Lower Bushkill, 8/4/2023

[lars]

I spent an overnight in the Delaware Water Gap National Park and while up there I fished the Bushkill below Rt 209. I wasn't looking for
trout, i was hoping I'd find some smallmouths in there. I managed three decent hard fighting smallies fishing a black Shenks sculpin. I didn't fish all that
long or all that hard, just a nice walk in a stream before finding a spot to camp for the evening. Beautiful cool evening with a full moon
made for a nice sleep out.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Nice. I've never fished for bass directly in Bushkill, but I've done ok down around the confluence on the Delaware. Makes sense they would be in both this time of year.

Did you just barge renegade camping? I'm pretty sure that's technically not legit in DWGNRA. I'm not criticizing; I'm more just interested to know you can pull it off covertly and not have a ranger poking you in the middle of the night (which I've had happen elsewhere).

 

[lars]

Nice. I've never fished for bass directly in Bushkill, but I've done ok down around the confluence on the Delaware. Makes sense they would be in both this time of year.

Did you just barge renegade camping? I'm pretty sure that's technically not legit in DWGNRA. I'm not criticizing; I'm more just interested to know you can pull it off covertly and not have a ranger poking you in the middle of the night (which I've had happen elsewhere).

My goal was to walk to the mouth, but down near the river was really braided up with lots of deadfalls. I used to fish down there years ago. After there i drove upriver and tried a couple spots on the Delaware down one or two gravel roads. I wound up just staying at the last one.

Busted. Slept in my van/camper. Guess i was fortunate to not get a visitor.

 

[hooker-of-men]

My goal was to walk to the mouth, but down near the river was really braided up with lots of deadfalls. I used to fish down there years ago. After there i drove upriver and tried a couple spots on the Delaware down one or two gravel roads. I wound up just staying at the last one.

Busted. Slept in my van/camper. Guess i was fortunate to not get a visitor.

Oh, that's smart. Seems like you wouldn't get hassled in that setup. My run-ins (not in that area) were when I was full-on tent camping with a fire like an idiot.

I've had the same experience at the mouth. In fact, in the past, from the Delaware you can't even really tell a river the size of the Bushkill is coming in there. It's broken into a ton of little trickles.

I've found pretty challenging wading at those pull-offs on the Delaware proper. You can usually get down to the mouth of the next somewhat infamous trout stream north of the Bushkill, and that area has some limited flats that allow you to move around.

 

[HopBack]

those are really nice looking flies, thanks for sharing!

 

[lars]

I took a drive up the Delaware the day before yesterday. It was totally blown out and chocolate
from Bucks County to well above the Water Gap. The Lower Bushkill however was running a bit
higher than my last visit but clear. I fished it from about 12:30 to maybe 3:00. Probably not the best
time of day, but I had a fishing jones and needed to fish. I fished the same Shenk's sculpin pattern as
last time. Caught a nice brown trout, a couple smallmouth and a half dozen fallfish while walking downstream. I put on a small Ausable Wulff to fish my way back up and picked up another nice brown. I didn't want to fish into the warmer temps if trout were eating so i just reeled up and went to my nightime
campsite up above Milford. Jones satisfied.