Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 Returned to the Lordville Estate today not having missed fishing in 45 degree rain one bit, until I heard reports of heavy Hendrickson hatches in Deposit, March Browns all over the UEB, and March Browns,  Invaria, and rising fish on the BR.  Got the food in the fridge, the clothes put away and headed up the PA side where a string of boats heading down river from Buckingham all had people up and casting. There were fish rising in all the pools, and then the sun came out. Drove east and stopped at a place on the BE, saw a few fish rising, put on the waders and gave it a try. Hooked two fish right away on a rusty spinner and with visions of a replay of last Friday dancing in my head, headed for the next rise, and the next, and the next. Never got a sniff from any of them. Got one indignant refusal on the way back to the car.  Drove up rte. 30 all the way to Shinhopple without seeing a bug on the water or a fish rise. Picked a spot that was partially shaded and fished....

For the past week or two reports have been posted about sightings of Gray Foxes, Invaria, (spring sulfurs),  and Isos. Yes, I've seen a few Gray Foxes and Invarias on the freestones but nothing that would constitute a hatch occurred where I was. Thursday in the lower WB the hatch was of Hendricksons. As to the Isos, I have seen none. I also haven't seen the big hatch of dragon flies that precedes the hatch of the aforementioned bugs by a few days, (the dragon flies feed on the big mayflies).  On my drive home Saturday morning I saw one small roadside patch of Ragged Robin, the precursor of the Drakes, that lines the interstate ditches with pink blooms during the drake hatch. Let me remind you that we had a very cold winter with ice covering the river system except for the very top of the tailwaters. Yes, we had a burst of warm weather in April and last weeks 90 degree days, but this weekends weather has been more the norm.  We will most likely still have Hendricksons hatc...

 Friday night I typed the "Round, Round Get Around, I Get Around" page. Those of you on the pay side who read the posting late at night or early the next morning before it shows up on the Troutfitter page, know that I didn't post it until Saturday morning.   Throughout the over ten years that I've done these reports, when I'm fortunate enough to catch 10 or more fish in a day, I have refrained from using using numbers when discussing my catch, saying something like "the fish didn't seem to mind which flies they ate", or "the fish were more than happy to eat what was put on their plate". It was only when the fishing got tough and my efforts produced single digit results that numbers of fish both caught and lost appeared. Last year and so far this year, for many reasons, not the least of which is no doubt my advancing age, the number of over ten fish days has, for me, decreased dramatically. As a result my reports have contained more informat...