Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  Today was just so beautiful, it made me nervous. Why? I'm down at the Lordville Estate for perhaps the last time this season and it's sunny, warm (75 degrees) and I'm going out to fish with knowledge that the bugs probably won't show. Called Jean at about 2:00 to tell her that I've decided to stay overnight and come home in the morning, unless the pseudos don't show up, in which case I'll head home tonight. Called her at 5:55 just east of Deposit to tell her that I had the contents of the fridge (including her beer and a thawed out hamburger) in the car and that my ETA was 7:15. Arrived at 7:11 to find Jean frying up some onions and peppers to put on the hamburger. Sometimes it's more important to be lucky than good. It's a sad time of year for me. Drove past the homes of several river friends who are no longer with us, walked past Nate's house on the way down to the river, his refrigerator door is wide open (hopefully turned off) and he and hi...

  It was just too nice a day to spend sitting in a tree. Scheduled an 11:30 hair cut at Vicki's in Deposit and drove down from Lafayette arriving at 11:27. Was out before noon which left me plenty of time to open the camp, put away my stuff, blow the leaves off the front yard, and have lunch before heading out to fish at 1:30. By 3:00 I had driven from Lordville to the Willow and back down the BK to Jaws all without seeing a single bug or rise. From 3:00 until 3:45 I fished two bugless pools and had four 12 inch rainbows eat my offerings. One has a size 22 pseudo and almost three feet of tippet as a souvenir. I didn't see the take and just might have hooked a little too briskly when I felt something tugging on the line. Landed two of the other three, one just came unstuck.  A stop on the EB at about 4:00 resulted in my spotting  the first flies of the day but alas, nary a riser. Stopped on a run in the WB which is high (for pseudo fishing) and "stained' as they like to...

 With over 35 years of bonefishing on open ocean flats, I'm not one to wimp out when a little wind blows. Hendrickson time, you know it's going to blow, and you suck it up and fish. October pseudo fishing is another matter. With winds predicted to blow from the NNW at 10 to 20 today and my granddaughters volleyball game on at noon, I got in my bow practice early, crossed camp close up items off the list, and sat down and watched the game. Noticed leaves blowing by the window during the game, but it wasn't until after it ended that I took a good look at the six inch waves blowing down the Lordville pool. Packed up and headed home. Temp dropped 10 degrees enroute and it was blowing and raining by the time I got to Cortland. Never gave sitting in a tree a thought. Will stick my nose out the door in the morning and decide if it's worth going. The two days of fishing were, for October, exceptional. It's not that you can't catch fish, it's that each days window of...

Apparently Mother Nature thought things were too easy yesterday. Today the "breeze" was again out of the south but at 10/15 which put waves on some of the pseudo sipping pools. At 4:30 (quitting time yesterday) I  was lucky to have two fish. Spent a lot of time driving around looking, in vain, for spots out of the wind that had bugs and rising fish.  After complaining about how poor the fall foliage was a week ago (the hard maples leaves on the trees in our woodlot turned a dull yellow/brown and started dropping in September). The Catskills on the 10th of October were partly bare (the maples) and partly still green. Today, on my drive, the hills were in full color, soft maples were bright red, there were a few hard maples that were bright orange, yellow and dull orange (rust) colors were everywhere, a few young oaks had turned along the roadside and there were even some sumacs still showing bright red. Made for a pleasant drive. The fishing - Once again the catch was made up ...

 Was surprised, in recording todays catch in the log book, that it's been two weeks since I last wet a line. Came down once to mow the lawn and was tempted, but with a good hatch of pseudos on the water there was nary a riser to be seen and I had enough time to drive home and get up in my tree stand which I did, but to no avail. (The preceding verbiage , just might be a run on sentence. I was never too clear on what constituted one, only that Mrs. Haskins always seemed to find one or two of them lurking in every essay I wrote).  The original plan this week was to drop Jean off at the airport at 5:00am Tuesday morning and drive down to the Lordville Estate in plenty of time for the world famous pseudo hatch. Fortunately (I guess), the eye doctors office was kid enough to call Monday afternoon to remind me of my 3:30 eye exam on Wednesday. The exam went smoothly (still 20/15 corrected in both eyes) and with dilated pupils I had time to climb up into the GD tree stand yet again. ...

 I admit it, I've been bow hunting and have provided no helpful information on the status of the Delaware River fishing. Most of those fishing in October are hard core anglers and know what they are doing. They don't need my advice, but perhaps outlining a few basics will be useful to anyone who wants to take in the fall colors (poor at best this year) and spend a couple of afternoon hours fishing. The pseudos - They are tiny olives that hatch in the fall when both the water and air temps turn cold. The hatch occurs during the warmest part of the day (somewhere between 1:00 and 5:00). You'll need very small  (20/22) light winged olives. The real bugs sit on the water a long time as if wondering what they've gotten themselves into and the trout sit just under the surface and quietly suck them in. Where - Pseudos hatch throughout the Delaware system, however, I've found the fish reluctant to spend the energy required to eat them in high water. Fish the lowest and slow...

  Drove down to the Lordville Estate today primarily to mow the grass. I've only been away five days but, even with the sun shining and the temp in the high 60's the camp felt cold and empty.  A squirrel had smelled the apples on the back porch and had ripped a hole in the screen door (didn't get in) and the skunks had torn up the back yard feasting on grubs. I had put milky spore on the lawn for two years and thought the grub problem was solved. On the way down I got to thinking about whether bigger is better. Getting ahead of the Joneses seems to be a deeply ingrained promotional idea (think cars and homes) but I was applying it to deer hunting.  The DEC has required three points on a side to shoot a buck in several areas (including the Delaware region) and has promoted the idea of letting the 18 month old bucks go so that there are more "trophy bucks" in the woods. I've gone along with the idea and for the last eight or ten years my deer have been a bit che...