Any info on upper delaware? 4/23/15

[vcregular]

Sounds like you are set but I would strongly suggest against 6x. Those fish will rip you off in a nano-second with 6x. Long leaders do aid in drift extension though. A huge help in combating micro-drag.

 

[krayfish2]

+1 on not using 6x. In 28 yrs, I may have used 6x half a dozen times (trico & pseudo fishing). You are fishing to larger / wild / strong fish that aren't limited on powerful runs by the constraints of a small PA stream. Many fish up there will snap your 5x before you can blink.

"hoping it's better than my first trip up 6 weeks ago". Patience. It's a large and complex river that sends many good anglers home scratching their head. Diverse hatches, sometimes smothering hatches and almost always....overlapping hatches. I think it took me 4 days to catch my first fish up there and it was a monstrous 9" brown. If you are doing more observing than casting, you're on the right track. Study the rise form to help figure what the fish is eating. Check the film and don't get caught up in what you see flying by. Many times caddis swarms will blow through but none are on the water. Look again and you might see thousands of #22 olive cripples.

Here's the advice I have to offer......
If you get skunked on 5 trips up, make a 6th. One good day on that river can give you memories that may never be matched again. Since the size of river can be overwhelming for those of us that grew up fishinfg PA trout streams. Spend a day with a good guide or pair up with someone with some experience up there. It can reduce the learning curve. Lots of guys on here with experience up there.

It's not an easy river. Met 2 guides from Montana that were up for 2 weeks. 5 days into their trip, hadn't hooked a fish or even gotten a take. I was fishing almost the same section and averaged 7-9 fish / day. It's just a hard place to fish and can make anyone look bad if you hit it at the wrong time. LOL

 

[afishinado]

+1 to VC and Andy ^

A lot of guys go up to the D and think they have to use light tippets to catch fish. Weamer did a disservice to many anglers by mentioning in his book that he fishes 6x up there. You aren't going to land may fish using 6x.

For streamers I use 0x-2x (yes 0X with a sink tip line or poly leader). I will typically nymph with 4x or even 3x fluoro when fishing heavy nymphs bouncing them on the bottom.

As Andy wrote above, the only time to use 6x is when fishing tiny flies like tricos or psuedos...but that is very seldom up there in my experience. For dries, 5x mono is typically as light as I go. I try to match the size of the fly with tippet. I shake my head when I see a guys using 6x tippet when fishing a size 10 2xl Iso fly....good luck with that!

To land big fish you have to rig for big fish....use strong tippet, tie good knots, and retie good knots with fresh tippet often. If not, all your memories of the D will be seeing the butt end of a big fish in the distance.

 

[njk3395]

I'm hoping to float the second weekend in July

 

[krayfish2]

Come the second week of July, could be floated or ankle deep. This season has been unpredictable. The all day soaker Saturday all but missed them. I just got a call from the motel.....they are getting POUNDED with rain as I type. Figures as I was leaving at 4am. Looks like the flows will jump big time and the river will get quite stained. Looks like muddy water for the next couple of days. Could be longer if the predicted thunderstorms materialize midweek. oh well

 

[Stimey]

Kray,

At least with the high water you won't have to worry about scratching the bottom of that shiny new boat! Good luck up there this week. I may make it up one day this week for a day trip

 

[troutpoop]

I just got back at 2pm. This morning it was raining hard the water was up and staining.
Yesterday was really nice. I would think next week would be a good bet unless they get more rain.

 

[Makee]

the weather looks good for the weekend, i am thinking about going back up sunday and monday. After last weekend catching my largest trout to date i have the itch to get back out there

 

[afishinado]

There she blows!...

Cannonsville is full and spilling over the dam. The River is blown and really not fishable right now. I would check for conditions to improve before making plans to drive up there.

 

[krayfish2]

I must have really pissed off someone. LOL. Every single time I've come up here since October, I've gotten jacked up by mother nature or rivermaster. We we out yesterday and floated in a mild 3600 cfs river of yoohoo. In horrible conditions, we managed to boat some fish but it was serious work to do so. Conditions have improved but aren't good. Unless you own stilts, wading isn't an option. Once the dams stop spilling, the rivers should drop quickly. Not sure if that wil happen for a few days though. No rain in immediate forecast so that helps.

WB is 701 release w/ 925 spilling. Upper EB is 1600 at Harvard. Beaverkill is over 900 at Cooks Falls. No shortage of water right now.

Big Bass got his first fish up here yesterday in 2" visibility. We also saw a few fish rising in the muddy water which was hard to believe. Today looks better but Kramer can't row so this might be a day of beer and tv re-runs.

 

[mellowluke]

I'm thinking of making a run up on 7/5 if the Main keeps dropping. If you see a dude in a ro on the sticks wearing a red hat, say hello.

Probably going to make an offering to try and appease the water gods. Does anyone know what Poseidon would prefer as a sacrifice? I was thinking salmon fillets from Acme.

 

[njk3395]

Have the plans booked up for 7/10-7/11.. looks like I may hit some good conditions for once in my life

 

[evw659]

I was gonna go up this mornong for 3 nights, but I ended up cancelling yesterday morning when I looked at the guages. Good thing I did.hoping to go up next thursday-sunday. The system should be in good shape by then.

 

[zephyr]

So, I am planning on making a trip up to the west branch this sunday the 5th. However, I've been paying close attention to the usgs flow of the stream. At the moment it is super high. Hoping that the water will stop over flowing the damn. Since i will be wading and starting at hales eddy and working my way upstream. Will it even been possible to wade the stream at these high levels? I am hoping that the flow will slow down by Sunday. I wad up at the stream last Saturday and had a terrific day minus the down pouring of rain. Caught some nice bows and browns. 3 on dry light cahil size 16 and two on hairs ear nymph size 12. Hoping the stream will go down.

 

[krayfish2]

Met big bass, stimey and one of the regulars at the motel. We fished Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Boated fish all days in adverse conditions. Just got off the river and crashing for a few hours before driving home. Report and pics will follow. We had a blast

 

[afishinado]

zephyr wrote:
So, I am planning on making a trip up to the west branch this sunday the 5th. However, I've been paying close attention to the usgs flow of the stream. At the moment it is super high. Hoping that the water will stop over flowing the damn. Since i will be wading and starting at hales eddy and working my way upstream. Will it even been possible to wade the stream at these high levels? I am hoping that the flow will slow down by Sunday. I wad up at the stream last Saturday and had a terrific day minus the down pouring of rain. Caught some nice bows and browns. 3 on dry light cahil size 16 and two on hairs ear nymph size 12. Hoping the stream will go down.

Last Saturday Hale Eddy was at 500cfs. Right now it's over 3,000cfs. It's really too high to wade, you really need to float the River if you were to fish. To put it into perspective, there is 6x more water flowing right now and if you waded in the same spots, the water would now be over your head.

Keep checking the levels, but I highly doubt the River will be in shape for wading this weekend.

If the dam stops flowing over, there may be some wading in the upper section of the WB. Since you fished Hale Eddy last week (which is in NY) I assume you have a NY State fishing license which is needed to fish the Upper West.

 

[zephyr]

Ok thanks for putting that into perspective for me. Looks like i might be fishing the Beaverkill instead. Additionally, I ran into DNR last weekend and was told that you only need a PA or NY licences to fish the WB. Since the river system flows into both states one licences is all you need fish. However, i do have my PA and NY fishing Licences so this is not an issue for me.

 

[krayfish2]

In spite of poor conditons, we did "ok". Not good but OK. Caught fish on streamers, nymphs and dries. We had lots of olives, some golden drakes (or something similar), ISO, Stenos and after dark..... big golden stones. Water was quite high and wading really wasn't an option. Temps were good and visibility was horrible to slightly stained depending on the day. We also had a blast catching shad on dries.


Fished with forum members big bass and stimey. We were joined by 2 regulars from the Capra. We also fished with 2 guys from Pittsburgh that I met at the boat launch. They drove all night only to find the river blown out (Daryl and Jake).

Big bass got a little taste of how to fish down to a fish at great distance and the frustration of the D.

PS. The young lady in the pic would shame many of us. She can FISH.

 

[afishinado]

zephyr wrote:
Ok thanks for putting that into perspective for me. Looks like i might be fishing the Beaverkill instead. Additionally, I ran into DNR last weekend and was told that you only need a PA or NY licences to fish the WB. Since the river system flows into both states one licences is all you need fish. However, i do have my PA and NY fishing Licences so this is not an issue for me.

The East Branch of the D River is entirely in NY.

As you travel upstream on the West Branch of the D River, PA no longer borders the River and you cross over into NY. The PA border ends just above the often mentioned "Upper Game Lands" lot. Upstream of there, the River is bordered by NY on both sides and a NY license is required to fish. Hale Eddy is in NY.



Hey K2, looks like you guys did okay under the conditions. Your S-craft looks great! You went from a VW bug to a tricked out Lexus. Now all you have to do is fish it.....pay for it! Good luck to you and Kramer with your new boat....many great trips!

 

[PhilC]

Nice report, fish and new boat....
Has Kramer taken his maiden plunge yet? Figured the little guy might have to learner hard way since he flies around so much. Our old Jack Russell was similar and that's how she learned...never fell in again though