Posted on June 05 2023
With the heat wave broken and my Drs appointment on Friday rather than Tuesday it was a sure bet I would head back down today. The volleyball granddaughter is on a ten day tour of Europe with her North Dakota State team and there was a game scheduled today at 11:00 e.s.t. Someone is recording the games and sending them back across the pond via facebook, except todays match never appeared. Watched grandson #4's (by age) team advance to the semifinals in the state high school lacrosse tournament on Saturday, took care of chores and got a hug and a kiss from Jean and departed for the Lordville Estate around 1:00 today.
At 80, the slower life of downtown Lordville suits me just fine (we do have a stop signs at "the" intersection, which both the deer and second homers ignore). Unpacked, watered the orchids and my fenced in garden (one rhubarb plant, four pepper plants, and three tomato plants), put away the food Jean prepared, swore when I realized there were two (so far) items that I forgot to put on the buy list and consequently won't have, and went fishing.
The fishing - Neither fish nor bugs like hot water. When water temps are above 65 the bugs hatch at night. When the water temps are above 70 the fish can't get enough oxygen to do much of anything. The cold front and clouds that moved in today brought temps back to more seasonal levels and both the fish and bugs responded. Went out early (about 6:15) and found both bugs hatching and fish feeding. It's not that I didn't have fish to throw at, and it's not that fish didn't come to the fly, but in two and a half hours with almost every cast directed towards a rising fish , I got it handed to me. "Hooked" nine fish, caught one shad, four rainbows (two nice ones) foul hooked one, (possibly two) and lost the other three. There was no wind, made a lot of what I thought were good casts and got mostly ignored. But, there were enough refusals (some indignant) to let me know they all saw my fly.
The fish in the Delaware River System suffer no fools. If you are hear or planning to come, know that you will see both bugs and rising fish. Any fish you get to eat your fly is a noteworthy achievement, but know this, if you can consistently catch fish on a dry fly here, you can catch fish anywhere.
A119
Is there a fly style (parachute, comparadun or ???) that works better for you than others? Just curious if picky fish like a certain style more?
P.S. also we used to fish the yellow drake and cream drake hatches in the evenings during the first week of July. Now the water is in the mid70s and unfishable by mid June. Thank God for the tailwaters
Angler119 Sounds like you had an interesting but successful evening. It appears that the fishing is getting tougher and tougher. Congratulations to your grandchildren on their respective accomplishments. Regarding the last Q&A – the hatches on the freestone’s have definitely moved earlier in the season that they historically had been . For example, we would catch the cornutas sometime around Father’s Day back in the mid-70s. March Browns at the end of May. Now most bugs generally seem to be hatching a week or even 10 days earlier. The effects of global warming? Warmer winters/springs , less ice and snow cover and therefore more sunlight penetrating the stream bottom?? Don’t know , but I think so
As I have said in the past, do not bring someone who is learning to fly fish to the Delaware. They will get discouraged and never learn the sport!