It's Only Just Begun.

 Today was not what I expected. If I'm not mistaken, it's just Thursday, yet both Shehawken and Buckingham were filled with both trailers and cars. Why? Probably because it's been a long cold winter and people just want to get out and do something. Reports of bug hatches can, and often times are, misleading. On line reports might tell of a good olive hatch when an experienced guide covering the same water would say "paraleps". What might be described as a hatch of Hendrickson's by one angler another might recognize as a hatch of stone flies. The magnitude of a hatch is also rated on a sliding scale where three anglers might say light, medium or heavy when asked to describe the same hatch.

What have I seen? Two fair/good Hendrickson hatches on the Neversink, and one poor one today on the EB. I also saw a prolific apple caddis hatch today on the EB and BK. There are countless cadis of all types migrating upstream everywhere to lay eggs. The guide boats say the Hendrickson hatch is on the BR. I saw but a few on the EB and none on the BK today.

What does it all mean? If you lack experience on the river system and want to catch fish, hire a guide. If you are a regular Delaware River fisherman you know what to expect, some places will have bugs and rising fish, some won't, it's a tough river to catch fish on but the satisfaction of being in the right place at the right time and catching the "big one" is priceless.

The fishing- First let me say a boat never floated by me all day and I didn't share a pool with another angler until the last half hour of the day. I left the fishing camp at 1:30 and drove up the PA side. There were caddis and rising fish at Buckingham, neither bugs nor rising fish at Shahawken, apple caddis on the entire length of the EB and as far as I drove up the BK. Never saw a fish rise to an apple caddis.

At 3:00 I walked into a run on the BE and the water was aboil with fish feeding on a mix of caddis, paraleps and Hendricksons. Never actually saw a Hendrickson eaten, (including mine), Had fish to throw at for an hour, hooked six and landed five, all rainbows. By four the fish had quit feeding and I headed up to the BK where I saw not one mayfly of any kind. There were some caddis on the water but no fish feeding. Hooked two nice 'bows on blind casts and lost them both. About 6:15 I started looking for a quiet pool, out of the wind to fish the caddis spinner fall. It was 7:00 before I found one. There were caddis on the water and a few fish rising. Started by hooking my second fall fish of the day, then hooked and landed three nice browns. A 20 inch brown was fish of a day where no fish landed was under 15 inches. 

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