Posted on August 11 2023
Today was the kind of day fly fishermen live for. It started out a little breezy but the wind settled down and a gentle drizzle made the trout's job of selecting the right fly just a bit tougher. Tired of the crowds up river, I fished two places below Oquaga. Oquaga has dropped below 150cfs and apparently the water temp (on the side away from the warm Oquaga water) now meets the sulfur's requirements because they hatched, Lord did they hatch, and every fish in the river was up feeding on them.
Had three plus hours of fish gulping duns. The percent that made mistakes and ate the wrong fly was far smaller than the percent that readily identified the sulfurs with a hook in them, but if you make enough casts you get a lot of fish to eat the wrong fly. By 6:30 things had quieted down and I left with the intention of doing a number on BR rainbows that were no doubt going to be feeding on a glut of iso's. Fished from seven until dark on water covered with medium sized olives. Saw very few risers, got three refusals (one of which was indignant) and had a Chamber of Commerce 15 inch brown eat one for the betterment of the tourist industry.
This and that -
1- Had two fishermen recognize me today (it's either the black Toyota 4runner or my camo beret that gives me away). Both were a pleasure to talk with.
2- Have not mentioned A Season On The Delaware once all year, yet sales still magically appear on my Amazon account page. My sincere thanks to all of you who have bought the book.
3- A tip of the cap to those who have jumped in to answer simple inquiries that are best not left until the next WN&TL segment.
4- My new book "Upgrading Your Game" is at present hopelessly mired by both my technological ineptitude and my desire to fish first, and write later. Does anyone really want me to stop fishing and blog writing so that I can amass a fortune publishing a new book?
Love reading your report. Wish I could be there today. May be soon. Fish first, write later. I would do the same.
Of course fish now, work later! But…..if you could finish the book before we come out for bug weeks next year, I’d be eternally grateful….and would buy an extra copy for my niece.
I do have a question….with all the refusal’s folks write about, have you given any consideration to dropping down your tippet size? say, 6.5 or 7X?
Wednesday below Oquaga higher dirtier water and hatch was 12 to about 130PM for me. The were hitting size 20 and then seemed to be they were interested in size 22 sulfur. Of course that says nothing about actually hooking and landing fish lol.
530-6:45 above Oquaga there were fish rising everywhere! Used about ten different versions of sulfurs and was refused more times than I can count. Are they getting smarter by the day? Caught one teen sized fish on a usual ( grey thing that I figured they might mistake it for iso??) Also fished an iso as a tail fly to my sulfur but no hits. As I always say, good news there is s hatch going on, bad news there is a hatch going on. Getting a few hooked and landed has become a real challenge.
Angler119 thanks for all the info. Wednesday, I had the choice to stay another day or drive back to New Jersey. It sounds like I made the wrong choice.
Angler119-Wow , what a great afternoon. Glad to hear the afternoon sulphers are hatching and the fish are on them . Hope you publish another book this winter. Can’t wait to read it. Ed Smith
It was a pleasure and delight to break your cover last night, Would love to stay in touch.
A119 please fish and report and write the new book later. It will be a great read this winter. The info you relate everyday is great!!!!
Thanks