Delaware Mainstem, W Branch 5/4/08

Date:5/4/08

Location: Delaware River Mainstem and Lower West Branch

The Characters: Kory K, Karl Anderson

Weather: Mostly cloudy a.m. to partly cloudy p.m. Breezy a.m. and becoming very windy p.m. and then dying at dusk

Water Temp: 50s

Water Level: Around 1800 cfs on Mainstem around 400 on West Branch

Water Clarity/Quality: Clear

Hatches: Caddis, Hendricksons, sporadic olives and other mayflies

Moon Phase: Day before new moon

Fishing: Arrived around 9 a.m. or so Hiked in from Jct. pool in a.m. fish sporadically working, but nothing consistent. Found one fish in pocket in a riffle below tailout. Got it to eat caddis 3 times over about an hour and missed all three times. Made our way down to lake lenore. Fish were working sporadically on river right but would shut down every time the sun came out. Caddis were coming off in waves and they were all over the surface. For the amount of bugs, the fish were not too keyed on them. Walked our way back up the river right bank and found two good bank feeders but put both of them down. Being that it was a steep bank, I fished the first from below and the wind was howling in my face so I never really got a drift. Walked all the way around and came down on him and he went down. The next fish we walked all the way around and down on and never even got a drift.

We went back up to the car and decided to explore. We checked out the East Branch near Cadosia and there were some fish up about a 100 yards up and down the bank. We waded down and it looked good. There were some March Browns coming off in addition to Hendricksons and some other misc. mayflies. The caddis were very sporadic compared to the main. All of a sudden the wind picked up and it felt like a front was passing and the fish shut off like a light switch. We packed up and headed out to find another spot. Drove around on the east but couldn’t find good access. Went back to the West and checked out balls eddy. There were Hendricksons on the water and cases were floating en masse. We basically missed the peak of the hatch but walked down the bank looking to no avail. Packed it up again and headed to the 191 bridge. Went to the same spot where I broke of the two bank feeders the week before and sure enough they were up again. I worked on the upper one and gave Karl the lower. I got the upper to eat the fly and missed him. My early setting was starting to really piss me off at this point. Karl stuck the lower fish and after a decent battle landed about a 19-20 inch fish. Pretty sweet for his first D fish.

After that I spotted another fish along the bank, and waded down. I made a few casts and got a good drift with the snowshoe compara and he engulfed it. I finally waited on this fish and stuck him. After a pretty good battle, I landed this fish. It was a nice 18 or so inch brown.

After landing this fish, Karl and I continued to wade down scanning for risers and spotted another very nice fish in a tough spot just off the grass. A small rock was just upstream making the drift very difficult. After numerous tries Karl gave up. I made a few casts but the fish was put down. We worked back up and found a few fish up. I hooked a few small ones and made my way to the top. Saw some bigger fish on the other side and noticed a lot of spinners starting to show. Finally the wind was subsiding and fish were starting to work pretty well. I made my way to the other side and Karl yelled as he had another fish. Turned out he landed one really good fish and another midsize and some smaller ones. The fish were going ballistic right at dark, big fish rising recklessly to spinners in pods. I went over to the other side and hooked and landed a sweet hook jawed male that ripped me almost to backing and another nice fish. Also had a few others hooked and or missed before it was all over and too dark to see. It was a killer end to a good, but tough day.