Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

It's 9:00 am on Saturday .  I'm home for a family get together. People have come from as far as Nashville and Cleveland to be here. The grand-kids all caught trout and bass in the ponds (on flies no less). The picnic is scheduled for this afternoon just about the time the heavy rain is expected to start. It's not that I don't want to be here cause I do. And it's not that I don't get to fish enough cause God knows I do. BUT -  The heavy rain looks like it's going to hold off until late this afternoon.  It's going to be a misty light rain until then. One of those "olive kind of days" we all look for. Those of you that are fishing today may well be in for a few hours of that special magic we all look for. Catch a nice one for me.

By now the summer sulfurs should be going strong in the upper WB. They are not.  Spent  a little time upriver and saw a few bugs, but never saw a rise. There was also a void of fishermen, which is even more telling.  Didn't go up to the pasture pool where I have seen a few fish (all big) but was told that with the increase in the release last week, the place was lined up with anglers. I don't think it will be long before the few  fish there become impossible to catch and the anglers depart. From there down to the gentleman's club I saw one car, two anglers and no rising fish. The "summer sulfurs" have provided decent to good fishing downstream but spinner falls are about all that's left below Hale Eddy.  The hatch has now moved upstream.  The question is, will there be a good enough sulfur hatch above the gentlemen's club to lure trout into the upper WB and provide anglers with summer dry fly fishing? It's  my belief that both the nymphs and fish eggs

Two weeks ago the river system needed rain badly.  The River Master had already called for water to reach minimum flow requirements downstream and the flow into the reservoirs was way below normal. Today the system is 99% full and it is coming in faster than it is being released. While it is always good to have full reservoirs it is also nice to be able to fish the entire system. For the last two weeks the big river,the lower East Branch and the Beaverkill have been out of bounds for most wade fishermen due to the high water.  These  three streams are often unfishable during the hottest part of the summer due to high water temperatures and we are about at the end of the normal period when you can expect to fish them.The prediction for the next three days is for over an inch and a half of rain. This would again make these streams too high to wade. If the rain comes as predicted Pepacton will surely overflow and Cannonsville may soon follow raising the level of both branches to a height

Two weeks ago there were over a dozen anglers within sight of where we were standing. Today, just us two. I didn't know  him, didn't even know he was there 'til I walked around a stand of knot weed and saw him sitting on a hummock, staring out at the water. Both of us were ahead of the curve.  After all it was overcast with rain forecast  to begin at  2:15pm  and they had just bumped up the release by100cfs  Surely there would be olives and isos with the colder water, clouds and rain. No doubt the sulfurs would also appear earlier than yesterday. It was  5:30pm  when we talked.  He hadn't seen a rise, I had seen one. We were both there before 3:oopm. There were no bugs. It was hot and humid and it stayed that way until after a good rain shower cooled things down and started some bugs hatching. Still the fish never really got going.  My lone fishing companion left with the sun well above the trees and I headed back downstream towards my car. When the very modest sulfur h

Set out at about 6:00 pm today eager to pick up where I left off Friday . I was armed with at least a dozen of the new miracle fly which had hooked 34 of the 36 fish I caught last week. The water was up to over 1,000 cfs and a little cloudy, there were sulfurs on the water and no one in sight, Hooked and landed the first two fish I threw at with the magic fly, oh boy, what a night this is going to be. Got a refusal from the next fish, and then hooked and landed a nice 18 inch rainbow with the sun still shining brightly. In the remaining three hours of fishing I landed two more fish while being refused, or worse yet ignored, by EVERY fish in the river. You know what flies they were eating?  Easy, the ones without  hooks. If you come to the Delaware to fish the sulfurs, bring your "A" game

It's here, tomorrow will be the longest day of the year.  It should of  course, be spent fishing.  Unfortunately I will be absent due to social obligations on  the home front. The weather looks ideal (from a fisherman's perspective) and as long as the rivers don't get too much rain the fishing should be lights out. Bring your isos and olives for the predicted dark rainy day and your sulfurs and spinners for later on. Catch some for me!