Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Mowed the lawn this morning as soon as the sun dried the dew off the back yard grass. Felt no need to hurry up to Deposit as I had rising fish from two until almost five yesterday. There are bugs on the water from at least noon until dark, but the fish seem to decide when they want to eat. There are fish feeding everywhere, you stop to change flies, (don't bother, they're not looking at them anyway), look up, and there isn't a fish feeding, the bugs are still on the water but the fish are done. There seems to be an hour and a half to two hours when the fish are up during the afternoon and another feeding spell sometime between six and dark. I've been weaning myself away from the Sulfur Zone, making evening forays down to the lower WB where I've found a dearth of bugs, but fish more willing to eat what's put before them, until today.  The fishing - For me, wasn't worth a damn. Tried up in Stilesville for the first time since the Invarias departed and I proba...

  #29 got  his new crown at 8:00 this morning. Went from the Dentist to the car wash, and then filled the car up with gas. Arrived at the liquor store at 8:52 and had to wait until 9:00 to replenish my whiskey and vermouth. Stopped at home to pick up the food and was on my way.  Arrived in Deposit a little after 11:00, chatted with Dave who said it was a slow weekend fishing wise, then drove along the river down to the Men's Club. Saw a few sulfurs in the air and not a single fish rising. Headed for the Lordville Estate. Put everything away, and at 1:45 returned to Deposit. At 2:00 there were bugs and a few rising fish. Went up to the Red Barn and found but two cars and the two fishermen that drove them. Saw bugs and some rising fish and decided to join the fray. Paid my $5:00 and walked through the open gate, (Heffers are apparently elsewhere at present). Stewart, (aka "the tenant"), hooked and landed a nice fish as I walked downstream behind him. Went below the second a...

July, helped by a very good Dorothea hatch, was a surprisingly good month for me. I have never, in the 36 years I have owned the Lordville Estate, caught as high a percentage of big fish. While statistics are often misleading I think this months are interesting enough for you to take a look at. Since 1991 I have kept track of the percentage of brown trout in my catch that are over 17 inches each month. July usually shows a decline in the percentage of large browns as they switch from eating bugs to eating fish. Here is a list of both the number of browns browns caught and the percentage of the total catch in July since 2020. Year        # of Browns over 17"       % of browns caught, over 17" 2020 -      24                                          7.8% 2021 -      17              ...

 When I picked on Double Haul's shortcomings back on July 6th, I said I would talk further about eliminating drag which I consider to be one of the two biggest causes of refusals. Drag exists when the fly is moving at a different rate of speed than the water it is floating on. Everyone's flies drag on almost every cast. The goal is to have your fly moving in harmony with the current the entire time the fish you are casting at sees it. If you are blind casting you should pick up your fly whenever you detect drag.   How do you know if your fly is dragging? That is the easy part. Watch the bubbles, (foam), next to it. The bubbles are not dragging. If your fly is not moving exactly in concert with the nearest bubble, you've got drag. I've actually made what I thought were good casts only to watch the fly do a little wiggle, dart a short distance upstream and then race downstream trying to catch the bubble it started out next to.  What causes drag? Variations in the curre...

 With an MRI scheduled for tomorrow morning, I put the trash bag and dirty clothes in the car and headed out to fish at 12:30, uncertain if I would stay for the evening fishing or head home when the afternoon sulfurs abated. Skipped the trip up to Stilesville as the Red Barn/Stilesville congregation has more than enough fishermen. Drove down to the Men's Club lot which has been redone in crushed stone with the potholes at least temporarily filled in. There were a good number of sulfurs hatching and a few fish rising. The lot had four cars and the fishermen were well spaced in the river. Clearly the place to be is the Red Barn. Found one of the better places free of boats and fishermen and waded in with bugs on the water and fish up. Was joined shortly after my arrival by Mike the Cop. We have shared many pools over the years and it's always a pleasure to fish with him. We are both what might be described as hearing challenged so the conversation is limited to mostly sign langua...

Couldn't get excited about the Sulfur Zone today. There were sulfurs on the water in limited numbers while I was there but, few fish seemed to be interested. Yesterday I fished a good enough hatch to get fish up but it was well off the peak hatches I've seen this year. Talked with some of the anglers who said the hatch in the Red Barn pool started about 1:30 Tuesday and it was a good one. My drive-bys were at noon and four and there was nothing doing either time. Today the population of fishermen at the Red Barn swelled to numbers that on a trout stream are incomprehensible to me. Ran into, (no serious damage done), a guide later in the day that I saw anchored well below the melee at 12:30. He said a very good hatch of sulfurs started at about 1:30, which confirmed the report on Tuesday's hatch.  Me? I drove around in disbelief at the number of anglers. Stopped at one of the Dollar stores to buy sponges and popcorn, (they were both on my list last Monday, but I didn't n...