Posted on June 15 2025
Drove up to Cortland Friday to watch my granddaughter's lacrosse team play in the semifinals for the state championship. They played a team from Long Island that is undefeated and ranked number one in the state. The team is still undefeated having beaten our girls 15 - 7.
To Ed Jones - Have to hand it to you, in a mere ten days you have generated more comments on this blog than I have all season. If you want to reconsider your decision to leave, I have a project for you that I'm sure would be interesting and informative to all who read the blog. The DEC shocks sections of the WB several times a year. If you can obtain copies of the data from a recent year or two AND the data from shockings done back in "The Good Old Days", it will make for some interesting comparisons which I would share on the blog.
Terry Valley - Wants to know when the sulfurs will appear in the afternoons, in good numbers. Historically the Invaria are first to arrive usually by about June 10th, (they were early this year), the hatch increases in numbers peaking around the third week of June and then wanes by the first week in July. The Dorotheas start to show up the first week of July when there is commonly an overlap of the two hatches. The Dorotheas hatch usually continues through all of July and well into August ending when the water beneath the thermocline is exhausted.
This year there is no way of predicting what will happen. Because of the spills in May and June the warmest water in the river has been in Deposit. Bugs that do not usually hatch in big numbers in the coldest water have hatched there this year. The summer sulfur hatch varies in intensity, (they probably all do), from year to year, the silt that built up before the spills probably didn't help, what effect the warm spills will have, remains to be seen. The invaria arrived up stream ahead of schedule. I saw Dorotheas at the gamelands this week. Keep your fingers crossed.
Jim N. - Dave gave me a Proof Ball to try, I didn't like the information that the AI generated app wanted to gather and deleted it. The ball is still sitting in the box it came in. If you, or anyone else wants to try it and report back, just let me know.
AC - Good to hear from you. I regularly stop in the pull off just up from the men's club where you dad's plack is affixed to the tree. You and your dad are both a credit to the Delaware River fly-fishing community. I have fond memories of both talking to and fishing with your Dad. Catch some 'bow's and raise a glass for me when you're out on the Missouri.
Hack-
Without merit. You a funny man! Nah. Maybe you’re right. Just 40 years of interesting.
Streamer eaters…
Interesting comments,
Without merit, but interesting
119 (Richard): You most likely have more pull than me to obtain copies of shocking data from WB. If you can, I would give input from my observations from 43 years of fishing the Upper Delaware System. This season early hatches have been disappointing as we all have observed. Neonicotinoids have certainly received a lot of attention due to their effects on bees and other pollinators and are proposed to be one of the causes of insect declines. For aquatic insects, certainly these agricultural pollutants make their way into the water from mainly the Midwest to Eastern waters through rainfall, BUT, SEDIMENTATION AND ORGANIC POLLUTION are just as important sources of aquatic insect declines. Yes, I have observed crystal clear waters now cloud, super clean rocks have now become covered with silty sediment, etc..in the trout zones ,on both branches ALL the way past Callicoon! UEB being the best of any, but, still water quality has declined as Pepacton has. Never was like this years ago.
I feel the water quality of both Cannonsville and now even Pepacton has declined considerably over the past 10 years. I do spendas much time as I can on all the waters and have seen it first hand. Hatches have diminished progressively over the past 25 years or so. Some being virtually nonexistent. Tricos on MS worth fishing, gone.
I felt after year 2011, the numbers of truly big fish (24"and +) took a nose dive. Most pictures I see this season are fish that are thin and seem stressed more than ever. Less protein from the below average hatches, poorer water quality, more traffic. Surely hope I am wrong, but, it just doesn’t look good. The end to this story is yet to be written.
Happy Father’s Day to All. Angler119’- Sorry to hear your granddaughter’s team lost, but they had a great year and I hope she had fun. Jim N- Fishing with Dad always brings back some great memories. My Dad started me with worms at age 4. Great times. Hope everyone has a wonderful Father’s Day. Ed
And Happy Fathers Day everyone!
My Dad taught me to fish and took me on my first fly fishing trip. While we mostly were spin fishing, I have so many great memories of surf fishing for blues, pond fishing for bass and a few trout chasing adventures. I miss him a lot and would love just one more day on the water with him.
A119
I’ll take you up on your offer of trying the Proof Ball.
AI for fish measuring is intriguing. We used it in some pathology projects when I was working. I’ll reach out to you the next time I am up (hopefully this week).
I hope the 1500 cfs release doesn’t happen just yet. I’d sure like to get on the WB for a day or two.
Chris Z. I’ll chime in here. I am of the FIRM opinion that streamer eaters are streamer eaters. It’s in their genetic code. Now you might think that I’m going to say that’s why Delaware system rainbows don’t do it. In fact, I’m arguing the opposite. If you are a dedicated streamer fisherman, you certainly have encountered a streamer eater. Particularly when wading. I will cycle through a run throwing streamers several times – throw to the bank all the way down, hoof it back up and do it again. If you do this regularly, you will find that blowups happen in the same spot over and over again (sometimes you have to change the streamer). It’s not because there aren’t other fish in the run, it’s because THAT fish is a streamer eater. It’s programmed. This is true of browns, and this is true of rainbows. It’s about finding the streamer eater. Is it relative? Yes. Are browns “more likely” to do it? Perhaps. But I’ve nailed a LOT of streamer eaters that were rainbows in the Delaware system. The bows that do it tend to be BIG. They got big because they are streamer eaters (genes). One last thing- “Delaware system” is the key phrasing here. For example, I’ve commented before on this thread that I’ve seen more and more bows in the BK in recent years, as opposed to 25 years ago.
Quick question that I have never heard a definitive answer. Why do the Rainbows in the Delaware system rarely take streamers?