Changes, Keep On Changin' And The Good Old Days They Say They're Gone - - -

 Do any of you understand why it's good to have a Joe Btfsplk, (who, beside Ed S. remembers who Joe B. was, or why Li'l Abner was cancelled), contributing to the blog? He's said lots of things that we all know are true, the Delaware system is more crowded than anyone wants, and the fish are beat-up and stressed, unfortunately he also states, as truth, many things that have little basis in fact. His beliefs are no doubt sincere, 2012, the year he referenced for example, was also my best year on the Delaware. Why? The river had one of its biggest populations of trout ever, the bugs came early and in big numbers, there weren't nearly as many boats or people fishing as today, and the river system didn't suffer a single "blow out " from a rainstorm all year. BUT, at the tender age of 81, my second best year on the Delaware was 2024. There were boats galore and wade fishermen everywhere, the fish were beat-up and stressed but, as Hackelhouse said last year, you have to learn to adapt to catch fish (it also helped that the survival rate of the 2018 year class of browns was the best ever on the Delaware River system). Ed J., the fish have adapted to the new threats to their existence and we need to either sit and lament about the current state of affairs or figure out how to make the necessary changes to our fishing techniques to catch them. Today with the with parking lots and launch sites jammed with cars and trailers, I had two boats float by and never had a wade angler within 150 yards of me.

The fishing - You think I was just going to beat a dead horse? Left the Estate at 1:00 and drove up 17 to Deposit with a plan. From the road I could see that the middle section of the WB was crowded with waders and that boats were on the way down. Chose the warmest water in the WB and was rewarded with an early hatch of both paraleps and Hendricksons. Might have done better if the sun hadn't gone behind the clouds. There were rising fish, unfortunately, I wade more conservatively than I use to and many of them were out of my reach. When things slowed down, about three, I headed downstream below the cluster of now both wade fishermen and drift boats. Found enough Hendricksons to get fish up, but again the high water kept me from reaching many of the rising fish. 

By 4:30 it was over. Drove around to see if I could find either bugs or rising fish. Saw rising fish that couldn't be reached, and but a few caddis. The free stones appeared dead and drifters were rowing out of the tailwaters at 6:30.

How'd I do?  Hooked 8 fish. Landed two nice 18 inch browns, with the remaining four fish I landed being two and three year olds.