Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

Out of sync and out of sorts

Posted on August 19 2015

After three days off for our anniversary weekend I returned to the

river hoping to make up for lost time. It didn't work out that way.

The day started out hot and humid and from a cloudless sky

thunderheads suddenly appeared. The thunderstorms that followed cut

short my attempt to fish on the way down and then kept me pinned in

the camp (without power) 'til after three.

It didn't matter, the WB up river...

It's days like this, with the temp pushing ninety and a bright sun
burning down, that you gotta love tailwaters. Five hundred cfs of
forty one degree water pouring out of Cannonsville, cooling off wade
fishermen, stimulating the bug hatch and sending the trout into a day
long feeding frenzy.

What? Not where you were? Well, not where I was that's for sure. It
being Friday afternoon I elected to fish...

Some days are like that

Posted on August 14 2015

Bright sun in an almost cloudless sky is not what fishermen pray for.
Up river sulfurs never really got going below Oquaga Creek.

With a fair number of fishermen on the water and little to throw at,
I spent almost three hours in the WB no kill below the Gentlemen's
Club fishing to four bank sippers who were eating tiny olives along a
shaded side of the stream. I was in waist deep water in the shade...

Joe's place

Posted on August 13 2015

Gave the upper EB Tricos a whirl again this morning. Will wait 'til

next week to try it again ('nuf said).

In the afternoon I stopped at Joe Foster's (a long time Troutfitter

friend) place up from Hale Eddy and had a nice chat with Joe. Left to

go fishing and saw rising trout all along the river upstream from his

house. Went back to Joe's to save him from cutting the lawn. It didn't

take much arm...

Where to find the WB bugs?

Posted on August 12 2015

With the variation in the water levels we have had in the WB this
summer finding bugs and rising fish often times requires a visit to
the local fortune teller. Yesterday there was a modest afternoon hatch
of sulfurs up top. It was over by five o'clock. At five thirty, when
I arrived there was a good hatch of small olives below the one ninety
one bridge and the fish were on 'em.

Today at the gamelands in...

Summer school

Posted on August 11 2015

Last Wednesday was the first day of normal flows following the
Cannonsville draw down. The bugs hatched in profusion on the upper WB
and fish were on them with reckless abandon. So were the guides. One
angler of modest ability hooked at least a dozen large fish as his
guide kept him in the same spot for over four hours.Fishermen came
from all over to fish in the lower water. There were boats and...

Was it a Regatta or a Revival Meeting?

Posted on August 08 2015

There were traffic jams at launch sites and full parking lots. Wade
fishermen vied with guides in drift boat each seeking to fish the
prime locations. Where? On the upper WB where sulfurs have been
hatching and big fish have been feeding.

The area has seen little pressure this year as the bug hatches have
been poor and rising fish have been scarce. During the past six weeks
the area was unwadeable due...

Release cutback causes flood of anglers

Posted on August 06 2015

Word has gotten around that the WB is down to under five hundred cfs
and anglers have arrived to make up for time lost during the spill and
drawdown of Cannonsville. The upper EB had numerous fishermen
lookingfor Tricos this morning. The upper WB where the sulfurs have
beengoing strong had fishermen and boats in every pool. Rumors of
washovers in the upper WB no doubt added anglers to the area.
Junctio...

Multiple choice test

Posted on August 06 2015

With the entire system wadeable for the first time in over a month,

fishermen were back on the river in numbers. With boats and wade
fishermen everywhere the question for me became, "Where can I find
good bugs and rising trout without being interfered with by boats and
other fishermen"?

My first choice was to look for tricos as that is the least crowded
time of day. Early afternoon found me in the...

By Angler 119 on 2015-08-05

Posted on August 05 2015

With the WB release being scaled back to five hundred cfs by tomorrow
and the EB already down to one hundred forty cfs, the amount of
fishable water in the big river is about to be significantly
downsized. The factor determining how far downstream you can fish is
of course water temperature. Trying to figure water temp in advance is
about like predicting the weather. No one does very well more than...

Cannonsville water flow update

Posted on August 03 2015

They have made sufficient progress on the work at the dam that the DEP
has begun to step down the release. Starting today (Sunday) the
release will be stepped down over the next five days until it reaches
the currently mandated flow of five hundred cfs on Thursday.

The East Branch in August

Posted on August 01 2015

It's August and the flow on the East Branch has been lowered from five
hundred cfs to one hundred thirty nine cfs. What does this mean?

The big East Branch below the Beaverkill junction is no longer
receiving an infusion of cold water and is too warm to fish. The
trout have either left the river or are hunkered down in thermal
refuges and should not be disturbed. Cool fall rains (or releases)
wi...

The wheels came off.

Posted on August 01 2015

After a great trip to the Owyhee River in Oregon and fifteen days of
nonstop bugs and rising fish in the Delaware, it was bound to happen.
Today it did. I should have seen it coming. Yesterday I lucked into a
morning olive hatch which provided me with great fishing, the rest of
the day was filled with an ever increasing number of refusals and lost
fish. Thinking the month was over I sat down last night...

The Delaware Slam

Posted on July 31 2015

Went out early this morning looking for Tricos on the upper EB. There
weren't any but what I did find was a nice hatch of size sixteen
olives. The hatch increased as the morning went along and the fish did
their best not to let any get off the water. In their eagerness they
sometimes even ate ones with hooks in them.

Went back to the camp, tied flies, did the breakfast dishes, solved a
Tuesdaycros...

Clouds take take the day off.

Posted on July 30 2015

Got to fish with Rick from the Troutfitter today.

The bright sun in a cloudless sky on what might well have been the
hottest day of the year didn't slow down the sulfurs. They came in
good numbers. The stenos also hatched but there didn't seem to be as
many of them as usual.

The fish? They are not fond of bright sun. If there was a cloud in
the sky at any time all day, I missed it. Did they...

I don't know what to say---

Posted on July 28 2015

In May fishermen line the stream like a picket fence and boats in a
seemingly unending parade weave in and out of the wade fishermen
trying to get to a place where they too can fish. The Hendricksons
are hatching!!! From three 'til five most afternoons Hendricks hatch,
fish rise and anglers cast. Because of the number of anglers and the
constant disturbance created by the boat traffic, nobody...

Is it hot?

Posted on July 28 2015

Weather Underground says it was 94 in Hancock today. I don't believe
it. I had two shirts on and when I got in the car at 8:30 I had to
turn the heater on. When I got to the camp the thermostat said 80
degrees. It felt good. Why? Because I spent five hours wading the ice
cold WB casting to rising trout. Was it worth it? Um, yes.

Delaware River fish are not stupid. I tell anyone who will listen that
if...

Time out

Posted on July 26 2015

Wife on the way home from our daughters, fridge empty and laundry bag
full. Time to head home and get the rest of my life in order.

With the bug bonanza produced by the big releases in both branches,
this was one of the best ten day runs of dry fly fishing in recent
years. I'm not going to fret over the consequences of the Cannonsville
draw down 'til later.

Maybe I'll work on a rain dance for...

Pictures from today (hopefully worth 1,000 words)

Posted on July 25 2015

Dave and Rick at the Troutfitter said send some pictures with your reports.

Today was a carbon copy of yesterday minus the morning trip.

For the full fishing report reread paragraphs 2 & 3 of yesterdays
report. Hooked exactly the same number of fish but landed four more.
Catch included the brown and rainbow attached.

If you're not fishing the Delaware, you're missing it big time.

Stenos saved the day

Posted on July 24 2015

Got out early and fished a place on the big river that I hadn't been
to yet this year. There were no bugs or risers. Hooked four rainbows
and landed two. Came back to the camp and took a nap.

Went out a little after two to take on the sulfur sippers. They won.
Sulfurs hatch in the sun, they just don't stay on the water as long
and the fish don't get into a rhythm eating them. Fish don't like to
feed...

They're back.

Posted on July 23 2015

Ever since the DEP maxed out the release from Cannonsville I have had
the river to myself. Today wade fishermen were everywhere. On the
upper EB, Long flat's 4 cars was topped by the 5 at the power line
pool. The big EB had one or two fishermen in every pool I could see in
my wanderings. There were four cars in the upper game lands lot and a
pickup truck at the lower gamelands lot.

A fisherman...

Midsummer on the river is different

Posted on July 22 2015

Stopped at Buckingham launch site to see if there were any bugs. There
were enough big yellow ones and little green ones on the water to lure
me into a walk down the "trail" towards the river house pool. Big
mistake, anyone who hasn't walked that path in midsummer after high
water has flattened the grass doesn't know what they are missing. Felt
soled wading boots and mud are a deadly combination. Made...

Stuck on the Upper East

Posted on July 21 2015

Today's big question. Where to fish?

With the DEP playing it safe and drawing down Cannonsville with the
!,500 max. release and old mother nature adding additional water via
thunderstorms the WB and the big river were pretty much out of play.
The Beaverkill? Old mother nature spared it the rain but poured down
enough sun to make fishing there unconscionable.

That left the EB. The big east, warmed by...

You have to go to know.

Posted on July 20 2015

I fish a lot and pay attention to the factors that make it both good
and bad, but I am still mystified by what greets me on the stream each
day. On the best day this week the water temp on the WB hit a high of
49. There were a plethora of bugs and the fish fed like crazy. Today
the water temp was 50 degrees, the hatch was sparse and the fish
couldn't be bothered. Why? Air temp you say. Yes, it was...

I knew the answer.

Posted on July 19 2015

It was almost too easy, seven casts, five fish hooked and landed. I
had walked a long way up stream. The bugs were just starting, sulfurs
mostly but a noticeable number of stenos. Why not? I put on a steno
and it was like a kid at the state fair with cotton candy. They
couldn't resist. One was busy eating another fly when mine went by
and he turned and chased it downstream three feet and ate.

Visio...

Where do they come from?

Posted on July 18 2015

This afternoon was overcast and it sprinkled. The olives said "Oh
boy" and hatched like crazy on the WB and on the big river (no doubt
on the EB too). There were all shapes and sizes of them and so many of
them you had to wonder how a trout ever happens to eat yours. All this
I've seen before and think I understand.

But the sulfurs, that's a different story. The sulfurs have hatched.
they are done on...

Leaky dam and high water bring bugs

Posted on July 17 2015

After seeing yesterdays bug bonanza on the upper EB there was no
mystery in which stream I would fish today. I was at the river at 2:30
ready for the fun to begin.

The first olives, sulfurs and isos were on the water by 3:00 and an
ever increasing number of sulfurs and isos followed. The sun must
have affected the olives as their numbers were much below that of
yesterday.

The fish? Never showed....

Water, water everywhere

Posted on July 16 2015

They maxed out the release at 1620cfs at Cannonsville in conjunction
with a problem that occurred at the construction site of the new
electric generator. I am going to a meeting tomorrow to find out more
about it and will post what I learn here.

It often takes both the fish and bugs a day or so to adjust to a big
release increase so I decided to head in the other direction.

Fished the big EB, the...

Cannonsville to be drained/lowered

Posted on July 16 2015

During the drilling of test holes for the proposed hydro-electric
project a bore hole went into an underground stream of water that has
apparently been flowing under the dam since it's construction. The
DEP has long been aware of the water flow which has previously shown
up in an artesian well a short distance below the dam. The bore hole
has given the water a new release point closer to the dam. The...

They read the owyhee report

Posted on July 15 2015

Yesterday was the day my wife and I set aside to can sour cherry jam
(an annual event). Everything went well and I was able to leave for
the Delaware around 2:00, just in time to get caught in a monsoon
rainstorm between Tully and Whitney Point. Thankfully the river
system was spared as there wasn't any rain on the river 'til almost
8:00.

After opening up the camp, I decided to try the big river...

Owyhee River Trip reflections

Posted on July 14 2015

Quite simply the best dry fly fishing for large brown trout that I
have ever seen. The fish are mostly all over seventeen inches long. I
caught 35 one day with only two of them under 17. The rest were
between 17 and 21 inches long.

The food is not plentiful and the fish are eating whatever is
available. There are rising fish from dawn til dark. The flies
include tricos, midges, baetis, pmd's, and a...

The Owyhee River, Why is it so good?

Posted on July 13 2015

In my lifetime of fishing there have been two things that have had by
far the greatest impact on dry fly fishing for trout.

The first was the advent of catch and release fishing. This has
allowed fish to grow to adult size, spawn effectively and produce wild
trout stocks. It has put mature trout in rivers and added an element
of excitement to dry fly fishing. The chance to catch a trophy sized
trout...

Owyhee River fishing trip

Posted on July 12 2015

Blown off the river tonight by a forty mph dust/rain storm, quite a sight.

How has the fishing been? Very very good. Last year the best fishing of the day was the trico spinner fall. With heads up every where gulping spinners. This year the tricos haven't really gotten going yet and haven't been a factor. There are a few but the fishing isn't worth getting to the river early for.

I've been...

Paybacks are fun

Posted on July 09 2015

Last Friday evening I tried a pool on the upper EB in 150cfs. There
were large sulfurs and feeding fish. I caught one fish and got one
nose bump refusal. The rest of my casts were ignored.

Today with the water up to 250cfs I decided to try to get even. I
arrived at about 5:00pm, the sulfurs were hatching and the fish were
feeding. My very first cast was inhaled by a brown that was eating
every dun that...

The Owyhee River

Posted on July 04 2015

With the home waters high and unwadeable, I have flown out west to fish an under the radar tailwater called the Owyhee River. It's a tributary of the Snake River located just over the Oregon border from Boise Idaho. The water from the Owyhee is used for crop irrigation. It's a small river with a current flow of 120 cfs. The river flows through a remote canyon for about 25 miles and then is piped...

Even the olives knew

Posted on June 30 2015

It started out sunny, then dark clouds rolled in. It spit rain
several times in the morning and I had my raincoat on when it rained
the first two places I fished. I was hopeful but really I knew, The
wind was blowing out of the west, there were patches of blue poking
out between the clouds, and then bright sun. The dreaded high between
two lows.

Fishermen hate it, fish hate it and even the bugs hate...

The last hurrah

Posted on June 30 2015

It was the last day of June and the last day of fishing before my trip
out west. The morning found gray skies and a light drizzle, mother
nature, however, wasn't satisfied and she opened up the spigot and it
rained, hard at times. How hard? Hard enough that a drive over the
Hale Eddy bridge at 2:00pm confirmed that my planned destination for
the day was nothing but a sea of mud.

Shifted to plan B and...

Today I Was

Posted on June 29 2015

Saturday I was at a reunion, it was a good time for everyone. But the
light rain forecast had me thinking about fish eating olives.

Today, I headed for the river hoping that it hadn't blown out. The 17
bridge over the WB showed Oquaga Creek belching silt laden, orange
colored water into the river. Farther downstream, below the gamelands
the river was still clear enough to fish but you knew what...

Just so you know

Posted on June 28 2015

At 1:30pm the Oquaga is gushing orange water into the WB which has
risen to over 1,500 cfs at Hale Eddy with the graph still going
straight up. The lower WB below the gamelands isn't colored as bad
but will be in the next hour or so.You can still fish the big river,
the lower east branch near Hancock and the upper EB above jaws.

Wish I was There

Posted on June 27 2015

It's 9:00 am on Saturday. I'm home for a family get together. People
have come from as far as Nashville and Cleveland to be here. The
grand-kids all caught trout and bass in the ponds (on flies no less).
The picnic is scheduled for this afternoon just about the time the
heavy rain is expected to start. It's not that I don't want to be here
cause I do. And it's not that I don't get to fish enough cause...

Enough is enough !

Posted on June 25 2015

Two weeks ago the river system needed rain badly. The River Master
had already called for water to reach minimum flow requirements
downstream and the flow into the reservoirs was way below normal.
Today the system is 99% full and it is coming in faster than it is
being released.

While it is always good to have full reservoirs it is also nice to be
able to fish the entire system. For the last two weeks...

Can the void be filled?

Posted on June 25 2015

By now the summer sulfurs should be going strong in the upper WB.
They are not. Spent a little time upriver and saw a few bugs, but
never saw a rise. There was also a void of fishermen, which is even
more telling. Didn't go up to the pasture pool where I have seen a
few fish (all big) but was told that with the increase in the release
last week, the place was lined up with anglers. I don't think it...

Only two of us had it figured out

Posted on June 24 2015

Two weeks ago there were over a dozen anglers within sight of where we
were standing. Today, just us two. I didn't know him, didn't even
know he was there 'til I walked around a stand of knot weed and saw
him sitting on a hummock, staring out at the water.

Both of us were ahead of the curve. After all it was overcast with
rain forecast to begin at 2:15pm and they had just bumped up the
release...

What are they taking?

Posted on June 23 2015

Set out at about 6:00 pm today eager to pick up where I left off
Friday. I was armed with at least a dozen of the new miracle fly which
had hooked 34 of the 36 fish I caught last week. The water was up to
over 1,000 cfs and a little cloudy, there were sulfurs on the water
and no one in sight,

Hooked and landed the first two fish I threw at with the magic fly, oh
boy, what a night this is going to...

The longest day

Posted on June 21 2015

It's here, tomorrow will be the longest day of the year. It should of
course, be spent fishing. Unfortunately I will be absent due to
social obligations on the home front.

The weather looks ideal (from a fisherman's perspective) and as long
as the rivers don't get too much rain the fishing should be lights
out. Bring your isos and olives for the predicted dark rainy day and
your sulfurs and spinners...

Sunshine shortens my day

Posted on June 20 2015

After two days of overcast skies with rain, bugs and rising trout, a mostly sunny day and my desire for seclusion brought my fish catching down to a more realistic level.

I didn't leave the camp until 3:30PM and didn't actually don waders until 5:30PM. Saw boats galore putting in at the "barking dog" launch ramp on the WB and decided to fish below Balls Eddy in hopes of avoiding the Fridayaftern...

A foggy, drizzly day

Posted on June 19 2015

It was all you hoped it would be, olives and sulfurs on the water by early afternoon. Big fish up and eating tiny little flies .

When the boats came by me late in the day most weren't even fishing. They said they had great fishing up river and were just rowing out.

Saw a couple of Troutfitter guys on the river, don't know if they came after reading yesterday's report, or if the trip was already...

Now it all makes sense

Posted on June 17 2015

Never looked at the gauges at Stilesville or Downsville yesterday or today. Yesterday on the EB I had colder water than I expected, bugs, but no rising fish. Today I went to the upper WB and was again surprised by how cold and high the water was.

There were bugs when I got there and occasional rises from good fish. In four hours of fishing I rose 10 fish, hooked four and landed three. When...

Does it get any better?

Posted on June 17 2015

I haven't been on the river since last Wednesday so I decided to drive around and see if anything was happening. What a change in the number of anglers.

Totals- Lower EB - 0
Upper EB- 0
Beaverkill- 0

I tried the upper EB late in the day and had two boats go by. I was also joined by the only other wade angler on the river, who was apparently lonely.

There were bugs (isos,...

Stop the nonsense!!!

Posted on June 15 2015

The Delaware watershed finally got hit with some real rain. It needed
it. Both branches are high and muddy without any help from reservoirs
releases. In addition the water is warm and is predicted to stay that
way at least until Monday night.

Sure you can float at these levels and throw streamers towards the
banks but you'll be more likely to hook fish by waiting a couple of
days (or more) 'til the...

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Angler 119's Delaware River Fishing Report

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Out of sync and out of sorts

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Where to find the WB bugs?

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