West Branch Delaware River, Delaware Co., 7/9-10/2010

[mcwillja]

Waded the West Branch from Stilesville to as far down as the PA gamelands friday and saturday. sulphurs sz 20 friday and olives and sulphurs sz 20 on saturday were hatching. Nymphed midge larva in the gamelands and hooked up with some real nice bows. Caught over 20 fish from 14-22 inches with 2 20" browns and a 22 inch brown up in Stilesville. All in all a very good trip.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Great report!

 

[jayL]

And yours truly got the net assist and took the one photo! :-D

Nice fish Jason.

 

[mcwillja]

Jay - No way man!! That was you? I never would have landed that Brown if it wasn't for you. I'm serious on that. I owe you big time for the assist and then the pic. I really do appreciate you taking the time to do that. Maybe I can return the favor someday. I wasn't the most graceful at getting that fish to net that's for sure.

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

I'll assume you saw out cluster-f brigade come by. LMAO. No oars, duct tape on a torn pontoon, etc. I'll bet you didn't know the circus was in town.

Congrats. We caught fish but nobody landed any of the big boys. Saw some big fish, hooked some but none to net. I think that's the fish Brandon was after but he missed him about an hour earlier. Jay was at the tail end of our group.

 

[jayL]

Yep. I didn't mind doing it. I was just half afraid that I'd botch it on you, but luckily he was pretty much whipped by the end. Still had me concerned that he was going to hit that riffle, but it worked out. Glad I could help.

I'll let you know the next time I'm headed up there. Maybe we can meet up. I need to spend a lot more time up there to figure the place out.

 

[mcwillja]

Now I gotcha. You had a guy come down first in a Kayak. he nymphed up above me for a while before you guys came down. A very nice guy he introduced himself to me ( I can't remember his name) He explained the whole thing to me. What a mess you guys had. I have to get one of those pontoons though. They are sweet.

I just hit it right on that trip. I'm due for good skunking up there soon.

 

[mcwillja]

Sight Nymph - you mentioned the circus being in town. Well I spend a lot of time at my camp up there in the spring and summer and when I drive through Deposit the circus is already there trust me....LOL!!

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

Those boats are sweet.... especially if you can find a couple of sorry SOB's to tow you down river.

I started using one 18 months ago. They are pretty nice. It allows you to fish or get to fish when the flows are too high for wading. I'm sure the wading guys will complain that we are causing them a headache. We try to be curtious and go behind the anglers. It was Jays first trip in one and I think he'll agree w/ this... It's much harder for the guy in the pontoon that's coming down to a section of wader fisherman. We've got to zig zag to avoid making people angry. In addition, we have got to duck the backcast of the guy who's p'd off at us for floating 40' behind him. Like that's disturbing his fish. It's more fun when the flows are up and wader fisherman numbers are down. If you can learn the typical float pattern of the guides, you can get in below them or an hour behind them and it makes the trip much more enjoyable. If you buy a boat, get a good one or you'll regret it like the one guy in our group did.

 

[mcwillja]

my only thing is I don't like to sit and cast so I would either beach my pontoon or get the ones with steel platform where you can stand.

 

[jayL]

It's mainly for getting from A to B. An anchor is nice so you can just park it and get out to wade. Sight was fishing from his, but I didn't do much of that. I think that once you get used to navigating it, fishing is a possibility.

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

I had the blue scadden pontoon w/ standing platform....and oars. LMAO. It's a great set up. I've had the standing platform in use a handful of times but not as much as I thought. If you get to a big flat like the junction pool, you can drop anchor, put up lean bar and platform, let out some anchor rope to ease down on the fish and then get to business. For the most part, the fish aren't spooked by the boats and will rise 5' away from you. Just keep out some line and start casting while you're floating through. I hooked several fish on nymphs as I floated into the heads of pools. Casting from a sitting position with oars / other crap in the way does take some getting used to and it's a little sloppy at times.

Like J said, it's great for covering water or crossing to get to a better location on the other side. If the flow was at 650-800, you couldn't have gotten to many fish that you could reach on Saturday. I'd just row across and reach them from the other side.

 

[jdaddy]

Ya, ya, ya . . . get the oar thing in there a few more times . . . . I felt like the biggest azz being towed, not so much by you as it looked somewhat normal, but being towed by the kayak got a lot of comments along the "so I know who lost that bet" or "so how much you paying him to haul you?". I did offer to buy the dude a bunch of beer and dinner, but he left early. Not that there was anywhere to eat at midnight . . . . lol.

mcwillja, those are some NICE browns buddy.

 

[jayL]

LOL. Yeah, dinner was the worst part of that debacle.

A ham and cheese hot pocket, doritos, corn nuts, wheat thins, beef jerky, and cheez its from the getty/head shop.

Penns has more late night options, and that's sayin something. I couldn't believe both McDonalds and Wendys were closed for an hour by the time we tried to go.

I am bringing a charcoal grill next time.

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

Think about this.... We fish until dark in late May (9pm), we load the boats, go get the other car, hit the motel to let the dog out, change clothing and still get to the diner before it closes at 10. That is on the main stem which is 10 miles further away! Just need to tweak the vehicle situation to make things work better with a bigger group.

You think the selection of places to eat/drink was bad? Early spring and after Labor Day, it's worse. Almost everything closes at 8 or 9. Load up at breakfast or luchtime!

 

[jdaddy]

Ya, that Getty closed around 9:00 or so in October last year. There was nothing.

Hey, the charcoal grill sounds better than any McDonalds or Wendys! It's actually a really, really good idea IMHO. I mean I really like that idea.

My dinner consisted of a $4.89 + 10% tax box of Cheezits and 8 or so beers. I am surprised you guys did not need to double down on the Immodium after those monster hot pockets. Did I mention I like the charcoal/steak idea?

 

[jayL]

Yeah, I actually think I prefer doing the grill. Even if there was a good place to go, I'd probably rather do the grill.

Let's plan a little better next time and bring one. A burger or two, or some steak and corn on the cob would have kicked some righteous ***.