Delaware Report

Tuesday, June 1, 1999

Quick Report: Good hatches of Brown and Green Drakes, supplemented by Blue-winged Olives and caddis, brought some spectacular dry fly fishing in the early part of the week. By week’s end, bright, sunny skies and hot weather put the fish down during the day. But, action remained good in the morning and evening. Water levels are low on the West Branch, but remain good on both the East Branch and Main Stem.

Dear Flyfisher:

We had some of the best dry fly fishing of the year during the early week, with cooler temperatures and overcast skies contributing to steady hatches of flies throughout the day. As always, the evening fishing – the magical "Golden Hour" – remained especially productive, and we caught and released several browns and ‘bows in the 18 to 21" class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

By the end of the week, the skies were clear and bright, and the mid-day fishing fell off as a result. But, we continued to score in the evenings, when big browns and rainbows rose to good spinner falls of Coffin flies and Brown Drakes. The skies remained clear through the weekend, and the bright sun raised water temperatures to near-70 during the day.

The West Branch, which has suffered from low water throughout the season, continued to produce a few trout, but the best fishing was on the Main Stem, where releases from the Pepacton Reservoir at the head of the East Branch continued to keep the water clear, cool and fishable. On Monday, the Cannonsville Reservoir began spilling a little cooling water into the West Branch, although the water levels remained low.

The outlook for this week continues to be for good fishing, with sulphurs beginning to come off more steadily and the chance of Light Cahills beginning to emerge. The drakes are apt to taper off, while we can begin to look for the start-up of the summer Isonychias – big flies that the trout love to eat. We also may begin to see some hatches of tricos in the early morning, since the system’s hatches have been coming about two or three weeks ahead of schedule all season. Tricos usually don’t start up until the end of the month.

The mandated releases for the West Branch of the Delaware are on schedule to begin in mid-June, although continued bright skies and warm days could force small, periodic releases until then to keep the waters cool. Drift fishing is still limited to the East Branch and Main Stem, while the West Branch offers good streamside fishing opportunities.

While the water temperatures have been high in the late afternoon – especially where the water conditions are low – a continued series of cool nights has helped to keep the rivers very fishable. Throughout the season, there was one unconfirmed report of a fish kill on the West Branch, but even that was said to involve only a few fish. We haven’t seen anything close to the kind of conditions that led a few years ago to major fish kills.

The trout population, if anything, seems to have improved this year, and the size of the fish being caught is definitely up. We have caught and released more than 20 rainbows and browns that qualify for many of our flyfishers as "season" or "lifetime" fish. And, there’s definitely more where they came from.

I still have some open dates for June, July and August. This is when the fishing is most challenging. We often fish with size 20 to 24 dry flies on long leaders tapered to 6x or 7x.. I rate it a "9" or a "10" on a ten-point scale, and in terms of excitement it rates an "11." The flyfisher who scores consistently in this kind of fishing has a right to be proud of his or her angling ability, and is definitely prepared to fish any river in the country.

If you’ve never tried fishing an early morning trico hatch, or an evening spinner fall to sipping trout, you’re in for a great treat. Give me a call or drop me an e-mail, and we’ll set up a day on the river and a truly great flyfishing experience.

– Adrian