Upper Delaware Fly Fishing Report

The excellent Fly Fishing in the Upper Delaware River System continues!

Last night some heavy rainfall moved through the region again. This morning all of our freestone river are up in flow and running turbid. This is great news as we are in mid summer and daytime air temperatures are in the 80's.

The turbidity should settle out within the next 24 hours and some areas already have only minor turbidity.

Fishing should remain very steady now through the remainder of the summer. For that reason I plan on only updating this report twice a week and whenever something of interest occurs. Look for new reports on Monday's and on Friday's.

This weekend was another great one for our guests. We had a lot of folks recently who are just starting our with fly fishing. Some we complete beginners, Some had a bit of experience and some were just trying the upper Delaware for the first time.

I think that the Delaware River System hooked all of them. The Next few photos include First Fish ever on a Fly Rod, First Trout, and First Trout from the Delaware. Congratulations to these anglers! All of their Trout were taken with Dry Flies.

Over the last weekend our guides also had a few of our seasoned regulars out taking advantage of the excellent conditions. For these anglers the floats were steady catching. This week I have had the net in my hand almost as much as the oars.

Here is what to expect in the coming days

The Beaverkill and WIlloemoc are back to spring time river flows. Last nights rainfall has the water a bit off color but they will be clear by tomorrow. The turbidity will have no effect on the fishing.

Right now the fishing is decent with dry fly action early and late. I think that the best action on these waters right now will come with fishing a Dry fly Dropper rig in the riffles and pocket water sections. My favorite rig is a big Stimulator or Hopper fished with 2 Bead Head nymphs trailing it. Right now the first nymph should be a #14 and the second a #16, #18. Correct choices are Pheasant tails, Copper Johns, Prince, Caddis Pupa etc. The evenings are seeing Isonychia, Sulfurs, Cahills, Olives, Small Caddisflies and Spinners on the water. The Cahill activity has been profuse at times.

The East Branch is getting a nice release and conditions are real good down to about Fishs Eddy.

The lower river will fish best with the same strategies as the Beamoc waters.

The Upper East is now in it's normal summer routine. The Trout and the insects are on a schedule. There is some surface activity from dawn until the sun gets overhead. The surface activity returns with sporadic action through the late afternoon hours before getting really great right before dark. Our guides have been fishing here regularly and the river has not let us down.

Trico's, Olives, Sulfurs, Isonychia, Spinners, Midges and Terrestrials are whats on the menu. At the current flow of around 375 cfs. the trout are pretty tough to approach and fool. Anglers should be thinking about 15' + leader lengths to make things look natural on the water. The long leader and getting a position well above the Trout has been getting it done for our guests.

The West Branch is still getting the heavy release from Cannonsville Reservoir. This has made for some excellent fishing conditions throughout the West Branch and the Main Stem Delaware. There is good conditions for both drift boat and wade fishing. Wade anglers may find some sections challenging at the current flows. The insects are the same as everywhere in the System. The West has been a bit insonsistent with both the bugs and the rising trout. There has been some intervals however where it has been great.

The Main Stem has been consistently very good. There are insects through most of the day and the Trout are feeding whenever insects are present. We have had no problem finding rising trout even in the full sun situations. The late day activity has been world class. There are many different species of insects on the water and the Trout are feeding heavily on this buffet. Cahills, Isonychia and Yellow Drakes are the flies that are the big treats. Sulfurs and Olives are the main Staple that can be found on the water most any time.

Our guides have been working every day and our guests are being treated to some of the finest dry fly action of the season. Just about ever trip over the last few weeks has yielded 20" class fish on the dry fly. These conditions should last for at least the next month if you want to treat yourself to a float trip.