Posted on June 19 2024
It's seven-thirty, and I'm back at the Lordville Estate dutifully rehydrating after spending five hours on the stream. Actually I was a bit chilly for a while when a popup shower passed just south of where I was fishing and the clouds and cold moist air brought the temp down. Started at 1:00 and did a walk away Joe at 6:00. Why? Well I didn't plan on staying that long, brought no water with me, and I had caught enough fish.
Everyone knew that today was going to be hot and despite the couple of hours of cloud cover, it was. When I drove through Hancock both on my way fishing and on my return, no one was there, the streets had almost no cars parked along the curbs, there were no moms out pushing baby carriages, and almost no traffic on the roads, (including route 17), it brought the covid year to mind.
Yesterday there were fishermen and drift boats everywhere, as one sport said as the guide rowed by me, "It was a s--t show, up river". Today, I had a pool to myself except for about a half an hour when Mike the cop and I pretended we heard what we were saying to each other. In five hours of fishing, three boats came by me, two local guides and one fisherman alone in his boat who arrived as I was leaving.
So how was the fishing - Not bad. The hatch went on the entire time I was there, but it never was heavy enough to get the fish up and gulping like yesterday. There were bugs and risers, and if you saw a riser and got a fly to him he came up for a look. A good number must have liked how the fly looked 'cause they ate. Started out in a hole as I lost three straight good fish, (a nice fish is one that eats the fly, a good fish is over 15 inches). With no one else in the pool, I was free to move around and fish to any fish I saw rise. There were lots of yearlings, (I do try to avoid casting to them), and enough two and three year old's, and adult fish to keep most anyone happy. A 17inch brown tied a 17inch rainbow for fish of the day.
If you find an empty pool anywhere above Hale Eddy during the hot summer months, Jump in, (with or without your waders).
Dave
I think you will find that A119s blog goes way beyond numbers and sizes. You will really get a feel for the entire area, the nature, the weather, the bugs and even the people. But I believe that a fishing blog needs to describe what was caught, if anything…or why else read it.
I was up for a few days prior to the heat wave. Good fishing including big ISOs to 16-17" Rainbows in the riffles on the upper WB. Evenings were great with plenty of fish to spinners. Largest fish were two 20" browns. A good cripple/bent spinner, sz 16-18, got some fish to eat imid-day as well. All fishing was way above Hale Eddy. Saw plenty of damn mergansers with large broods of chicks as well.
As an informative fishing blog its the authors choice to relay information on how the fishing was. I think pertinent information includes the number of fish and length. I happen to have a diary and I write that information down so I can compare year to year results. The Blogs purpose is to share tips,tactic’s and where to fish.
I will be on the river today and report my results tomorrow.
I am not sure if you read this blog everyday but there is ample comments on the wildlife along the river system and general information about the Deleware river system.
Hi A119. Well it’s a lot tougher at this time of year than 6 weeks ago!! Did 3 floats from the sulphur zone to either balls eddy or Dreamcatcher as a takeout. 11 fish to the net with a pair of 18 inch browns as fish of the trip. A few sulphur duns or mainly emergers as fly of choice but on picky fish some olives worked or in one case a Griffith gnat as a trailing fly (size 20)
Question for WK and TL – in a pool a person knows will be crowded soon where I was already standing is it good etiquette for a guy to go downstream of you for about 40 feet before it gets crowded? The Dreamcatcher pool had a guy 250 yards upstream and nobody in sight downstream at the time.
It seems when I read fishing reports from various sites most include numbers of fish and size of them. Is that what it is all about?