Upper Delaware River, Wayne County PA 5/27/2026

[MarkC]

Water was clear and about 60 degrees, no wind, sun, then clouds moved in. Hatches: dark caddis 16, light caddis 14, sulfur 16, March Brown 10, Green Drake 8.

Fished the upper mainstem from 6:30 AM to 10 AM, hiked about a mile and a half from an access point. Started out with enough caddis to get a few trout up, you had to wait them out. Size 18 dark caddis emerger worked on a few fish with a size 14 light caddis adult (headlight caddis) worked on others, plenty of last second refusals.

A minor sulfur hatch started at about 8, lasting for a half hour or so with the fish feeding regularly. A light hatch of March Browns and Green Drakes started to trickle off about 8:30 and the fish jumped on them. I was nice to see the big flies and hook fish on 3X. No Coffin Flies spotted, looks like the drakes are just getting started.

Passed by a picket fence of shore anglers with a flotilla of boats coming down on my way out at 11.

Mark C

 

[wbranch]

I think early bird caught the bugs yesterday on the upper main. We put in at Shehawken at 10:30 & had a number of rising fish in the big pool below the confluence. We probably should of stayed there until the fish stopped rising. We only saw a few more rises all day & the wind was terrible. If I didn't have the electric motor on the boat it would of been brutal to row to Buckingham.

 

[SBecker]

Water was clear and about 60 degrees, no wind, sun, then clouds moved in. Hatches: dark caddis 16, light caddis 14, sulfur 16, March Brown 10, Green Drake 8.

Fished the upper mainstem from 6:30 AM to 10 AM, hiked about a mile and a half from an access point. Started out with enough caddis to get a few trout up, you had to wait them out. Size 18 dark caddis emerger worked on a few fish with a size 14 light caddis adult (headlight caddis) worked on others, plenty of last second refusals.

A minor sulfur hatch started at about 8, lasting for a half hour or so with the fish feeding regularly. A light hatch of March Browns and Green Drakes started to trickle off about 8:30 and the fish jumped on them. I was nice to see the big flies and hook fish on 3X. No Coffin Flies spotted, looks like the drakes are just getting started.

Passed by a picket fence of shore anglers with a flotilla of boats coming down on my way out at 11.

Mark C

Nice! Thinking about floating the East on Sunday.

 

[wbranch]

There is no floatable water in the upper EB above Jaws.

 

[SBecker]

There is no floatable water in the upper EB above Jaws.

Won't be that high.

 

[wbranch]

Won't be that high.

At Harvard mid week it was only 245 cfs. If you float at that level you can expect receiving colorful comments as you try to row past the waders. Currently it us only 208 cfs & the lower EB at Fishs Eddy is 575 cfs. Not very much flow for such a wide river. Expect to bottom out in the shallows & have to get out & drag the craft.

 

[SBecker]

At Harvard mid week it was only 245 cfs. If you float at that level you can expect receiving colorful comments as you try to row past the waders. Currently it us only 208 cfs & the lower EB at Fishs Eddy is 575 cfs. Not very much flow for such a wide river. Expect to bottom out in the shallows & have to get out & drag the craft.

Floated the West. lol

 

[wbranch]

Floated the West. lol

There was a time when guides rarely floated the WB at flows below 600 cfs. Now if there is enough water to float the boat guides will take clients out. It's hardly a nice day when the guide has to get out and pull the boat through shallow riffles. I've seen guides banging the oars at 250 cfs.

 

[MarkC]

The difference between back in the day and now is that the guides can spent an entire season on the system. Back in the day the fishing fell off a cliff in late June / July. You would get an August release if required by conditions by it was unpredictable. The guides would disperse, some not returning till next season.

Now they can get their 100 days on the system which puts them under pressure to float no matter the flows. It’s become an amusement park ride.

You can still find good, uncrowded fishing by putting yourself out of step with the herd.

Mark C

 

[bringthepain]

Is 100 days a year considered a full season or something?

 

[MarkC]

The outfitters (West Branch Angler, DRC, etc.) can promise their guides 100 day of guiding x $500 if they sign on with them.

Mark C

 

[SBecker]

There was a time when guides rarely floated the WB at flows below 600 cfs. Now if there is enough water to float the boat guides will take clients out. It's hardly a nice day when the guide has to get out and pull the boat through shallow riffles. I've seen guides banging the oars at 250 cfs.

I had no issue, but I only did a short float from Balls to Shehawk.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I'm there this weekend. How much do I care about Green Drakes and Coffin Flies? I've never fished this hatch anywhere, so I've never tied them. But I'm also a little short on energy and time this week...

 

[wbranch]

The outfitters (West Branch Angler, DRC, etc.) can promise their guides 100 day of guiding x $500 if they sign on with them.

Mark C

If a guided day is $600 how can an outfitter offer a guide $500 a day? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[SBecker]

If a guided day is $600 how can an outfitter offer a guide $500 a day? That doesn't make any sense.

because they take $100 from every trip.

 

[wbranch]

I thought they took much more. Based on your comment a guide would be grossing about $600 per trip minus the shuttle & lunches. Not bad income to row a boat & change a clients flies.

 

[SBecker]

I thought they took much more. Based on your comment a guide would be grossing about $600 per trip minus the shuttle & lunches. Not bad income to row a boat & change a clients flies.

I don't know the exact amount, I was just guessing.

 

[wbranch]

I don't know the exact amount, I was just guessing.

I'd bet the outfitter keeps half the fee. Then the guide gets the other half plus the tip.

 

[SBecker]

I'd bet the outfitter keeps half the fee. Then the guide gets the other half plus the tip.

I don't think that is true at all. I have a buddy that works for the DRC, I will ask. Hell my outfitter takes such a small fee from me, so I find it absurd the ones up there take half.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I thought they took much more. Based on your comment a guide would be grossing about $600 per trip minus the shuttle & lunches. Not bad income to row a boat & change a clients flies.

This is what I don't get. I fully understand that the guides sometimes really rely on the tip, and we're told constantly that you MUST tip generously, but I've always been a working-class schmuck and it was always hard for me to justify tipping on top of what seems to be a reasonable pay rate. If the guides get anywhere near what's being described here, I think there should be far less emphasis on tips and far less shaming for those guys who occasionally take a guided trip and can't a hundred-dollar tip or more on top of it. If they're really getting anywhere near this rate, they make more for a trip than I ever made for a day of work in my life and my job at times was QUITE stressful, hard and even dangerous.