Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Back down to the Lordville Estate by 11:30 this morning after a quiet weekend home with Jean. Bill Gross who has done our shuttles, said he did 145 shuttles this weekend. So far Bill Peterman is the only fisherman who bothered to file a report. Mark floated amidst the West Branch armada on Sunday, saw a huge paralep hatch, a good Hendrickson hatch, and very few rising fish. On the way back to the fishing camp he blew a radiator hose in downtown Hancock. He called Bill Gross, the shuttle guy, who trailered both Mark and the boat down to Lordville and arranged to have his auto mechanic look at the car first thing this morning. Mark had  called me and I called Barry Weinperl from Equinunk who also volunteered to haul both Mark and the boat back to Lordville. Called Barry back and told him he was fired. Small towns are different than big cities, thanks to all who offered their help. With the water levels on all but the BR ideal for wading, we opted to leave the boat in the yard. ...

 Mark departed early this morning for a family reunion celebrating his mom's ninetieth birthday, (if Mark shows you this, Happy 90ith Carol Hellen).  Woke to a frost covered back yard with the thermometer on the back porch at 31 degrees. With bright sun the frost quickly disappeared and I was able to spend an hour raking up areas of dead grass from the grub invasion of last year and then planting grass seed where the grass was killed. The frosty night dropped the water temps into the low forties, but by one this afternoon the sun had the water back up to a temperature that both paraleps and Hendricksons will hatch in. Morphed back into my wade fisherman persona and headed for an area in the middle section of the WB that I am comfortable wading at current levels. Walked down to the river at 1:30 expecting to sit streamside and wait for the hatch to begin. Wasn't there two minutes when a fish rose not 100 feet out from shore. On her third rise I was close enough to make a cast a...

The rain didn't stop this morning until after I was finished with breakfast. It was a cold rain, (the red stuff in the thermometer on the porch couldn't get above 44). The forecast for today was grim, high of 49, with winds out of the north at 10 to 15. Mark and I sat in the Lordville Estate, with the fire going in the wood stove, and tied flies. At noon we were bored enough to begin assembling our gear from the various places it was hung to dry after yesterdays fishing.  Where to fish?  We knew the lower BR was entering the doldrums, the upper WB still had very few reports of bugs and risers, and that the caddis spinner fall had been called off due to wet grounds yesterday. On the positive side, the launch/takeout sites from Balls Eddy to Buckingham had but a third of the trailers they had last week. We decided to fish where there were still massive numbers of caddis egg layers primed to do their thing, both paraleps and Hendricksons were reported to be hatching in sufficient...

 After spending Tuesday mostly driving around looking for rivers we couldn't find, Mark and I decided  to save gas, pay for a shuttle, and float an area where we felt certain there would be a good caddis spinner fall. A Hendrickson hatch would be a nice bonus, but if we had fish up eating caddis spinners during the last hour of the day, everything would be just fine. Put in at 1:30, (heard from a fisherman that he had Hendrickson's in the same water  at 2:00 the day before), and saw a few Hendrickson's already on the water at the launch site. Despite the presence of Hendrickson's on the water we did not see a single rise for almost two hours. At about three we started see rising fish, not many, but enough to keep us interested.  From 3:30 until we arrived at our take out at about 7:45, we were  occupied trying to entice both one and doners and feeding pods to eat our dry flies. We met with varying degrees of success. Mark is an able boatman, but is still learnin...

 My long suffering bonefish partner Mark showed up lastnight, mostly because his family was gathering in Syracuse to celebrate his Mom's 90th birthday and the Lordville Estate is right on the way. Coincidentally my GHOF was also on the river fishing with his son Adrian. The good news is that the two vehicles transporting the four anglers both made it safely back to their respective fishing camps without a head on crash. Every river in the system was either fished in or looked at for both rising fish and hatching bugs, almost none of either were found. The bugs -  There were some Hendrickson spinners seen on the UEB, and there were unconfirmed reports of a modest Hendrickson hatch on the WB. The glut of caddis in the BR is waning and the BR up to Buckingham appears to be headed into the doldrums. The BK, for the most part, has been caddis only and in the lower reaches the caddis are waning. The EB also is seeing mostly caddis egg layers at this time. The fishing - If you see He...

 First of all, thanks to everyone who jumped in with their on river experiences, it all helps to form a more accurate picture of what is happening. The past two years have produced very few stories of heavy Hendrickson hatches, which is concerning. I've found fishable Hendrickson's both years on the Neversink but, so far, not on the Delaware. Today, I drove around a lot. Wanted to get a feel for the pressure, the hatches and angler success. There were far fewer boats/trailers/cars, at the launch sites than late last week. Despite the higher water levels there were quite a few wade anglers having at 'em. There were caddis throughout the river system. The freestones had the lions share, but there were caddis on both the UEB and the WB. Saw rising fish in quiet pools that were out of the wind and sun. Saw very few mayflies and nothing resembling a Hendrickson hatch. Other anglers - Talked with an angler taking out at Shehawken who had put in at Balls Eddy and had caught fish, ...