Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

The local skunk is persistent if nothing else, shows up most nights to dine on the grubs that seem to enjoy eating the roots of my yard grass. Last week he found what turned out to be a large ground bee nest. Apparently decided that the trade off of stings for honey was worth it 'cause he came back twice leaving a hole Caitlin Clark could  bury a basketball in, from the railroad tracks. He followed me around all day today and at about six o'clock when a nice rainbow came unstuck he began his dance. How'd it happen? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Saw rising trout in more places than I have since I left the Sulfur Zone in mid August. Cast to a pod of about a dozen fish in a slow water pool in the BK for over an hour, got half a dozen refusals, and enough ignores that, if they were dollar bills, would have made a substantial dent in the national debt. What were they eating? Swear to God, nothing. Stared at the water running by me, nothing, watched a very very fe...

 It's 7:20 and I've been home about half an hour. Got to the car at 6:30 without turning on the flashlight. Both the bugs, (olives), and the fish stopped about 6:00. Took it slow driving home as the deer were out everywhere, counted fourteen before even getting to Lordville. Had to wonder if someone snuck in another holiday weekend without telling me as the traffic on both Sunday and Monday filled one and a half lanes on 17, and the rest area east of Hancock was full of cars. Today no one was on the road and the rest area was empty. Got a late start fishing as I was lured up to Deposit by reports of both olive and Hebe hatches. Drove down to the Men's Club, (parking lot was empty), saw one boat anchored up close to the far bank across from the big tree laying in the water, and Mike the cop, asleep in his car by the Lee Conklin tree.  Never saw a fish rise. Don't know which fish DRC talks to who says it doesn't mind the silty water one bit, but the ones I see all tel...

 It's 5:55 and the Perfect Manhattan has been poured and the first sip taken. Got in two hours and fifteen minutes of fishing for rising trout feeding on pseudos on the UEB. Before you jump in the car and head up, know that of the ten fish landed, only two were "counters", (over 10 inches). I've been going up there about once a week, it's fun, sharpens your casting skills and is a pleasant way to spend a couples of hours. There are of course big fish in the UEB, but after the drakes are done in early June, they spend precious little time sipping tiny bugs off the surface. It takes a lot of pseudos to provide the nutrients a big trout gets from eating just one of it's great, great grandchildren. What's happening? There are reports of pseudos up in Deposit, and in the middle portion of the WB. Sightings in the lower section, not so much. I've seen pseudos on the EB, BK, and UEB. If you are hoping to cast at fish feeding on pseudos, look for sippers in th...

 With the remnants of the nor'easter circling New York state like a vulture over a road kill, predicting where and when the rain would actually fall was beyond the capabilities of both  AI and the weatherman. Had worked hard getting the area around the bass pond leveled off with all the major holes filled, seeded and the seed raked in because a nice all night rain was predicted for Lafayette. Left for Lordville this morning with only dew dampening the ground. Ran into several bands of rain on the way down, but it stopped at Windsor and the ground was dry under the Norway Spruces at the back of the Troutfitter parking lot.   Got down to the small, partially restored, Sears package home which I now refer to as the "fishing camp", unloaded my clean clothes, the bow, (which I again, (third time), never shot in Lafayette), a few vittles, and went fishing.  The fishing -Stopped at three places on the EB, first had an angler ensconced in the prime spot, I drove on. Sta...

 With my old football helmet on and my loins girded, I'll enter the blog and attempt to quell the fire. I took offense to "couldn't disagree more" when he was saying exactly what I was saying about the fishing, (although admittedly coming at it from a different angle). Also took offense when he said that he found what I said was comical. In retrospect I should have just kept my fingers off the keys. Most readers know how much I love to fish and if I'm going home to work on a landscaping project in Lafayette, (yes there were three sunny days in the forecast), nothing more needs to be said. Nevertheless, the outpouring of support was unexpected and deeply appreciated. Will have to read a bit of Dickens and look up where Jabip is to fully understand all of the comments, but with so few people now fishing and assumedly reading the reports, I was surprised by the number of people who felt compelled to jumpin.  Thanks to all! Add on - to meet blog minimum length require...

It's Friday morning and I just checked the Thursday fishing report. Was surprised to find a post from a new contributor who claims to have read my reports for the past five weeks. Says, "he couldn't disagree more with what I am saying" and that "he finds it comical that I am swaying anglers to stop fishing due to my findings". He also said typically you can rely on the last 45 minutes before dark to get some good bugs and fish taking note of them, (which is true). As many readers are aware, I have posted reports for the past eleven years, always striving to paint an accurate picture of the fishing conditions on the river system. I checked back over the 28 reports since August 15th when I q uit the Sulfur Zone. Thirteen of the reports pertained to my experience fishing the olive hatches on the UEB and WB and tell of both my success and lack thereof. They told of the absence of bugs during the bright sunny days and that on those days the olive fishing was in t...