Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

For the past week or two reports have been posted about sightings of Gray Foxes, Invaria, (spring sulfurs),  and Isos. Yes, I've seen a few Gray Foxes and Invarias on the freestones but nothing that would constitute a hatch occurred where I was. Thursday in the lower WB the hatch was of Hendricksons. As to the Isos, I have seen none. I also haven't seen the big hatch of dragon flies that precedes the hatch of the aforementioned bugs by a few days, (the dragon flies feed on the big mayflies).  On my drive home Saturday morning I saw one small roadside patch of Ragged Robin, the precursor of the Drakes, that lines the interstate ditches with pink blooms during the drake hatch. Let me remind you that we had a very cold winter with ice covering the river system except for the very top of the tailwaters. Yes, we had a burst of warm weather in April and last weeks 90 degree days, but this weekends weather has been more the norm.  We will most likely still have Hendricksons hatc...

 Friday night I typed the "Round, Round Get Around, I Get Around" page. Those of you on the pay side who read the posting late at night or early the next morning before it shows up on the Troutfitter page, know that I didn't post it until Saturday morning.   Throughout the over ten years that I've done these reports, when I'm fortunate enough to catch 10 or more fish in a day, I have refrained from using using numbers when discussing my catch, saying something like "the fish didn't seem to mind which flies they ate", or "the fish were more than happy to eat what was put on their plate". It was only when the fishing got tough and my efforts produced single digit results that numbers of fish both caught and lost appeared. Last year and so far this year, for many reasons, not the least of which is no doubt my advancing age, the number of over ten fish days has, for me, decreased dramatically. As a result my reports have contained more informat...

 It was an interesting day to say the least. Yesterday I fished a Hendrickson hatch in the afternoon and a modest caddis spinner fall in the evening, went 10 for 10 which gave me my first "win" on the Delaware this season. Today I fished in two places in the WB, two places in the BK, and finished up in what to me is a special place on the EB. There wasn't a significant hatch of anything that I could see anywhere I went all day. Caddis were present in modest numbers on the WB and on the EB. A few Hendricksons floated by on one stop in the WB, saw no bugs on the BK. Here's how it all unfolded - Left the Lordville Estate about 2:00, drove up the PA side, to Hale Eddy. all of the access sites were crammed with trailers, (passed at least a dozen more speeding down 191). Saw rising fish off a bridge on the WB and waded in. There were fish willing to eat a fly with a hook in it and boats willing to give you room to cast. Hooked seven fish and landed five. Second stop was the...

 It's become obvious to me by reading our angler's comments, that the A-119 team is getting badly out fished by the group of photo happy, bobber rigging guides over at the DRC. I may or may not have previously mentioned that there have been no "Got This One On A Dry" comments under their photos this year. And an embarrassingly large number of  twelve to sixteen inchers finding their way into the photos, but still, they are kicking our collective a$$es. What to do? Associate Editor Jim N., (tier of exquisite flies) was on top of  this in his late, but still timely post this morning, (or was it afternoon). He said in part, (and I don't know how Mr. Buffet got into the mix), "you've got to double down", and today, without even reading Jim N's tardy post, that's exactly what I did. The bugs - Yesterday I fished PARTWAY through an upriver, (Deposit), Hendrickson hatch and left empty handed, today I fished an ENTIRE, (entire and partway being impor...

 Frustrated by the trout's behavior during the Hendrickson hatch yesterday, I decided to spend the time more productively today. Jean reported, that it was raining in Lafayette while we were talking this morning. Told her, I had sunshine and 78 degrees. Knew the rain was coming so as soon as the sun got the grass reasonably dry, I fired up the mower. Managed to finish the job, put the mower away and get in the house before the first drops of rain hit.  My neighbor RJ is having a new roof put on his house. They got the old roof off and some of the support beams up yesterday. Today they finished the support beams, and got the plywood and what use to be called tar paper on before the rain. When I got back tonight I could see the bundles of shingles on the top of the roof. If you ever need a new roof these are the guys to call. They just never stopped working. Left the fishing camp at 3:30 to pick up a couple items at the grocery store. Noticed on the way to the car that the air w...

 My plan today was simple, fish the Hendricksons above Hale Eddy on the WB this afternoon, and try to find a spinner fall of some kind on the WB this evening. So what did I do this morning? Tied some March Brown emergers that I had success with the past week, (until I tried them on fish that had already eaten one with a hook in it). With the weatherman changing the forecast  pictures of cloudy rainy days to bright sunny, (but cooler), ones, I left the grass cutting for another day and went fishing. Arrived in  Deposit about 1:00 to pick up my new fly line, only to find that someone???? must have sold it. Chatted with river friend Bill, (his dog was in the truck), who offered me one of his Cortland DT4 weights. Was on the river by 1:30, (didn't know that the hot water spill had ceased this morning, thus postponing the hatch until 3:00). First Hendrickson blew by me just five minutes before Mike the Cop arrived. It was a modest hatch the flies popped quickly off the water, ...