Delaware River - Wayne county - 4/25 - 5/1

[dryflyguy]

Just returned from a week on the Delaware River.
Met with jersey george and acristic kid while there.
The fishing was up and down just like the weather.
It rained the first 2 days, but the river flows were low, and I did OK.
Caught fish on hendricksons and rusty spinners in the eves.
Then the it started blowing and snowing on tuesday. And the river came up a good 6-8 inches or so. I'm not really into ice fishing, and decided to drive up to Roscoe for the day.
Spent the afternoon in the fly fishing museum there, and it was definitely worth seeing. Also stopped in catskill fly shop. Very nice store with reasonable prices.
The precip ended on wed and thurs, but the wind still blew like crazy.
It finally started to die down enough thursday evening that I was able to find a few fish rising the last few hours of the day, and caught a few.
Friday and saturday, the wind finally subsided, and the temps warmed up quickly. And the fish rose well. They were the best 2 days of the whole week. A few hendricksons were still hatching, along with march browns on the main stem. The apple green caddis was also hatching like crazy, but the fish seemed to pretty much ignore them as usual.
I caught more smaller fish - in the 12" to 15" range - than I normally do. Jersey george reported the same thing also.
But still caught enough large ones to make it an enjoyable week in spite of all the lousy weather.

 

[3wt7X]

Nice Report dryflyguy,
I was up there 5/29-5/30 and I faced similar conditions. On the first day the wind was blowing like crazy and I started off nymphing. I did okay, landing two browns in the 12-15 inch range. The wind got so bad though that I decided to lay down in my truck for a little. I started fishing again at about 5pm and it was still blowing, but I was able to find a nice protected area of the river that had two heads coming up for Hendrickson's. I stuck both those fish on a comparadun and they were over twenty inches!!! I found that the spinner fall was pretty impressive that evening and the wind died down. I was on the water til 1130pm.

The second day, I focused on nymphing up some rainbows until the hatch arrived. I fished a tandem nymph rig in some deeper riffles and I took three nice Delaware River Bows in the 13-15inch range. Those fish are so explosive and the runs are down right nasty. The mayflies came off that afternoon as expected and I took one more big brownie before heading down the road. I had a great time up there, but the crowds are bad and I definately had to dodge some driftboats. Depending on conditions, I will probably be back up there at the end of the month.

 

[vcregular]

Nice fish/reports.

I managed to make a spur of the moment run up to the West Branch on Saturday May 1. By the time I got suited up, it was noonish, and those Apple Caddis were coming out of the trees in the heat. Nymped it for a bit - West Branch - Balls Eddy area. Banged a couple, but they came off.

Then about 3pm the Hendricksons started. Not many risers though prolly due to the heat/brite sun. As the sun went down, more fish came up, and managed to get a nice brown. Taped at 19".

Then on Sunday, more of the same with the nymph action. Did not stick around for the eve hatch.

Managed to miss the winds, but there is something about the Upper D and wind! It can be brutally impressive.

Also, two flies to never leave home without when fishing that system is a red brown spinner imitation - parachute style, and a lafontaine caddis emerger/pupa. These two patterns just flat out catch fish up there!

 

[afishinado]

vcregular wrote:

Also, two flies to never leave home without when fishing that system is a red brown spinner imitation - parachute style, and a lafontaine caddis emerger/pupa. These two patterns just flat out catch fish up there!

C'mon VC, those patterns only catch chubs! ;-)

 

[dryflyguy]

It was definitely a weird week of weather up there. Went from snow on tue, to sweating with temps in the '80's on sat.
Catch rate wise, I went from getting skunked on tues and wed, 3 on thurs, 5 on fri, and over 20 on sat - one of my best days ever up there. But that's the way it is on the Big D.
People talk alot about penns being a very moody river. But the big D is definitely the queen bee in that category IMO

 

[Acristickid]

DFG- thanks for showing my buddy and I around some (even though you were disgusting with our "dregging" hehe). You did better the last day than all of us the 3 days combined! WOW!

I am awaiting a report from the International Angler guys who were up there last weekend to see how they made out.

Got many pictures but my computer is on it's last legs and I cannot get them to upload. Same with the Squaretail trip.

Those were the most windy conditions I have ever fished in. As a matter of fact, it was so windy the only method that seemed effective was wet fly fishing. The riffle waves were actually being blown back up stream-hilarous.


3w7x- my guess is that you have a white truck??

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Awesome trout and report!

 

[3wt7X]

Akid,
That's right...white ford ranger with a Canvasfish decal on the back of a rainbow trout. Did you catch me napping on thursday???

 

[Acristickid]

3w7x- I saw your vehicle at several locations but think I may have briefly spoken to you near the ramp at the Shehawken access. 2 guys guys in a Gold Tacoma- cant recall which day probably friday- I remember it was sunny.

 

[jerseygeorge]

DFG-

Nice report, and it was nice fishing with you! The conditions were quite, well "Delaware". It is never the same river two days in a row. Here is one I got that afternoon out of the Kayak after you and Mark went upstream.

Two solid days of fishing in the rain sure separated the men from the boys!

The best part for me was the size range of healthy fish. They are obviously spawning, which is good news after the floods of 06.

JG

ps. With one big flip this guy did a "self release". Wish I had a video of that, it was pretty funny, I barely got the picture taken...

 

[Acristickid]

Here some pics from the trip (my buddy emailed me some).

One is of my buddy with some fish and me hooked up.

 

[vcregular]

Nice pics Akid. Especially the caddis one. That is quite the deck being put on that one house with the red roof. The run between the house and the island, is a good one for blind casting isos, and a dropper come later in the summer. The bows nose right up into it and blast.