Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 If anyone is wondering, I'm back in Lafayette. There has been such a long run of really good fishing that I felt no need to battle high winds and muddy water to try to catch a fish or two today. The big bug season is over. The big olives (cornutas) are probably done on the freestones but you may still find them on the tailwaters (UEB and WB;;), look mid morning.  As of right now the freestones are all blown out and probably won't be fishable even on the weekend.  The UEB and probably the WB should be clear enough and low enough for wade fishermen to fish, if not tomorrow then for sure on Saturday.  Didn't see any waders (or boats either for that matter) on my drive up the WB this afternoon. The bugs - Spring sulfurs are on both tailwaters as are some isos, a few gray foxes, Cahill's and an assortment of caddis.  The sulfurs are the only hatch that could be described as prolific but the fish are opportunistic feeders and will eat most anything that comes down th...

 Some years the Lordville riff  has bugs and rising fish every time I wade out into it.  Other times I never seem to be there when the bugs are hatching and the fish are feeding. Almost every year there are dramatic changes in the contour of the riff as the winter ice and spring high water seem to reshape much of the bottom. Perhaps the reshaping of the bottom dislodges much of the insect life and the trout go elsewhere in search of a better food supply. All I know is that this is one of those years where I've seen very few bugs and almost no fish there.  Have been finding very good morning fishing with spinners and Cornuta providing the fish with enough food to keep them rising for at least a couple of hours. Alas, the last two mornings it was olive spinners instead of duns that got the fish up. The morning olives may well be about over on the freestones. With a light rain coming down I suited up last night about 6:00 and headed out to fish. Hadn't gotten to Equinun...

Left Lafayette at 6:30 this morning determined to get in a full morning's fishing and was glad I did.  It more than made up for tonight's shellacking. Fished from 7:30 this evening until 9:15 with every cast at a rising fish.  Got about a dozen refusals, hooked and landed a 12 inch bass, and two rainbows one 8 inches,  the other 17.  There were a few black caddis and very small (think pseudos) spinners on the water early and a very good sulfur spinner fall late, the fish paid them no mind. They were too busy eating midges. Occupied myself on the trip down counting dead deer, 7 if you are wondering.  Should have given my annual - Watch out for the yearling deer - warning a good three weeks ago.  As long as we are counting, last Friday there were about 25 trailers at Buckingham when I went by and my GHOF said there were a combo of 17 cars and trailers at Stockport when he went by.  Shehawken had more cars and trailers than you could count and the Balls E...

 It's 8:45, pitch black outside (except for the lightning flashes) and I'm sitting here with nothing to do but write a blog page with nothing to say.  Drove down this morning but was too late to fish. Put things away and did a short drive around the area looking for bugs and/or risers, saw neither. Returned to the Lordville Estate before the first afternoon showers hit, did a sudoku and a crossword, may have dozed off for an hour or so, and at about 6:00, when the radar showed the rain to be south of Rte. 17, I headed out hoping to get in a little fishing.  I did.   Saw no fishermen, bugs or fish on two stops along the BE.  Turned up Rte.30 at the Sunoco station and saw but a couple of cars parked in pull offs below Long Flat.  The Long Flat lot had six cars, Power Line strangely  had only one.  Saw a couple of rises at Pleasant Valley and climbed down the bank and in less than half an hour caught two (12 inch) trout on blind casts, neither o...

 An early Monday morning trip to the BR closed out what was for me, the best month of May ever. Eight of the eleven fish landed were between 17 and 20 inches!  With the prediction of near record heat for the following two days it was an easy decision to head home and cross items off an ever growing to-do list.  Sunday I had driven around the system in bright sunlight and soaring temps. The effect on the rivers was dramatic. The Deposit area which had been inundated with both bugs, fishermen and rising fish had none of the above. It has clearly entered the doldrums. With the balance of the big bugs moving steadily up river it won't be long before spring sulfurs and gray foxes appear there but Sundays absence of bugs and rising fish was amazing.  The rest of the rivers were much same, bright sun, and hot air temps pushed the hatches back to almost dark. The sun and hot air  Monday and Tuesday pushed the freestone stream temps  well up over the 70 degree no fi...

It's Memorial Day weekend. Jean is on her way down and we will try to get a reservation at one of the nearby restaurants for dinner tonight.  The sole item on the to-do list for today is to clean the camp before Jean's arrival. Not that I'm putting off that little task but it seems that there is ample time to answer the questions you have asked so far this year. Mark asked one that has been asked many times.  What do BE and DR stand for?  BE is the East branch from where the UEB and BK come together at JAWS down to junction pool in Hancock where the WB and BE come together. The DR  is simply the Delaware River  (aka the BR or Main Stem) from junction pool down to Callicoon which is pretty much the end of the blue ribbon trout fishing portion of the river. When I published "A Season on the Delaware" I provided a list of most all my abbreviations. You can get the book from Amazon for less than the cost of half a dozen flies.  While the book has never ranked h...

 On Monday in the "Back into Backing" page I said the freestones were back from the doldrums. Are they ever.  Have spent an outstanding week fishing in virtual solitude with just me, the fish and the bugs (lots of them).  What's hatching?  In short, everything. There are still some little Hendricksons and caddis in the upper WB. The freestones (BR, BE and BK) are in the midst of the big bug explosion. There are march browns, gray foxes, sulfurs, brown drakes, isos, golden stones and green drakes hatching. Where? That's the big question. Guides float the rivers every day, they know. If you want to be sure of bugs, go where the boats are. It'll be crowded and the fish will be on alert.  If you are a gambler, look for bugs where the pressure is the lightest. Check the streamside rocks for iso husks, look for empty nymph husks floating in the stream, see if the swallows are working over the riffs or if the grackles are standing on streamside rocks.   When?...