Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

  Drove home today with the cling peaches that the deer were good enough to leave me. Beat Jean home by no more than half an hour and she started from Ft Myers, Florida. Put in a load of wash and then walked down the hill to feed the trout and pull reeds from the bass pond. Was surprised to see dozens of baby bass now about four inches long soaking up the sun. The baby sunfish are going to be in trouble.  Chris - Every year the thermocline sets up in the reservoir sometime in the spring. The cold, clear water that flows down the WB comes from under the thermocline and with the increased flows under the FFMP release program, has resulted in a huge increase in the number of trout able to live in the WB. Unfortunately there is a finite amount of water under the thermocline and with the increased releases it is used up sooner, (usually around mid-August). You will see the bottom line temp start to clime and the silt that is held in suspension above the thermocline will begin to be sucked o

  After experiencing 90 degree heat, tornado warnings, severe thunderstorms, gale force winds, pop up thunderstorms, and a frontal system with high pressure and a brisk NW wind, all in one week, today was finally a perfect day to be on the river, as the DRC blog likes to tell us. Had opened the windows that have screens last night and had to start a fire in the wood stove this morning, (54 outside, 68 inside. Was amazed to find the temperature inside the fishing camp on my return tonight was 80 degrees. Windows are open again and the AC unit is a humming. The fishing - Let me say this - The sulfurs are hatching and the fish are eating them, but you can't swing at the high hard one, you can't go for the pin out of the knot weed, and no one will be able to dunk on a Delaware River sulfur eating trout. To catch A fish on sulfurs right now, you need to be able to wade quietly, cast accurately, have good flies, and be able to consistently put them, (drag free), in front of feeding t

  Have gotten into the habit of checking the wind direction by looking at the windmills on the hills NW of Deposit. After facing us the first three days this week, (SW wind), they turned their backs to us today, ( NW wind). It also is helpful to check the smokestack that is always belching out white smoke near the Deposit exit , to get an idea of how hard the wind is blowing. Today it was in the 10mph range with gusts a bit higher, manageable, but annoying. With the wind direction and velocity established, the next thing to know is what the barometer is doing. This one is easy, when a low is pushed out by a high pressure area, the barometer rises and, (at least today), neither the fish rise nor the bugs hatch.  This morning I had to mow the lawn, which included driving the mower at the deer to get them out of the way under the cling peach tree. Hundreds of peach pits are on the ground along with branches the SOB's have jumped up and pulled down, and enough deer "droppings"

  It was a tad cooler this morning when I got up at 6:00am, and I opened all the windows that had screens to get in some fresh air and to help the window AC out. Got wringing wet again doing yard work, came in, and took a shower, then sat down at the tying table, (actually it's an old watchmakers bench), and ground out another half dozen sulfurs. After "almost" completing a Wednesday NYT crossword and screwing up a Thursday Sudoku, I made two sandwich's, (lunch and dinner), added six Hershey kisses, two Gatorades, and ice, (forgot to put the blue cold packs in the freezer last night), to the little soft pack cooler, and at 11:30 was "Ready to go."  Drove up to Deposit, yet again,  and found, from the road, what I thought was an empty pool. Alas, the guide who I have encountered every time I have fished there, (3xs), was there again. It's a pool where you can fish either side, and on the previous occasions we each took a side, and when the guide was done

  Couldn't get out of my own way this morning. Tied three caddis flies, did no yard work, solved two easy crosswords and one sudoku, made two sandwiches, (which eliminated 50 miles of driving), and at 11:30 left for the sulfur zone. The windmills up past Deposit were pointed SW and were really humming. There were a few bugs hatching when I got there, and the fish, perhaps knowing what was coming, were all up and feeding. The hatch quickly built into one of the heaviest I've ever seen. There were so many sulfurs on the water you had almost no chance of the fish eating your fly. Add the wind which blew at gale force all afternoon and there was no wonder there was no one else on the water when I reeled it in at 3:30.  Spent from 3:30 until 6:30 driving along the sulfur zone, (saw bugs all the way up to Cold Springs Brook). The wind diabolically followed the river and gave no one relief. A few anglers were still fishing up in Stilesville but it couldn't have been much fun. By 6

  It's 8:55, wet clothes are draped over the kitchen chairs, the fishing vest is hanging up over the wood burning stove, and I'm in dry clothes sipping on my Perfect Manhattan. No, I didn't fall in again. I was concentrating on getting some subsurface feeders to eat my duns when over the hill behind me came a wind row of rapidly moving clouds followed by the roar of both the wind and the rain. I didn't have a chance. If I'd a fallen in, the top half of me couldn't have been any wetter. The car wasn't a hundred yards away and I was soaked to the skin long before I got there. Left Lafayette this morning forgetting only the bag of chips Jean had bought for me and that little card you have to put in a trail cam to get pictures, (planned on getting a look at the Lordville fox). Had my empty water jugs in the back of the car so that I could drive out NY97 from Hancock to Lordville Road and down to the spring, (eight  miles), fill the jugs, and then drive back to H