Delaware River 4/26-4/27

Date: 4/26/08

Location: Delaware River Mainstem

The Characters: Kory K, Dave Seversen, Nate ?

Weather: Sunny, warm high 60s, low 70s Windy

Water Temp: Low 50s

Water Level: Around 1800 cfs

Water Clarity/Quality: Clear

Hatches: Apple Caddis thick, various other caddis dark and small, Hendricksons

Moon Phase: Last Quarter

Fishing: Floated Shehawken to Buckingham on mainstem. Didn’t get on until around 1:30 drove up that morning with Tammy and met Dave and Nate. It was their first time out with their new drift boat. Floated and looked for risers although wind made it difficult. We found some about a mile down on the Hendricksons that were coming off. Dave hooked a pig right away on a cdc caddis pattern that ripped out and straightened his hook (he was on 4x with a fly he found). Found a few more a little further down and I made two or three presentations and stuck a pig with a #14 rabbits foot comparadun of my own creation. Pretty good battle and landed and taped at 22 inches. Sweet fish!

The 22 incher on the Hendrickson dry.

After that fish we floated down and continued to look for risers but the wind made it difficult. We got to one point where the caddis coming off were getting blown against the current creating a tumbling upcurrent mass of bugs. I anchored the boat convinced that there had to be fish on them. The wind against the current created a riffle and combined with the mass of bugs it was difficult to see if fish were rising. After staring hard, we realized that yes in fact there were several fish eating them but it was extremely hard to pinpoint them. We jumped out and tried fishing to them, but from our angle the wind was blowing the fly across the casting plane and it was super tough. We had a lot of river to cover and figured we could easily find more fish in an easier scenario and left. As we floated we caught up with several boats and the bugs started to taper off. We stopped on one bank that had been good the week before and anchored and waited. Eventually we found one fish and Nate jumped out to work it. Dave and I rowed up looking for more fish. We finally found a pig in 4 inches of water making laps in a micro bank eddy chowing caddis. Dave worked the fish for 40 minutes and the drift was just too tough. I tried a few casts but it was getting late and I broke my fly off on the bank grass and waded in and spooked the fish. After that we just pushed out. There were still some risers but Nate was cold and we were meeting Tammy for dinner. All in all a good afternoon. If we had waded I think we would have done much better being able to focus on groups of fish for longer but it was a great time.

Date: 4/27/08

Location: Upper Mainstem, Lower West Branch

The Characters: Kory K,

Weather: Cloudy in the morning, clearing into the afternoon. Pretty calm. High 50s in the morning warming to high 60s by afternoon.

Water Temp: Low 50s on main, mid 40s on west.

Water Level: Around 1800 cfs on main, low on west about 400 or so at gauging station.

Water Clarity/Quality: Clear

Moon Phase: Last Quarter

Hatches: BWOs in the a.m. small around 20. Hendricksons thick in the p.m. and caddis of various types.

Fishing: In a nutshell. Fished the morning a mile or so below jct. pool and had 6 eat, only hooked and landed one on size 20 BWOs sparkle duns and such. Missed the others, set too early. In the afternoon drove to buckingham, thick caddis but no fish really on them after an hour walk. Went back up river andthe Hendricksons came off prolifically. Fished jct. pool but too crowded. Went to pool below 191 nobody there. Broke two pigs off on the set in lower section on the bank. Landed two med. sized fish one bow one brown in the middle. At very end around 7 p.m. landed 3 in a row at the top of the pool on the seam. All fish ate Hendrickson pattern.

Full Narrative below:

Fished the morning from 7:30-10:30 on the upper main about a mile or so below the jct. above where we saw the tumbling caddis. There wasn’t a soul on the river, it was very beautiful and peaceful. When I first looked at the water, I didn’t see much except for sporadic risers. I knew though that if there were sporadic risers, there was probably more going on than first appeared. I stood and watched and noticed a rise from a very nice fish in the eddy right in front of me. I watched and looked closer and saw that there were quite a few little olives coming off. I didn’t know if they were blue quills or bwos but it didn’t much matter to me after I saw the size and color I knew how to match it. I spent the morning stalking my way up river fishing to different risers and groups of risers. I ended up getting 6 fish to eat the fly but like an idiot, only landed one. I missed all of the rest as a result of being too excited and them being bigger fish with slow methodical rises. I know that it is imperative to wait until the fish goes down to set the hook and have told clients the same thing a 1000 times but still do it myself sometimes. The fish were still rising when I left, but Tammy was back in the room, I was getting cold and hungry and needed a break.

2 hours later or so after breakfast I was ready to hit the water again. After seeing that there were a lot of people and boats on the water, I decided to go way downriver to check it out. Went down to Buckingham launch and went for a walk. There were thick caddis coming off, but not much else. Right on the ramp I noticed a fish rising, but it was only a 9 inch brookie. I made one cast and he eagerly engulfed the fly and I quickly had a pretty little wild mainstem brookie in hand. Pretty cool, but not what i was really after.

I crossed the river and religously scanned for risers. Nothing. I walked about a 1/2 mile upriver and found only one small pod of small fish. Decided to bail out and go back upriver. Hit the Jct. despite the large number of people. Went right up to the seam below the confluence. The upper end had two boats and 3 wading anglers, but the middle portion where it gets deep had room and I noticed a pod of large fish working up. I carefully waded out and was in position, but wanted to change flies. By the time I had the new pattern on, the fish were above me and the guy on the other side had them in front of him. I worked on some other risers below me, couldn’t get an eat and decided I would try to find some less crowded water.

Drove up to the bridge on the lower w.b. and only one car there. Hadn’t fished that before but looked at it many times. Jumped out to see and looked over the edge and instantly spotted an 18 incher sipping right off the bank. Based on that I knew there had to be many more there. Jumped on the water and saw a few rise mid river made one cast and stuck and landed a 15 or so incher. After that I set my radar on the bank feeder. I stared hard as the angle of sight was difficult. I couldn’t see the fish initially, but knew to listen and sure enough heard the telltale sound of a large fish sipping. I stared toward the noise and found my target. Fished that fish hard and put him down. Found another right below him and started working on that fish. There were tons of caddis coming off and I noticed several spinners and Hendrickson duns still coming. I tried numerous patterns all caddis and smaller spinners. Eventually the fish rose and my leader went into his mouth and I hooked and landed him even though he didn’t eat my fly. The upper fish was then back to rising so I worked on him with the same patterns, and couldn’t get an eat. I watched until I saw that he was singling out the hendrickson duns and ignoring everything else. I put the snowshoe comparadun back on, made one cast he ate it and I broke him off on the set. Worked down the bank and found another fish up. Put the same fly on him, one cast, eat broke off on the set. Very frustrated at this point. Decided to work back up and stuk a 14 inch or so rainbow and landed it. Eventually ended up at the top by the 191 bridge and looked to the river left seam from river right. Several fish were up at this point and I stuck three in a row and landed each one all 16-17” good fighting browns. Decided that was a good note to end on since Tammy was waiting in the car and we had a 3 hour drive back to the city. A phenomenal ending to a great day.

Unfortunately, no photos this day.