Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

 I'm sure you've all heard (or been) the angler with a fish on his line who hollered  downstream to his buddy "He took a size 18 olive cripple".  And, almost everyone within hearing distance begins looking through their fly boxes for an olive cripple of the same size.

Come on, what did the trout really take? He took a fly in his feeding lane that looked good and wasn't dragging. Back in the day...

Well into my perfect manhattan I feel duty bound to give you a sobering report. I've been at this fly fishing sport a long time and with the possible exception of Adrian Lasorte I'm on the river more hours a year than anybody. I fish hard and try to use what I've learned over the 35 plus years I've fished the Delaware to help me (and you) be successful. I've had a very good week, one in a long...

Talk about putting my casting recommendations to a test. Yesterday I fished the red barn in a sneaky draft (10/15 out of the south with gusts up to 25). Adrian was there guiding a long time fishing friend of mine and another sport. To say that finesse was removed from the game was an understatement. Saw a good bug hatch, lots of rising fish and both my friend and I hooked fish under difficult...

The two most important factors in catching fish on a consistent basis are your casting skills and the flies you use (more on flies later). If you can't consistently float a fly, drag free, down a fish's two inch wide feeding lane, you just aren't going to catch many fish. Last week I had occasion to watch two very good casters throwing tight looped 85 foot casts, presumably at rising fish....

 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....

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...

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...

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,...

 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...

 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...

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...

Back sometime in early May a fox crossed rte. 97 in front of me when I was returning home from fishing. Didn't give it a thought. Probably saw the fox a couple more times before the strangeness of the encounters started to register. Each time, the fox crossed the road from the shoulder on my side to the shoulder on the other side. I can see him in the headlights but the crossing takes place far...

I awoke Thursday morning to a nice steady rain, we needed it. Looked out at the BR and it was up a bit but clear. Looked out a couple hours later and the change was remarkable. By noon it was at 7,000cfs and a roiling orange in color. DRC reported that the WB was muddy in front of their compound but the river at Hale Eddy wasn't that high. Same with the east side of the system, Both the UEB and BK...

Yesterday I suggested that you go to the BR about 7:00 for some sure fire action. Well today you didn't have to wait 'til seven. It was a BR day from the get go, good water temps and a cloudy, misty sky usually means the BR fish will be willing to eat all day long. So who fished the BR? There were but three trailers parked at Buckingham and I never saw a boat downriver. Why? Well there was a south...

 Yes, today is the longest day of the year, with 15 hours and 14 minutes of sunshine and an extra hour and 23 minutes of  twilight to fish in. Tomorrow will be a full second shorter but I've resolved to enjoy the day to it's fullest rather than waste time lamenting the pendulum's inevitable swing toward December 21st.

Back in the day, boxing had a three knockdown rule. If a fighter was knocked down...

I'm back in Lafayette helping my wife restore order to the house after the instillation of new carpeting. Jean has gone to the store so it's a good time for a break. 

Jim N. asked about the sulfur hatch and if the "Sulfur Zone" was starting to come alive.

First of all there are two different sulfurs that make up the bulk of the sulfur hatches on the Delaware River System. The Invaria is the larger...

 Had a day worth talking about, at least if you are interested in the comings and goings of  our local wildlife. Was in the BR this morning wondering where the bugs were and when they were going to show up (they didn't) when I spotted something swimming across the river at me.  Turned out to be a squirrel.  I think one of the Jims saw one last year.

Andy B's glowing report of an upriver fish...

Dennis has been waiting patiently for the answer(s) to his casting questions so here goes. First of all I am self taught as a fly caster. Back when I started in the mid fifties there were no guides or casting instructors (or videos on how to avoid wind knots and tailing loops either for that matter). Corrections to my casting stroke came slowly and without much thought on my part. It was almost as...

Back home waiting for carpet installers to show up.  After almost forty years even I had to admit the wall to wall carpet needed replacing in the den.  An air conditioner installer is also coming to give us a quote on a mini split system for the den and upstairs bedroom. Busy day.

Was able to drive down early Saturday morning and fish a long stretch of the lower WB that I make a point of hitting at...

 If anyone is wondering, I'm back in Lafayette. There has been such a long run of really good fishing that I felt no need to battle high winds and muddy water to try to catch a fish or two today. The big bug season is over. The big olives (grannoms) are probably done on the freestones but you may still find them on the tailwaters (UEB and WB;;), look mid morning. 

As of right now the freestones are...

Some years the Lordville riff has bugs and rising fish every time I wade out into it. Other times I never seem to be there when the bugs are hatching and the fish are feeding. Almost every year there are dramatic changes in the contour of the riff as the winter ice and spring high water seem to reshape much of the bottom. Perhaps the reshaping of the bottom dislodges much of the insect life and...

Left Lafayette at 6:30 this morning determined to get in a full morning's fishing and was glad I did. It more than made up for tonight's shellacking. Fished from 7:30 this evening until 9:15 with every cast at a rising fish. Got about a dozen refusals, hooked and landed a 12 inch bass, and two rainbows one 8 inches, the other 17. There were a few black caddis and very small (think pseudos)...

It's 8:45, pitch black outside (except for the lightning flashes) and I'm sitting here with nothing to do but write a blog page with nothing to say. Drove down this morning but was too late to fish. Put things away and did a short drive around the area looking for bugs and/or risers, saw neither. Returned to the Lordville Estate before the first afternoon showers hit, did a sudoku and a crossword,...

 An early Monday morning trip to the BR closed out what was for me, the best month of May ever. Eight of the eleven fish landed were between 17 and 20 inches!  With the prediction of near record heat for the following two days it was an easy decision to head home and cross items off an ever growing to-do list.

Sunday I had driven around the system in bright sunlight and soaring temps. The effect on...

It's Memorial Day weekend. Jean is on her way down and we will try to get a reservation at one of the nearby restaurants for dinner tonight.  The sole item on the to-do list for today is to clean the camp before Jean's arrival. Not that I'm putting off that little task but it seems that there is ample time to answer the questions you have asked so far this year.

Mark asked one that has been asked...

 On Monday in the "Back into Backing" page I said the freestones were back from the doldrums. Are they ever.  Have spent an outstanding week fishing in virtual solitude with just me, the fish and the bugs (lots of them). 

What's hatching? In short, everything. There are still some little Hendricksons and caddis in the upper WB. The freestones (BR, BE and BK) are in the midst of the big bug...

The past two weeks you just had to be up above Hale Eddy on the WB. There were a plethora of Hendricksons, grannoms, apple caddis and of all of the their spinners. It was crowded but there seemed to be enough fish for everybody. The fish? They took a fearful beating. Their mouths are full of hook marks and they are exhausted ( try fighting for your life at least once a day for two weeks and see...

On margin this has been a very good week. Yes, Tuesday was something of a rotter what with the wind, cold air and cold water stifling the bugs and consequentially almost no fish were up.  Me burning $4.95 cent per gallon gas on a fools errand looking  for Hendricksons and/or rising fish on the UEB did nothing to take the curse off the day.

Monday and Thursday were for me, good fishing days. There...

After six straight fishing days with big, fish seemingly lining up for a chance to eat my flies, I just may have been a tad full of myself. 

Waited until about 9:30 to head out in search of a spinner fall and on the way came as close as you could ever come to running over a new born fawn. The fawn trotted out onto my lane from under the guard rail in the median on rte. 17. I have always said don't...

If you are planning on joining the hoards of fishermen expected to be on the Delaware system this weekend be prepared for the unexpected. A river system that just two short weeks ago was too high to wade is now too low to float! NYC's desire for full reservoirs on the first of June coupled with no rain has led to a major reduction of flows. The fish, the wade fishermen and those still floating are...

While driving back to the fishing camp at 9:00pm tonight I ran over someone's rod and reel on that beautiful piece of highway running from Lordville to Equinunk.. Fortunately the rod was lying parallel to the traffic lane and I was able to straddle it. Parked the car with flashers on, got out my flashlight and retrieved both the rod and reel. Rod appears no worse for the experience. The reel has a...

 With the weekend coming up, thought it might be helpful to try to bring you up to date on river conditions. The freestones (BR, BK and BE) have all had Hendricksons for over a week. The Apple Caddis are hatching throughout the BE and I assume on the BR.  I haven't seen them on the BK.

When the spills stopped on the UEB and the WB the water temps plunged and the hatches slowed. The reservoirs are...

Back when "The Opener" was April first, trout fishermen had something to look forward to. Preseason trips were made to finger lakes rainbow spawning streams to check out "the run" and lines would be in the water on April 1st at the 5:00am starting time in hopes of catching one of the big spawners. Ice in the guides, you bet, but you were fishing again. Now that trout season is open all year long,...