Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 With the weekend coming up it's time to take a look at where you should be and just as importantly when you should be there. Mornings - If you enjoy solitude this is the time to be on the river. Historically, I've done well fishing some of the areas where the water just gets too warm later in the day. Fish are always looking to eat, spinners, caddis, small olives and yes, tricos are on the menu.  Pick a spot away from the crowds, enjoy the beauty of early morning on the river and maybe catch a fish or two. Midday - So far this year I'm the last person on the planet to be giving advice on where to find the midday sulfurs. If you were to ask me where to fish, the best I can say is don't go where I go. Haven't been in one good afternoon sulfur hatch yet this year.  Yes, I've seen sulfurs and some feeding fish but nothing to compare to the evening action. Are the sulfurs hatching mid day? Well, on several occasions the water where I am fishing has been filled with ...

Spent the morning tying smaller sulfurs and polishing off the Monday and Tuesday crosswords and Sudoku's (they are the easy ones). Had lunch and about 1:30 I drove up Lordville Road on my way to fish the afternoon sulfurs.  About halfway up the hill there was a large rattlesnake dead in the road. It had been run over, probably last night.  Some road kills are accidental, others are by people that find joy in the kill. The timber rattlesnake population in NY is a small fraction of what it once was.  If  you chance to see one on the road, do your best not to run it over (they don't make any effort to get out of the way),  take a picture (from the car window), and let it live, they need all the help they can get to survive. In case no one has noticed, it's summertime. The Beaverkill is up over 70 degrees almost every day, the number of boats on the river is probably only a third of what it was a month ago, the DRC is showing more pictures of river flow graphs and m...

 Jean and I left for home right after the Lordville fourth of July parade yesterday. There was almost no traffic heading west on 17 (no drift boats or fishermen in the river either) and north on 81. Both the east bound lane of 17 (heading to NYC) and south bound lane of 81  had traffic but less than a normal Sunday afternoon. Came back down today again in moderate traffic.  Don't know when most of the long holiday weekenders drove home. After taking two and a half days off  spending time with Jean, I was ready to atone for Saturdays embarrassing performance. Got to Deposit about two thirty and saw neither bugs nor risers in the long pool below the iron bridge in Deposit. My river friend Mike was fishing above the bridge which I took to be a good sign as he doesn't waste time where there are no rising fish. Drove down to the middle section of the WB and found a modest afternoon hatch of Dorotheas with fish rising to eat them. Put on the waders and fishing vest (how th...

 If I'm honest, it's been a frustrating week. Why?  No, not because of the butt kicking I got today (more on that later),but because all the fishing is, for now, concentrated into the 7:00pm until dark period.  It's July and the spring sulfurs are exiting the stage up at Stilesville in front of an applauding line of anglers stretching from Butler Brook to the Stilesville weir. The summer sulfurs, quite frankly, need a kick in the keister.  Usually by now, they are doing their early afternoon hatch thing every day in the Sulfur Zone. This week they were hatching in numbers (in the evening) up to barking dog. A-119 doesn't sit still well and I've tried both early mornings and afternoons (no, not up at the red barn) in a bunch of different rivers in hopes of finding fish and its been a flop. Yesterday from 1:30 until 6:30, I fished two very good runs up in Deposit with not another angler within 200 yards of me. Places where you can usually find a  half dozen or mor...

 As one who has been touting the fishing on the freestones I felt an obligation to post tonight.  The big three freestones (BR, BE, BK) all were over 70 degrees this afternoon and with tomorrow's temp scheduled to approach 90, they should be crossed off everyones list for possible weekend destinations. Another place that could use a rest is the Stilesville area, especially the red barn pool.  How come? I stopped there about 5:30 in my daily drive around and counted four vehicles in the parking lot, looked out at the river and saw but two anglers both of whom were heading for shore.  Put the binoculars on the water and saw both bugs and risers. Suited up and waded out. In answer to my two questions ( Did you  each drive two cars? and were there bugs?) The two departing anglers said, " The other guys went upstream and  there were bugs and risers earlier but it had gone dead big time". They wished me luck and headed for their car. My first three casts produced...

 It's Wednesday night at 10:00pm, and I just got back from a session on the BR.  Got to the car at 9:42 which is the latest return time this year. With a 10:00 pm starting time last night I was able to watch the US Woman's soccer team beat Columbia in a warm up match before the World Cup qualifying tournament which starts next Monday. Tonight it's a Perfect Manhattan and a blog page.  This mornings effort left more than a little to be desired, fished on both the BE and BR without raising a single fish over 8 inches. It's been 10 days since my last good morning of fishing. I went this morning because the afternoons are bringing me no joy. The bugs have been inconsistent to say the least, and the number of anglers that are crowding into the Stilesville area to fish the invarias that are hatching there makes it easy to stay home and tie flies. The "Sulfur Zone" from the red barn down to the barking dog launch ramp has also received a large number of both drift bo...

 It's Monday and I'm back on the river.  It now appears unlikely that I'm going to spend a lot of time this year  revisiting the rivers I fished before I "discovered" the Delaware.  Why? The fishing here is just too GDG.  You can sleep as late as you want, tie flies all afternoon, eat dinner and at about 7:00 pm don your waders,  mosey out into a quiet pool on the WB and catch fish after fish. It's just that easy.  After last Fridays experience at the Hale Eddy Bridge I drove back tonight with hopes of wading a little farther down stream.  Counted at least 12 people in the water below the bridge at about 7:00 pm.  Hopefully they weren't there because of my report. Most of the people seemed to be standing in pairs which would indicate some kind of a group getting individual instruction. Drove by and never stopped until I found an unoccupied pool. Waded in and for a while all I saw were a few sulfurs on the water and no risers. Was starting to ...