Posted on September 17 2023
It's Sunday morning. Watched Syracuse's win over Purdue last night so I didn't get started on answering your questions until this morning.
Black Boat had me going again with his Casey Kasmiri, thought he was equating me with with a famous Indian fly fishing savant that I'd never heard of. Casey Kasem I remember well.
Dennis asked about white flies and Hebe's. White flies (Ephorons ) are a very prolific warm water fly that hatches in late summer and early fall. They hatch, molt, mate and die all within a couple hours around sunset. The spinner falls can be spectacular. Because of the cold release water the best hatches on the Delaware occur below Hankins. Hebe's are a small, big winged lemon/olive fly that hatches in the fall usually after the daily iso hatch is over. They don't taste good and I've never caught a fish on one.
Darryl Bogart asked about the "Pay Side" which for me, is a fictional side of the A-119 fishing reports where paying customers get exclusive inside information.
Chris asked which river is best in the fall. Of course, it depends. The freestones seem to have the best iso hatches. The mainstay of the fall fishing (October and beyond) is the pseudo which appears everywhere usually during the warmest part of the day (think Hendrickson hatch time). Because they are small, fish are reluctant to expend energy feeding on them in high water. Look for rising fish in slow water pool tailouts especially when the flow is low.
Chris Z. and D. Martin both asked if I thought rainbows had expanded their range. Ed S. caught a nice 'bow yesterday but didn't say if it was in the Willow or the BK. I've never caught one in the Willow but my experience there is limited. In the 35 years I've fished the BK the rainbows have clearly increased their numbers significantly. The UEB puzzles me. It is predominately a brown trout stream but over the last half a dozen years I have caught yearling rainbows up as far as Shinhoppel. The lower reaches of the UEB are often used as a thermal refuge for 'bows from both the BK and BE, during the hot summer months.
Fall rainbow fishing can be excellent if you get into a good iso hatch. At this time of year the big browns are beginning to have other things on their mind and during the fall pseudo hatch most of the browns up and feeding will be one and two year olds (9/14 inches).
Thanks for the info. I hope to get into some fall Bows on Wed/Thu. Maybe we will cross paths….I’ll probably be on the lower WB or Main.
I’ve caught some good rainbows (some, not many) as far upstream as the Red Rose pool on the BK over the past decade or so. Took a 17" bow in the riffle at the very head of the now half-posted upper stretch of Long Flat on the UEB about 5 years ago. A DEC guy I bumped into downstream later that day referred to it as a “unicorn.”
I recall many years ago I saw a report on the survivable temperature ranges for various trouts. As one might expect brook trout required the lowest temps to survive. What surprised me was that rainbows could survive in temps about a degree or two warmer than browns. That, of course does not necessarily mean that is their preferred temp range. I don’t know what that means with regard to the expanded range of rainbows in the Delaware system.
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A119 thanks for answering my questions and I am sure I’ll have plenty more.
Correction—Stadel ‘s Run (darn self correct)
Angler119- Thanks for your response to the various readers. Inquiries. Always informative. The rainbow I caught on Thursday was downstream from the Acid Factory. Over the last 10 or so years I caught some nice rainbows as far up the BK as Stadlers run( the old Westwind motel)but none upstream from there.Enjoy the weekend. Ed