Delaware River, 5/4/2008 - link to photos

[jerseygeorge]

Waded the West Branch on Sunday afternoon. It was very crowded, but I caught one fish, an 18" brown right above the hale eddy bridge. Then up in the no-kill I stung two very nice fish and missed them both. The fish were up and down very quickly, and did not rise for long. Awesome olive hatch on Sunday afternoon.

On Monday I floated with a guide that I have been fishing with for 10 years. Name on request, just PM me, he is excellent. I have to make dates two years in advance.

Two fisherman boated 10 fish all day. That was on a long 10-12 mile float. It was crystal clear water, blue skies, mostly 6x, 12' leader fishing. Very technical fishing with relatively long casts. Tons of caddis on the water, plus an occasional march brown and hendrickson.

The fish were the same as Sunday. You had to jump them right away or they were down.

Super quality fish. Two at 20", one at 18", one at 17". The "dinks" were all around 15". Overall, a nice day on the Delaware.

Delaware River Photos

 

[vcregular]

Technical - - sounds about right for the D! Quality report, quality fish. Gotta love it!

 

[afishinado]

I fished the west branch on a day trip this week. Sporadic risers - it was tough to get a bead on them. Hendrickersons, apple caddis, black caddis made up most of what was hatching.

I landed two and missed two. One fish really took me for a ride, but wrapped around something on the bottom and got off. He was problably a 20" fish. Others were 16-18", all browns.

There was quite a crowd there, even during the week.

 

[jerseygeorge]

On Monday we only saw three other fisherman all day. We were not on the West Branch! None of the areas we fished were accessable to waders.

 

[afishinado]

I used to live in NE PA and fish the D all the time since I was a kid. Lately I gave up on weekends because of the crowds, but figured that a mid-week trip would give me some breathing room – not! When I go up there again, I will fish the main branch - not near as many fish, but it fishes well until the heat of the summer, and know some decent spots where I should have a lot more room to fish. Also, you are more likely to tie into a tail-dancing rainbow on the main stem. Glad you had a good time. Did you fish the east branch or the main stem?