Guide lower Delaware needed

[andre]

Live in Lambertville and have fished usual haunts around here but can't seem to find any consistent smallmouth fishing. hoping a day with a guide can help. any ideas.

 

[afishinado]

andre wrote:
Live in Lambertville and have fished usual haunts around here but can't seem to find any consistent smallmouth fishing. hoping a day with a guide can help. any ideas.

Wow, Lambertville! A few years ago I would have shook my head reading a thread started by a guy that lives right on the D and couldn't catch smallies.

Not now though, the River has been tough, especially for fly-fishers to consistently find fish. The population is down because of several years of poor spawning success due to high water events during the spring spawn.

Keep on trying different spots on the river; they are there, but you must find them first and put a fly right on their nose to catch them. Using a guide or finding someone that fishes your section often and knows the River would help. Good luck.

 

[fishngun]

I don't know of any guides in that area. Best I can tell you is to put your time in, have a string of locations to hit and possibly spend a day running and gunning. The wing dam holds fish there in Lambertville. If you look further north, just about any parking area has at least a half decent wading spot to fish not too far from it. I haven't had a ton of success with the smallies on the lower D in recent years. I remember years ago when we'd catch a lot of them in a day. Those spots no longer produce like they used to. Not trying to discourage you, just letting you know it's gonna take some effort sometimes.

 

[jrmyln]

There was a fly guide just outside Doylestown but it looks like he retired.
Here is a list of licensed guides broken down by county.

http://fishandboat.com/images/admin/guides/Report1.htm

 

[sandfly]

I used to guide there, but moved 9 years ago. there was a guy in warrington too

 

[Chaz]

Andre, The section from Lambertville to Center Bridge can be good from either side of the river. Also the section near Cooks Creek. There's also the section where the power plant is where Marianstein Rd comes down to RT 32 around the islands. I'd assume you've fished those places though because a lot of anglers know those sections. [color=0099CC]PM [/color]me and I'll see what else I can come up with, I've got a friend who's fished that section all his life.
The Lumberville Wing Dam can be good too. My impression is that there's been a drop in the small population over the last several years. Attached is a creel survey for 2003 to 2011.Creel Survey
Here also is a YOY survey conducted by the Area Biologist, that would be Mike Kaufmann know as Mike on the board here.
YOY Survey
Of the 2 I'd lean toward using the creel survey because that tells you what anglers are catching, though they may not be as skilled as you it gives a better idea of what to expect.

 

[Love2fish]

I feel your pain!!! A few of us fish from Trenton up to Lambertville and haven't been able to find consistent fishing the last 3-4 years. We haven't seen the numbers of bait that we used to. Oh and we have been fishing with spinning gear also.

 

[Luke]

You all are making me feel a little bit better about getting skunked last year fishing off the wing dam.

I have a lot to learn about catching small mouth bass on the fly, but I have caught a ton on spinning gear in my time and was surprised that I completely failed to hook up with anything.

I left convinced that I suck at flyfishing for smallmouth bass.

I do, but at least I have company now

and you know what they say about misery...

 

[jrmyln]

sandfly wrote:
I used to guide there, but moved 9 years ago. there was a guy in warrington too

Sandfly,
You were probably who I was thinking of. The guy in Warrington is Gary Mauz.

 

[andre]

I have a ton of experience fishing for small mouths up in Maine when I lived there. it just pisses me off that I have this river so close but can't seem to find the fish. for a while around Prall's mill did ok but that whole section has changed due to floods. have caught more stripers than bass off wing dam and have not seen a fish at Bulls Island dam or big pool below. Will keep trying during week as I am up the Catskills most weekends.

 

[testynesty]

Greg Boyd Jr. guides around those parts, you could get ahold of him 2674469466

 

[Chaz]

Andre, the one thing we noticed when we fished the river last years was the absence of bait, we saw virtually no crayfish, there were small minnows but not what I would say is typical for the river. My fishing friend who went with me saw a couple flathead cat's and speculated that's why we aren't seeing the bass.
I caught a few smallies but they were small as smallies go. We didn't catch any other panfish.

 

[fishngun]

The flatheads aren't the reason. Everyone likes to blame them, but in their native range they coexist with smallmouth just fine. People act like the flatheads totally wipe out a river. I dont believe that to be true. I have noticed a lack of crayfish as well. Something else may be at play here than catfish. Enjoy the stripers where you find them. They make for a nice fly rod target.

 

[sandfly]

The delaware was never known as a crawfish river, more of a hellgramite and baitfish river. the crawfish I have seen in over 40 years on the river have always been few and far between. shad, herring, have been a good bait fish to copy on the lower river. try flies with yellow colors.

 

[fishngun]

I agree that the Delaware isn't a crawfish river, like say the Susky. When I started fishing the river years ago, we caught our own bait to use for the day. Hellgramites were always present and we were very selective on the amount and size of the bugs we caught as well as how many we pulled from any one spot. At any rate, we pulled quite a few crawfish out while we did this. Kicking around and flipping rocks nowadays I don't see the same number of dads I used to.

 

[Chaz]

I've always seen good pops of crayfish in the Delaware, though not comparable to the Susquehanna, it used to have a good population, but during a couple of outings last year, I didn't see 1.
As for Flatheads I didn't imply that flatheads are the reason, just one factor. No doubt in my mind that they and stripers are having an impact one prey.

 

[NickR]

I used to work in a boat marina on the Jersey side just downriver from that area as a boat painter and doing electrical hook ups on sailboats. I spent a lot of time in that area fishing for bass, stripers and shad. I am just gearing up now to get my boat out there and do some shad fishing. If it were me I'd focus on shad and if your adventurous go for the stripers this spring. When it warms up a bit then go for bass. If you want good smallmouth action over there wait until the whiteflies start popping off in the summer...it's pretty awesome.

 

[Mike]

Why would contributors here ignore Afish's post and continue to speculate about forage, stripers, and flatheads? Afish provided the facts, which were true. End of story.