Delaware River question

[DomR]

I found myself working our of Morrisville, PA yesterday so I hit the D on my way home last night. Disclaimer...I'm not the smallie expert, I was going at them with big buggers and streamers on a fly rod, I've had success with similar set up between Barryville down to Columbia but this is the 1st time I tried this far down. Anyways I fished the couple hundred yards from the lot on Rt29 to the 295 bridge without much more than a couple nudges. I guess my question centers around generally how is the smallie population in this area? is it good and I just sucked or was I wasting my time fishing there?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. IF I just suck feel free to say so.

 

[Mike]

SMB are only moderately abundant in that stretch of the river. Habitat is pretty poor…not much rock and the river is wide and shallow. From Pont Pleasant down to Morrisville one can’t just start casting anywhere and expect to hit SMB. The conditions described above typify much otf that stretch so anglers have to explore for deeper water and rockier substrates. Of the 4 electrofishing sites that were frequently run between Easton and the head of tide, Yardley and Point Pleasant were the worst, with both combining to represent the stretch from Point Pleasant to Morrisville. The other two sites were in the I-78 and Upper Black Eddy areas. I-78 was best, so in the Easton to Morrisville stretch, the farther upstream you go, the better it generally gets for SMB.

 

[DomR]

SMB are only moderately abundant in that stretch of the river. Habitat is pretty poor…not much rock and the river is wide and shallow. From Pont Pleasant down to Morrisville one can’t just start casting anywhere and expect to hit SMB. The conditions described above typify much otf that stretch so anglers have to explore for deeper water and rockier substrates. Of the 4 electrofishing sites that were frequently run between Easton and the head of tide, Yardley and Point Pleasant were the worst, with both combining to represent the stretch from Point Pleasant to Morrisville. The other two sites were in the I-78 and Upper Black Eddy areas. I-78 was best, so in the Easton to Morrisville stretch, the farther upstream you go, the better it generally gets for SMB.

Thanks sir. That's the kind of intel I was looking for. No wonder I saw boats blasting up and down river. They were cherry picking their known hotspots, I figured as such since they didn't stop to fish in what looked like good water. I'll concentrate my efforts elsewhere on the D.