Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Today was change over day.  Cleaned the camp, packed my fly tying equipment and "Owyhee River " fly boxes and headed home.  Will be on a plane Sunday morning flying  to Oregon for a weeks fishing on the Owyhee River tailwater.  A week ago I said if the trip wasn't prepaid, I'd gladly give it up to stay and fish the Delaware.  Now, with the weeks weather forecast in front of me, I'm not so sure about that.  It's going to be hot here,  clearly the BR, EB and the BK will be out of bounds (they were all over 70 today) with the heat wave to begin tomorrow.  The UEB below Harvard will also make it into the "Do Not Fish " category for the next week. Hopefully the DEC will use some of the thermal bank to keep the WB and a little of the BR below 70. Many of the Troutfitter regulars will be spending next week in Montana trying to find fishable water.  Those of you who plan on being home next week in New York should do so in an air conditioned room ...

After the all day soaker of yesterday,  the heavy thunderstorms of last night and the scattered showers today, the entire system was either stained or muddy.  It was a much needed infusion of rainwater into the systems tribs and the lower water temps will at least help when the coming heatwave hits. Decided to take the day off and drive over to the Neversink and look for sulfurs and rising trout. Found both, unfortunately not in big numbers.  The sulfurs were spaced out and any trout feeding in the slow water pools (which is where they were) had to keep moving to get enough to eat.  The fisherman's parking lots were empty and there are no paths along the bank.  In two and a half hours of fishing I cast at perhaps a dozen fish.  Most times it was one cast and the fish was done. Hooked and landed two fish, lost one, was refused by two and ignored by the rest.  The water flow of a little over 100 cfs is slow, the water clear and the fish count the sulfu...

When it started raining at about 8:30 this morning my morning shift was cancelled (spinners don't do it in the rain).  With time on my hands I turned on the tea kettle and steamed a few of my more bedraggled flies, tied a few new ones and lo it was 1:00 o'clock.  Drove up to Deposit and visited with Lloyd Hornbeck,  hands down the best fisherman on the Cannonsville reservoir.  Left Deposit and headed downstream looking for those "rainy day olives" everyone talks about.  Got to junction pool about 3:00  without seeing a bug anywhere.  When the bugs finally came there were Olives in sizes from  20  to "can't even see'em" all over the water.  Don't know who the cook is but he must be good 'cause the trout appeared  out of nowhere and ate everything in sight, including my iso emerger which was 10 times the size of anything else on the water.  The feeding frenzy didn't last long but the action was non stop while it lasted.  I...

For perhaps the first time since I started writing this blog I sat in front of the computer and found myself at a loss for words.  Each night, while sipping my libation,  I try to think of something different and interesting to write about.  Tonight the words just didn't come.  Writers block? Or am I just tired of tired of telling people how good the fishing is. If you want to catch fish on a dry fly on the Delaware River (the hardest place I know of to do so) you have to do more than hire a guide and have him row you down the river.  You need to be able to cast.  You need to know something about fishing equipment, fly hatches and fly patterns. You need to learn and appreciate how trout have adapted to the threat posed by fly fishermen.  All of the information is readily available on line, in books if you prefer, but you have to be willing to enjoy putting in the time "you know it don't come easy". Today: Morning - It was chilly (48 degrees) at c...

Got enough rain over the weekend to help out the lawn and at least bump up the river levels a little bit.  It helped the BR the most as Lordville at 1300 cfs stayed below 70 while the BE and the BK both hit about 72 today. Ran into the perpetual traffic jam at the construction project in Binghamton on the way down and opted out by taking I-86 east.  When the GPS settled down and stopped telling me to turn around it routed me back down to 17 just west of Windsor.  Had never been on those roads before so it was an interesting experience.  Took an extra ten minutes (plus another 10 to get to I-86 from I-81 in the traffic). There were bugs, boats and wade fishermen in the sulfur zone at Deposit.  Took a pass and drove over to the UEB and all the way up rte. 30 to Corbett.  Never saw a parked car, a fisherman, a rise or a bug.  There were good hatches of sulfurs there last week but the complete absence of fishermen following  two days of overcast, ...

Remember about a month ago when the Hendricksons were done everywhere but the UEB and WB and the BK blew out and everything down stream was too muddy to fish?  There were so many boats and wade fishermen crowding the river that I just didn't fish. This week with the high water temps, everything but the UEB and the WB were shut down and I had such a good week of fishing that I would gladly cancel my upcoming trip out west (if everything wasn't prepaid) to stay here and fish.  Except for two places where I stopped briefly on Tuesday there were bugs hatching and fish rising everywhere I went. This morning I fished a riff/run section of the lower WB.  The lower WB had not been good to me so far this year.  There weren't many bugs hatching but the fish were looking up.  Why?  There were olive spinners all over the water.  Earlier this week I preached about learning the bug hatches and being there for the spinner falls, etc, etc.  I would like to sa...

It's the first day of summer and we need rain.  Lots of it.  The reservoirs are fine, right where they should be. NYC is seeing to that.  But the tribs are drying up, the releases have been cut back and the BK, BE and almost all of the BR are too warm to fish.  The adult fish are being stressed by the low oxygen content in the warm water.  In the tribs the brown and rainbow fingerlings are becoming easy prey for predators.  We have had only one inch of rain so far in June (two inches below normal).  Two or three all day steady rains would do wonders. The fishing:  Has to start with the limited area that can be fished.  Everyone fishing is on the two branches and the very top of the BR.  Is it crowded?  Not really.  More than anything this shows the effect of the heavy pressure during the first two months of the season.  Fish get pounded.  They learn from their mistakes and become harder to catch. Fishermen get disco...