Delaware River - Bucks County - 8/4/23

[lars]

The weather today was perfect for fishing. Dark, cloudy and a threat of showers. Headed over to one of my spots unsure if the river level would allow me
to cross over to an island, walk upriver a half mile or so and fish my way back down. The level was fine as long as you know where to cross. I started out as
i always do fishing my go to top water bug looking for some surface reaction bites. The river hasn't been kind in recent years with the smallie population definitely
lower than in the past. After an hour of long casts, waking the bug, popping the bug and assorted other drifts I finally changed flies and put on the same black
Shenk's sculpin i had fished the other day on the Bushkill. First cast a really nice fat strong river smallie about 15" put itself on the reel, peeled some drag had a strong fight before i finally brought it to hand. Fantastic! I went on to hook seven more nice river bass between 12" and 14". I only landed 5, two threw the sculpin on
jumps and on a third i had my 12lb to 8lb fluoro knot give it up. I should check my knots more often. I fish with an old Sage 590 RP which is pretty much all i use for
the river. It's got enough backbone to throw big flies a long way and it's great for battling fish.

Not sure what the bass take the Shenk's for, but they like Shenk's sculpins. I only fished a couple of hours before heading home, but it was really nice to see some decent smallmouths in a section which seemed kinda dead to me in the past. Perhaps i was just fishing the wrong pattern as i am a surface bug junkie. Looks like it's gonna be the second fly i try going forward.

 

[Kyle]

my recent outings in that area has me skunked. even water that looks to good to be true for smallmouth habitat has produced nothing. i made a post not to long ago when i was nymphing shad. that day i started out smallie fishing. but quickly moved to shad once i saw them flashing in the current. i have tossed all my go to smallmouth flys that produce quite well in other river systems. i just dont get it.

sounds like you had a decent day. congrats on the fish!

 

[Mike]

The weather today was perfect for fishing. Dark, cloudy and a threat of showers. Headed over to one of my spots unsure if the river level would allow me
to cross over to an island, walk upriver a half mile or so and fish my way back down. The level was fine as long as you know where to cross. I started out as
i always do fishing my go to top water bug looking for some surface reaction bites. The river hasn't been kind in recent years with the smallie population definitely
lower than in the past. After an hour of long casts, waking the bug, popping the bug and assorted other drifts I finally changed flies and put on the same black
Shenk's sculpin i had fished the other day on the Bushkill. First cast a really nice fat strong river smallie about 15" put itself on the reel, peeled some drag had a strong fight before i finally brought it to hand. Fantastic! I went on to hook seven more nice river bass between 12" and 14". I only landed 5, two threw the sculpin on
jumps and on a third i had my 12lb to 8lb fluoro knot give it up. I should check my knots more often. I fish with an old Sage 590 RP which is pretty much all i use for
the river. It's got enough backbone to throw big flies a long way and it's great for battling fish.

Not sure what the bass take the Shenk's for, but they like Shenk's sculpins. I only fished a couple of hours before heading home, but it was really nice to see some decent smallmouths in a section which seemed kinda dead to me in the past. Perhaps i was just fishing the wrong pattern as i am a surface bug junkie. Looks like it's gonna be the second fly i try going forward.

The improvement that you noted I believe parallels last fall’s electrofishing survey results in Bucks, especially for legal size SMB.

 

[poopdeck]

I went out on Monday morning and had one of my best days in years. Last year I stopped fishing the Delaware for smallies because of the declining SMB numbers over the last 6 or so years. Went out of Lambertville mainly to run the boat and spin fished between Lambertville and just above the point pleasant area. We boated 24 and lost 6 Largely in the deeper waters in the area but certainly within easy fly fishing depth. Not great numbers but what was impressive was the average size. None were dinks and largely, almost all were between 14 and 17” one, maybe two were under 14. They were all healthy looking fish. It was very encouraging but we covered a lot of water Over about 5 hours.

are those electrofishing reports available online somewhere?

 

[Mike]

Well, what I had really wanted to say above was “especially for a bit larger than just (barely) legal size fish,” but I was trying not to hype it. As for the reports, it pays to occasionally check the PFBC web site for Biologist Reports-Area 6 to see if any new ones have been added. Or, contact them for info, but be advised that the response is naturally slower during field season than in winter. The Delaware R SMB night adult electrofishing has traditionally been done in late Sept and/or early October. Hope that helps.

My own general observations over the decades were that habitat and depths were better in general from Point Pleasant/Lumberville northward than in the opposite direction. As a result, I would expect the “run-and-gun” approach that you used to be the most productive from Point Pleasant and down.

By the way…just a thought. As with the Susquehanna after the poor survival for a number of years of YOY starting in 2005 and/or poor reproduction in some yrs that followed, the survivors grew like crazy due to limited competition for abundant forage resources, eventually gaining a full year on previous growth rates. Multiple years of poor to light reproductive success in the lower Delaware may have finally contributed in a similar way to the abundance or percentage of larger fish right now. It would seem hard to believe with the abundance of crayfish, gizzard shad, and various shiners in the lower Susq, but that’s what happened. Likewise, with the abundance of young shad in the lower Delaware, competitive pressure for forage would not seem to be possible, but given the Susq experience I would not be so sure about that.