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Fishing the sulfurs requires a flashlight with new batteries.

Posted on June 27 2022

 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 wonder if it was going to happen, when, it did. Seemingly every night for the past ten days the sulfurs have hatched big time after most of the fishermen have left the stream. Talked to a fisherman today who said there's just no bugs, stayed until 7:30 without seeing a rise. Stay late, look for the roofs of mouths (not boils) and make your cast count. The number and size of the fish that appear is amazing. Catching them - is up to you.

Sorted through the comments and found a few unanswered questions. 

Dennis - GHOF is my Gray Haired Old Friend who is a tad more knowledgeable than I about vision questions. 

Jim N. and ED S. - The dorotheas normally settle into an early afternoon hatching routine in the Sulfur Zone by the first of July. Right now there are still the big sulfurs (invaria) above Deposit while the small sulfurs (Dorothea) are now well above Hale Eddy. The afternoon Dorothea hatch, however, has yet to materialize,  where I've been, it's a 7:00 'til dark thing (don't even think of asking why). Hopefully this week the bugs will get into their summer routine.

Chris Z. - You asked for more info on the rattlesnakes.  They are protected in New York. The time when I am most likely to encounter them is in the couple of hours after sunset when they are absorbing heat from a  paved road or from the still hot metal rails on the train tracks.  The Timber rattler is quite docile and is seemingly unaware of the danger posed by cars on the road. They are not aggressive and  will retreat if given the opportunity. The greatest danger is walking into, or in my case, falling onto one unexpectedly. Over the years I've taken numerous pictures of timber rattlers (mostly from car windows) and have found it difficult to get them to coil up in attack mode. Best advice - pay attention to where you are walking, treat the snake with respect and  give them a wide berth when you have an encounter.   

1 comment

  • Ed Smith: June 28, 2022

    Thanks for the information.I appreciate it. Going to give a try tomorrow and I’ll let you what if anything happens

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