Delaware River Bucks County, 9/7/23

[lars]

It's been a while since the levels of the river have allowed me to wade it. Every time it got just about wadable, it would rise a couple of feet. Finally a couple of days ago it reached a level where i wasn't sure, but thought i could cross it. I went and was able to cross and fished a mile or so of river with only one smallie to show for it. I tried all my go to's, even the recently delicious blank shenks sculpin got no love.

I went back today and the river was just a touch lower and a couple of degrees warmer. Again i fished my go to's and it was starting to look like a repeat of Tuesday's fishing. I remembered that yellow flies used to work well and i tied on a yellow marabou muddler pattern. I got into a couple of smaller bass in
the 10" range shortly after tying it on. Since it looked like i might have hit on something i decided to take the long walk upriver and fish some sections i've caught smallies in in the past. Glad i did. I managed six more bass in the 12"-15" class swinging the muddler through the runs. All strong as hell and fought like
monsters in the strong current. Since i fish with my old Sage 590RP, the battles are a blast! Here's the pattern i tie. One unused and the other whats left of the one i was using today.

 

[AndyP]

That's a nice looking version of yellow muddler minnow. Do you tie it weighted or unweighted ?

 

[lars]

Good question. I tied these years ago and didn't remember so i untied the used one. Looks like it is lightly weighted with wrapped lead sheet from the old dental Xray films. Like these

 

[Mike]

If anglers here have been disappointed with SMB fishing in the Delaware for a few years, particularly roughly the decade or less between 2010 and 2020, they may want to try again. The population has taken a real upswing in recent years based on the standardized nighttime Sept/Oct electrofishing sites sampled annually (except a few very low flow yrs) since about 1991. Note, however, that suddenly falling water temps are not likely to produce good catches. Temperature stabilization periods or slightly warming temps at this time of the year will be better.

 

[falcon]

I fimd that early Oct is a good time to fish for Smallmouth. As water temp falls through the 50s the bass start moving to their deeper winter habitat and leave the riffs and shallow areas. They are feeding heavily in preparation for winter. Muskies are active too. The first half of Oct for me has been excellent. The leaves in the water can be a nuisance however.

 

[poopdeck]

The SMB fishing on the river in Bucks County was definitely up this year. Not great numbers but enough to show improvement. We went to other rivers more this year because of the dismal fishing the years before but the few trips we took to the Delaware had us talking about staying closer to home next year. What was really really encouraging was the size and health of the fish. Most fish caught were good healthy looking fish with decent size. We also tied into but didn’t land a fair amount of dinkers that couldn’t couldn’t get to the business end of the hook.