The day of the rainbow trout doubles. Fun stuff with these guys. We caught walleye and bass on streamers. A few trout on wet flies. Then a handful on dry flies. We had a short and exciting dryfly session during the heat of the day. Another dynamic day on the Delaware.
Colin and Sean day one.
These guys fish with me every year. Back to back days and sometimes more.
We hit em hard today bangin on some rainbows with Caddis and found some browns eating mayflies.
What a day!
Bill and Bill
These guys fish hard all day and are full of laughs. The fishing gods shined down upon us.
These were two of the first three fish.
We also had two rainbows on at the same time. I was able to net one, remove the hook, and scoop the second. But during the scoop the other fish snuck straight out. Whoops, sneaky rainbows.
Here’s one of the two from the double rainbow!
Many trout, walleye and bass were landed today.
The bug hatch was short and sweet from about 3-5 pm. Had to make the cast through the wind to connect with big trout. Many different kinds of bugs on the water.
A gray day for great trout fishing.
Mike and his buddy Scott G. Found a few walleye and some slammer brown trout.
Evan and Matty also found some nice trout on dry flies.
April, March Brown mayfly.
Spotted a few of these today during a short hatch window. The earliest I’ve ever seen them.
Conditions were tough today with a nice trout and Shad lost next to the boat, and a few bass and fallfish being landed.
Stenonema vicarium-March Brown
Russ and Dave had a great day.
Not much wind, blue skies and prolific Caddis flies created for a fun day of dry fly fishing. We saw an otter and a mink and a whole bunch of trout.
Rain day with the Gurda boys.
These guys fish with us through thick and thin, year in and year out. Today was cold, windy, rugged and wet. We fished until we were soaked to the bone. Between two boats we landed brown trout, rainbow trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, fallfish, and red breast sunfish. The variety of the species never ceases to amaze me. We barely had a moment to take the camera out, but were able to catch the glamour of this rainbow.
Blue skies
The last few days were high pressure with blue skies and wind. We targeted Shad under a sun dog and it represented a large 0 for shad numbers. We talked with local shad die hards who also got skunked. One fallfish prevented our skunk on Thursday.
Friday with blue skies again we did okay in the early morning but the fish shut off and were mostly short striking spinning lures throughout the sun. A bonkers apple Caddis “popcorn” caddis hatch broke out. A few fish were rising for them but overall a tough day.
Clouds and Rain in the forecast.
Day two with Chris and Bill.
The trout were a bit less cooperative today than yesterday. But we still boated nine and had a nice chilly day on the water.
The sun popped around 4 pm and the trout fed heavily on Caddis and Hendricksons. That made for a surface feeding spectacle. It’s great to see the bug life in full swing.
Day one with CD and BK.
These guys have been fishing the Delaware for over thirty years with late guide Billy Frasier.
They know how to work lures and are always working hard for their next fish. We were fortunate enough to have active fish sub surface with minnow style baits all day long.
There were very few trout rising for the blanket Hendricksons and quills but right at the end we spotted a few noses and Bill and Chris were nice enough to offer a guide cast to the rising fish. Here are a few photos from the day! 3 browns measured in at 20”. A baby beaver, many eagles and a variety of ducks and bugs. The Upper Delaware is coming to life. Happy Spring!
Hendricksons are here.
The first great mayfly of the year has begun hatching thank goodness. After very high water conditions for the past few years the Hendrickson mayfly or Ephemerella Subvaria is back. During fishable conditions.
From hot and dry to wet and cold.
We have had a major swing in temperatures and weather. Moderate spring temperatures and weather will resume on Tuesday. Until then we’re getting a fire going and watching the cold rain and mixed snow showers fall.
Here is a photo of some Trout Lily we spotted on a short walk yesterday.
“Noice” guy Steve hits the first dry fly fish of the year.
Oguaga creek blew out the west branch and we had some action on streamers and dries today in the limited visibility.
Joe and Doug had a nice day.
Beautiful weather and a bite that kept us working hard for a few nice fish. Streamers and nymphs were the ticket today.
Two day Jay
We battled tough conditions for brown trout yesterday, it felt like a day the fish should be chasing meat, but it was a ‘meaty ocre’ bite. We caught a few “fun sized browns”.
Today we opted to chase the early season Shad as they migrate up our river.
We had early success in the morning landing a few shad first thing. Then as the sun came out and wind picked up, the bite slowed a bit. We ended up hooking ten and landing five on white and pink shad flies. A few fallfish and bass were landed as bycatch. One rainbow was hooked briefly.
Hoping some mayfly hatches will begin tomorrow and throughout the remainder of the week as the water levels drop and the temperatures rise. Best wishes to all who fishes!
First rainbow trout of the year.
Today was cold and windy. We worked with sink tip lines in cold water and finally found a simple productive dark streamer that boated three fish in the early afternoon. The little bit of warming temps woke a few fish up.
A different kind of spring day.
My buddy Gary from Long Island called and told me he was hitting some of his favorite spots wading today. I had some guide meetings and other commitments in the morning and I met up with him in around noon.
He had Wade fished a few spots in the morning and caught his personal best brown trout on the west branch! Check out this pic! He hand painted his new rapala to look like a baby brown trout. And hell yeah did it work! This fish measured 28”!!!
Then after meeting up with Gary we headed to the NYC reservoirs and targeted respawn smallmouth. After getting blanked on our first few spots, we found the motherload. I landed close to ten bass between 14”-19”. And Gary put a hurtin on a few too.
Always grateful for a buddy to call and share some new spots and take the lead on a fishing day.
Big water Brown trout
We floated the main stem in about 5,000 cfs today. We worked hard for limited action with bright sun and a steady south wind that never let up. Mark put a handful of quality browns in the boat and one walleye and one bass to round out the day.
We also saw a Giant Water Bug! It was at least 4” long
A cold day, full of brown trout.
With the main forage being Alewives these brown trout are fat and juiced up with early season energy. A good number of alewives are found for the first few miles below the Cannonsville dam right now. And we’re seeing a majority of the trout are feasting on them. Some skinny trout mixed in.
Today’s bite started slow, with the best bite window coming between 1-3pm. Then many follows and more hookups afterwards. Dan B. And his finesse with high quality equipment was able to put 20 brown trout to the boat today with three measuring 19.5”.
A great day for a cold start in graupel snowflakes, and 39 degree water in the morning. Here are some photos of the dead alewives and some quality browns Dan landed today.
Happy Easter!
“Thin mint” Dave and Brian B. had another nice day on the river. These guys grind it out for walleye and trout with us every spring and fall.
