Posted on August 18 2026
My ploy to get the fishermen off the river with the, "Let me tell you where it's at", offering on Friday worked like a charm. At 4:30 when I drove up to Deposit, there were but two cars in the Men's Club lot, neither JF or Mike-the-Cop were parked at the Lee Conklin Plaque tree, and not a fisherman was in sight. There were no fishermen below the town bridge and but one above. Drove up river to the Red Barn/ Stilesville area and was perplexed by what I saw. Three fishermen in the Red Barn pool and five cars parked at the Red Barn, even more perplexing was that there was but one fisherman in the water at Stilesville with six cars in the parking area, (there was one fisherman standing in the road talking with what appeared to be a non-fisherman).
Me? I had things yet to do both at home and at the Lordville Estate before I could don the waders. At 2:30 I was finally ready to go. With a cloudy overcast sky, I decided to see if the lack of sun got some isos or even olives hatching on the BR. It didn't, but I was able to get three rainbows to eat blind casts in less than 15 minutes of action. I then spent an hour and a half proving what a fluke it was.
At 4:15 I made the trip up to Deposit, (see paragraph one above), and had no trouble finding an open pool. There were sulfurs and olives on the water and within less than five minutes a fish ate my sulfur on a blind cast. Within the next twenty minutes two more fish ate my offerings. Landed one and lost the second, then spent an hour and a half being refused by every fish in the pool.
At 7:00 I reentered the water on the BR, (several miles upstream from my initial effort), where the high point of the stop was a 15 minute conversation with Dale, who after a mere 5 minutes asked if I was A-119. He had caught 2 rainbows on nymphs and hadn't seen a rise since his arrival at 3:30. I had a fish give me an indignant refusal on an iso, hooked and lost a small fish on a spinner and hooked and lost a nice fish on an olive.
The bugs - Still a modest/decent number of sulfurs hatching up river and it's not crowded with anything except cars. The BR, neither Dale nor I saw a single bug on the water or for that matter, a fish rise, (except to a fly attached to a line).
Yes, i have seen a few white bugs recently but I say a few
by a few i mean one or two below Men’s club access last weekend. The sulfurs are definitely waning in that area.
Had white flies at long flat last Friday, a few olives and that’s about it.
“What kind of water do you target when blind casting?”
The wet kind
Fishing WB on Aug 20 and 21. First time on the Delaware. I’ve read several post here and haven’t read anything about stripping meat. Anyone….Anyone….Bueller?
Its been a minute since I’ve left a comment. Haven’t fished as we’ve been working on the house in Hankins and finally moved in full time on Sunday. I have been keeping track of bugs under the patio light though. Several Iso spinners since July, one large Iso dun yesterday, plenty of sulfers, golden stones, freaky moths and large WHITE flies! Spinners, duns and exoskeletons have been on the door since late July I’d say. White flies (Ephoron Leukon) or Cahills? Not sure.
Question; when you say Stilesville parking lot i assume you mean the lot just upstream of the Red Barn? Is there a parking/access point upriver of this. Last time I fished up at the spillway I basically trespassed and waded in the river the rest of the way ;)
What kind of water do you target when blind casting?
I fished the zone yesterday and landed but one fish. It was a 15 in rainbow. There was a modest hatch and some fish were rising but nothing spectacular. I had many refusals on the flies I threw. Bwo sulfurs and emergers. Good luck to all