Posted on May 09 2024
For those of you waiting for my wild life observations, I've got next to nothing. One night last week I encountered a porcupine strolling slowly down state route 97, with no oncoming traffic, I managed to get around him easily. Five miles later a very young fox popped out of the grass on the side of an on ramp right in front of me. Fortunately he was startled by the car and hesitated while I also got around him. The Lordville fox has been dutifully carrying away everything in the fridge that is no longer suitable for human consumption. Have had no bear encounters and it's too early for the rattle snakes to be lying on Lordville road. That's all I got.
When people ask me "Where you gonna fish tomorrow?", I tell them I have no idea. This is true. Won't step into a crowed pool so I never know exactly where I'll end up but most times I know if I'm going east or west out of Hancock. Yesterday I knew I was going to try to fish above the "barking dog" launch. First place I stopped (at 1:15), had rising fish and neither boats nor wade anglers. Hopped in the water and fished to rising fish in a fair to good Hendrickson hatch for an hour and a half. Today, I also knew I was going to fish upstream of the "barking dog" launch. However, unlike yesterday, there were next to no bugs or rising fish, (or fishermen either, they must have known). Stood in the water from 1:15 until after 2:30 before the first Hendrickson appeared. A few fish rose (once each), but there was nothing you could call a feeding frenzy. By 3:30 I was in the car driving along the river looking for bugs, risers, or even anglers casting. Found none of the above. Strangely I landed one more fish this afternoon than I did yesterday.
After the WB hatch fiasco, I drove over to the EB, where I found enough rainbows eating March Brown emergers and something else (???), to make it an entertaining and productive hour and a half of fishing.
At about seven I headed for Lordville with the intent of making my last stand there. Alas, three anglers were ensconced in the riff. I'd already had a good day catch wise, and perhaps, remembering that nasty leg cramp from last night, I called it a day.
What's going on? There are bugs everywhere. Hendricksons have been anything but predictable. Afternoon hatches have been both thick and thin. At seven o'clock I've seen Hendricksons as far down as Buckingham on the BR. March Browns are hatching on the BR, EB, and probably the BK, but unless you are the first person to throw a March Brown at them, don't expect them to eat one. There are caddis everywhere and the fish are eating the pupas, (they don't have hooks in 'em), as they travel up the water column to hatch. Try Hendrickson and March Brown emergers, caddis, and may fly spinners.
Fished WB Tuesday had similar situation. Random caddis early after noon with a few fish eating selectively. Got 12 & 14 incher of course that took more than an hour of fishing time to connect. Then small dark flies starting coming down the river (blue quills?). Again fish were selectively eating. Tried the closest thing I had to a natural but could not connect.Then 2:30ish started seeing Hendricksons. Same thing, a fish here a fish there eating. At least I could target them. A couple of misses but could not connect. Then decide to put on an emerger. One of those that has a miniature “marshmallow” to keep it floating. Second cast as it hit the water it disappeared. Took me at least fifteen minutes in the current, (and my drag on my new reel not working!), to land a beautiful 20 inch rainbow. Looked like my calf it was so think. Measured fotographed and GoPro’d as proof lol. Typical day on the Delaware working you a.. but did grab the ’brass ring".
Angler119- I guess Ringo was right. Some days are tougher than others. But it sound like you hooked into some nice fish. Congrats. Dennis- Kudos on a fun day on the river and some nice fish landed , including a beautiful 16” brown. The stillborn dun is a pattern by Shane Stalcup in his book “ Mayflies from top to bottom”.He also posted quite a few videos. I like it in sizes #12 to #18 for the various hatches. Like all fly patterns-sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn’t. Let me know if you won’t me to send you some for the Sulphurs. Ed
I fished the upper WB yesterday and I had a decent day. I hit the water after2 and found fish rising they were on Hendricksons and caddis. I landed one fish. The lull came about 4. I sat on the bank answering texts and watching a fisher cat run up and down dead falls.
Then at 5 the caddis came the wind died and it was good fishing. I landed 4 more fish had 4 refusals. I was using emergers I landed 5 fish with the largest being 16 in brown