Posted on July 13 2024
To say the Delaware is a hard river to figure is an understatement. Yesterday was an overcast day that had fishermen thinking olives. Turned out the water was probably too warm for olives and too cold for sulfurs, in short, a dud. Today the air temp was a little cooler, (I think), with a mix of sun and clouds and the sulfurs, (both yesterdays and todays), hatched. The fish? At least where I was, went nuts, threw caution to the wind, and ate everything that came down their feeding lane, both with and without hooks.
Heard from two sources that the sulfur hatch at the red barn was also very good today. If my last report on the red barn sulfurs was erroneous, blame it on Ed who has been in Hawaii for the last two weeks, (hence no reliable red barn reports).
The fishing mid-day was so good, and the number of fishermen in the "Zone", (it's Friday afternoon), so high, that I decided to fish down river during the evening hours. Fished a pool in the middle section from 6:30 until 8:15. There were some small olives, a few sulfurs and an occasional large light colored may fly. Saw a few fish rise and got five to come to my fly. Two refused, three ate, and I landed one. Got back in the car at 8:20 and drove down to the lower section. Got in the water at 8:35, way too early. It was dead. Never did see bugs, it was too dark when they came, but the fish started to rise and they weren't fussy about what they ate. Hooked and landed a couple of 17 inch browns and one about 13. Was back in the car at 9:22.
Tonight I'm celebrating my best day of the year, the day after my worst day since mid June.
Angler119- Congratulations on your best day in the past few weeks. Bugs and fish willing to eat. Sounds great. On our way, so I hope to be at red barn this week. Aloha. Ed
Fished the Deposit area yesterday. Hatch was good but fish were picky and when they did hit they grabbed the fly and let it go. That happened around a dozen times until a 14 inch rainbow got hooked. BTW the flies where I was had an almost creamy color pale yellow.
Had a few break offs including one where I was lifting the emerger from well down stream and as I lifted the fish hit and broke me off (I use 5X). After a lunch break around 2:30PM streamside, thought I would try an Iso (I saw only one on the water). First three casts got hits and the 3rd was a hook up with a nice 14 inch brown. Got hits on it afterwards but no hook ups. BTW it was size12 comparadun CDC.
Did the late afternoon nap and got up for the evening hatch. Started slow but then in full swing. Same issue as before, “ grab and go with no hook ups”. So I figured maybe try some BWOs ? No luck, then I remembered my buddy on Wednesday gave me a few “Attenuata” flies he bought to use on the Farmington. The fly was dark wing about size 18 and body of a light lime green. Three casts later it got slammed. Caught a 17 inch fat brownie that took forever to net in the fast water. Made my day.
A-119: Congratulations on that epic day! Dave said we just missed you twice at the shop. Hope to say hello next time.
We fished near Deposit yesterday. The fish were gorging on sulfur duns. So fun to watch one float down then – bye! We saw sulfurs of two distinct colors: pale yellow body with orange thorax, and orange body with yellow thorax. Both were size 20. Our size 18’s were ignored.
Fished a couple of no kill spots on Friday. Was a decent sulphur hatch during the afternoon. When leaving for a late lunch there were a number of ISO’s coming off too. Landed the 4 fish I hooked, all 4 were 16” class.
All fish on an emerger pattern. Only had a few refusals, most just ignored my fly. For the most part fish were not taking the duns where I was.
Left a little earlier than I wanted but the fog got so thick where I was plus it started rainbing and didn’t have my rain jacket with me.
Don’t fish the weekends any maybe get back up there next week.
I fished the sulfur zone yesterday and landed one fish. The fish were eating sulpher Dunn’s and in my area were finicky. I ran into a GHOF who is a pretty good fisherman. He asked what I was using and I showed him. He laughed a bit and then gave me a couple of suggestions and told me to buy new flies!! I took his advice ( he has really helped in the past) and purchased ew flies. I am going to try them out tomorrow and hopefully I can catch more than 1fish. Thanks GHOF!!