Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Woke this morning to temps in the 60's, inside the fishing camp. Out on the porch it was 46. It got the BR down in the low 60's and I decided to give it a try. There were two guys fishing the Lordville riff when I drove over the bridge at 9:30 and they were still there when I returned at noon. Fished between junction pool and Stockport. In two hours of fishing I never saw anything but yearlings and they refused my offerings. It was a beautiful morning to be on the river, hope the two boats that went by did better with their bobber rigs than I did with dries. Rested up and was ready to go about three, saw neither bugs nor risers on my tour of the WB from Hale Eddy up. Picked an empty pool and in three hours of fishing, hooked eight fish, landed six and lost two. There were some bugs on the water which led to sporadic rises, which resulted in multiple refusals and the occasional take. It was both a challenging and enjoyable afternoon. At six thirty, I moved downstream and found ...

Biggest accomplishment this morning was the finishing of both the sulfur and steno fly box renovation projects. Tied some new pink ladies as well as a few olives, put water shed on them, then took them out to the car in a little plastic box and set them on the dash to cure. That done, I read about the upcoming debate, Caitlan Clark's most recent heroics, and the failure to include Alex Morgan on the US Soccer team for the Olympics, ( IMO, at almost 35, she just isn't as good as the younger players and shouldn't be on the team ((and she was my favorite player)) , but then, no one asked). After a late lunch, it was time to go fishing. Decided to break my rule about fishing the same place two times in a week, and went back to where I fished yesterday. The red barn pool was wall to wall fishermen, (sans Adrian?) but the Stilesville lot had just two cars and magically no one in the water, ( they probably walked down to the red barn pool). I walked up the road as far as you could...

  Woke to the sound of the phone ringing. An early morning emergency? No. It was eight o'clock, two full hours after my normal wake up time, and Jean was making her regular morning call. I've been fishing 'til about 9:30 most nights and by the time I drive home, have dinner, and write the fishing report it's midnight. It caught up with me and I just needed a good night's sleep. Took things easy today, did a little house cleaning, (Jean's coming down for the weekend), and continued work on the sulfur box. Went through the Invaria's, some were ready for retirement and were sent to assisted living, others are in rehab, hoping for a possible reentry into the sulfur box. Those deemed presentable, were reinserted into the box and are deemed "ready to go". If nothing more important arises, I'll tackle the Dorothea's tomorrow. The fishing - Didn't put on the waders 'til 4:00, (knowing full well that the hatch was over two days ago by 5;00)....

  Was slow to get going this morning, didn't get up until 7:30. Had breakfast, did the sudoku and crossword puzzles, watered the garden, came back in and tried to lend order to the sulfur duns. The spring sulfurs are all but dun and the summer sulfurs have just begun. Both share the same box and it needs work. The spring sulfurs are a bit worse for the fish they have caught and the summer sulfurs have not been touched since last August, (until last night). Repaired a couple, tied half a dozen, and took a nap. Awoke at 12:30, made lunch and took another hour to get myself in the car to go fishing.  Drove up to Stilesville on route 8 and then came down River Road just to see what was happening up there. The fishermen that didn't come yesterday, and the ones that were planning on coming today all converged on the area, as did a flotilla of boats. I never really slowed down, completed the big upriver loop at the Troutfitter and went in and had a nice chat with Dave and Mike, the c...

  It's been a long day. We had a gulley washer in Lafayette yesterday and I had to shovel the gravel off the inlet pipes of both the trout and bass ponds this morning. Fed the trout, who acted like it was the first day of summer vacation. After a week of over ninety degree temperatures the 58 degree air temp  and cold rain must have felt good to them. The drive down was both windy and rainy with the car temp holding steady at 58 degrees all the way to Windsor. It warmed up to a high of 72 later in the day, but the back porch thermometer says it's back down to 58, (at 10:35pm). There had been no rain in Lordville so I was able to get right to the lawn which I didn't mow at all last week during the heat wave. Went inside to make lunch and found out that we had no power. With the number of dead ash trees, this is going to be an increasingly common event. At 2:30 I made a sandwich, grabbed a diet Pepsi, got in the car and headed out to look for a place you could fish in gale fo...

  First, a thank you to Andy G. for taking the time and trouble to drop off Ed Van Put's "The Myth of Dan Cahill" which I read with interest. By far the most common story about the origin of the rainbows in the Delaware is that they were dumped from a train when it broke down, (or crashed) on it's journey from California to Long Island. Back in the 1800's live rainbows made the journey often enough that the story has a ring of truth to it. I'm sure Mr. Van Put was diligent in his research and that there was no news of a train wreck. If you read my single sentence on the subject it says only that rainbows have been in the river since the eighteen hundreds. If anybody knows from whence they came, they're clearly not telling. I also will readily admit that stocked fish could occasionally find their way into the trout water above Callicoon. Since I've been fishing here, however, I have not heard of any intentional rainbow stockings above Callicoon. Delawar...

After yesterdays dearth of rising fish, I felt it was time to go find the Dorothea's. They were hatching below the 191 bridge late last week and earlier this week there were Dorothea spinners below Balls Eddy. Shortly after one today, I found the little rascals being blown around in the wind under the Hale Eddy bridge. Fished above the bridge a ways, and there seemed to be enough bugs to get the fish up but it was a lot like yesterday, just a few fish rising, but they were all big. Today I took it on the chin. Hooked the first fish and he came unstuck, got refusals from the next two fish I cast at, checked the fly and the tail fibers were bent under the hook. Whenever you get refused, check the fly, if I'd checked after the first fish said no, perhaps the second fish would have eaten. Fourth fish never bothered to give me a look and the fifth fish changed his mind at the last minute with a big boil. So much for the Dorothea hatch. The hatch petered out, the wind picked up, and ...