEB with a good number of rising fish to cast to.  A very few olives and stenos could be seen on the water but the fish were on top feeding like hatchery fish when the pellet machine turns on. Tied on 7X for only the third time this season and tried some of the tiny little flies I tied this morning. ...

With the unseasonably cool nights and cloudy, rainy days we had in August and early September, the entire river system was again open for fishing.  The recent spate of warm nights and hot sunny days, however, has raised the water temps in the freestone sections of the system to or above the "no fish" level of 70 degrees. With the tailwaters "the only game in town", I was forced to face reality.  The olives that have been something both the trout and fishermen could count on for over two months are waning.  The decline was masked by the appearance (at least where I was fishing) of prolific numbers of ants. When fishing the BR the hatches of isos and white flies made the decline of the olive hatch seem unimportant. Today I went looking for olives  -and - didn't find any.  Stopped at half a dozen places on the UEB without seeing an olive or a rise.  Once again with zero chance of rain I got caught in a downpour (with raincoat this time - taking no chances)...

With warm temps and sunshine forecast for today I was in no hurry to get to the stream.  Yesterday's double header was fun and productive but one game today will be enough.  The temps have stayed warm the last couple of nights and with the predicted sunshine the freestone streams will be getting quite warm.  This pushes the bug hatches back to the cooler evening hours.  Bottom line, back to the tailwaters. Left camp at 3:00 with no clear plan for where to fish. Ended up heading up the UEB and to my surprise there were anglers fishing almost every pool (it is Friday afternoon after all). There is a pool I like to fish that has a difficult entry and exit path (very steep) and perhaps because of the formation of  hills surrounding it, it is often so windy you just can't fish it. It is also a pool that is "no secret" to UEB fishermen and often times someone else has gotten there before me This year there has been a fourth problem in trying to fish it. The three ti...

It was overcast.  It rained a few times.  The wind didn't blow.  There were ants, tricos, olives, isos, stenos and spinners of all of the above (except for the ants).  It was so warm that the spinners stayed late and finished the job. The fish?  They knew a good thing when they saw it.  They ate! Now don't get me wrong.  The fish on the Delaware may eat but they always  do so carefully.  If you keep track, refusals will always out number takes.  And ignores probably out number refusals.  But all day today you had fish to throw to. After avoiding the WB for several weeks I decided to give it a try.  The water is at a level where floating is difficult (a good thing).  And just maybe the bugs hatches have started up again. And perhaps the fish have gotten a little careless. The first six fish that came to my fly refused it.  It wasn't  until I was trying to watch a size 18 olive emerger in a heavy riff that ...

When I was filling the bird feeder with sunflower seed, I almost took down the half full hummingbird feeder.  Saw one hummingbird last week but I haven't seen one at the feeder this week.  Left it up in case a traveler stops for a fill up on his/her way to mexico.  It seems like only yesterday the first arrivals staked out their claim to the feeder back in early May. Driving along the river today, couldn't help but notice that the roadside sumac's leaves have started turning scarlet red. The leaves on the top branches of the soft maples are also turning a brilliant red. The roadside fields are yellow with goldenrod bloom. The fall asters haven't put in an appearance yet and only a few of the less healthy hard maples have started to turn orange but the message is clear - fall is on the way. Split time today between the Beaverkill and the UEB.  Found ants and olives on both rivers and landed the same number of fish on each river.  The fish in the Beaverkill ar...

You almost know without asking.  The salmon are running!  How do I know?  The Delaware is deserted.  Most all of the guides and fishermen have moved up to the Salmon River to tangle with the big guys.  Me?  I'm down here trying my best to keep the fish from getting too easy to catch - and - apparently I'm doing a  good job! Today I worked on the BEB fish.  Went out about two and stopped at a big slow water pool I hadn't fished all year.  In the bright sun there were at least a dozen fish up and feeding, on -  what else? Ants! Donned waders at had at 'em.  Half an hour later, I was reeling it in and moving to the next place, my job done.  How'd I do?  Threw at eight fish.  Got two refusals and six ignores.  Only two fish dared to rise after my first cast and my second cast quelled even their urge to eat. My second (and last) stop was at a riff where often times fish get in too big of  a hurry to grab fo...

A week ago I fished all day with ants on the water.  I went to great lengths to tell how seldom that happens.  Well, today it happened again!  It wasn't really all day today as I didn't leave Rustin's Dinner (The Cholesterol Capital of the World) until 12:30. At about 2:00 I was drooling out of both sides of my mouth ( a Pavlovian response to the little smears covering my windshield).  Got in the water about 2:30 and sure enough, there were ants in the film (also on my neck, nose, waders and one in a fly box for a sample). The big problem was that I couldn't catch the fish that were rising.  There were a good number of ants but also lots of olives and big may flies of assorted varieties.  There were plenty of fish to cast to but they just paid me no attention.  When the sun finally went behind the hill I had hooked three and landed one. I don't know much about ant flights but when the sun disappeared the water became covered with them and the fis...