GUIDE TIPPING ON UPPER DELAWARE

[ICM]

Wife and I have booked a 2 day guided trip on the Upper Delaware after Labor Day. What is the standard tip % with the understanding that it could be adjusted up or down depending on service?

 

[afishinado]

I would say that 15% is the average tip to a guide on the D.

20% if the guide works hard / goes the extra mile (literally/figuratively)

10% if the guide seems lazy, disinterested, etc.

One thing, I recommend judging the performance of your guide more on how hard he worked to make your day fun and a success, rather than by how many fish you actually bring to the boat. The D can be a tough river at times.

HTH. Have fun on your trip and post a report.

 

[ICM]

Thanks. My wife is a newbie and I've only been at it for a few years, but I've learned enough to know there are days you do everything wrong and, despite yourself, catch fish; others when you do everything right and catch nothing. The only thing that's guaranteed is the beauty and serenity of your surroundings.

 

[krayfish2]

Oh boy, get ready for the responses. You'll hear everything from "$0 tip as I've already paid the guide for a fishing trip" to "50% is standard".

First, I'd pray for rain as they've reduced the release from Cannonsville again and the East is all but dry. Without water, floating would be difficult at best.

I'll echo some of what Tom has already touched on. If you aren't familiar with the fishery, it has the reputation as a notoriously difficult place to catch fish. With the low water up there this year, the fish have been crowded into thermal refuges and relentlessly pounded by fishermen. If temps cool before you head up and the fish spread out again, the odds are they will still be skittish / guy shy.

Without a tropical storm dumping rain on us, I'd expect you to find low / clear water conditions. There are insect hatches in the fall but they are not nearly as heavy as the spring hatches. The hatches tend to be spotty and shorter in duration. You will also find the bugs to be on the smaller side when compared to early season hatches.

On the plus side, after Labor Day can yield pleasant temps for fishing, stunning colors on the mountains and short spurts of fish frantically feeding. Success on this river system is measured differently than on a typical PA trout stream. A good day brookie fishing might be 50 fish, a good day on spring might be 30 fish and a good day on the Delaware 'could' be 1-2 fish. A lot depends on the conditions and angler ability.

Getting back to your question, there is no standard tip. I have a buddy that guided up there and he's gotten tips ranging from $0 to $150. As Tom has mentioned, gauge your tip on the enjoyment / fun level of the trip and not solely on the number of fish in the net. You may be met with brutally tough conditions, catch two fish and then head to Lydia's for a ribeye sandwich. You end up talking to 20 other guys that were on the river and they didn't even sniff a fish. So, your 2 fish beat the total for 20 other anglers. I'd call that a good day. Gauge the tip on the effort put forth by the guide and if they made the trip a fun experience.

3 MUSTS for your trip...... camera, rain jacket and fun.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

One hundred dollars is about right.

 

[PhilC]

$50-$100

Yes I would take any response here with a grain is salt as many are anti guide and/or think they're better than guides.

It's kind of zoo up there right now as it's the only show in town right now

 

[wbranch]

Krayfish is correct in his entire post. My wife and I were up last week and I had been up three other times in August. While the water temperatures were very acceptable below Hale Eddy down to the confluence with the EB it appeared 95% of the guides and wading anglers were fishing from Stilesville to Hale Eddy. Day after day drift boats line up from the start of the No Kill to Barking Dog and just pound the rising fish on the right bank. I've seen boats stay for 3-4 hours anchored over 1-2 rising fish.

Now admittedly the day my wife and I floated was bright and sunny I would of expected to find at least a couple rising fish. We put in at Balls Eddy at noon and I took out at Shehawken at 7:30 and saw just two rises all day, maybe half a dozen #18 olives and I never made a cast the entire day.

I see the main stem at Lordville is only running around 700 cfs. I doubt if any guide would be taking clients anywhere on the main stem until we get some sustained rains and cooling days and nights. The upper WB appears to the only game in town if you are chasing trout now so just be prepared to join the drift boat flotilla.

 

[Shaner]

looks like they opened up the WB some more with a spike and climbing still up over 800CFS while the EB is below 300CFS and the first gauge on the Main is only showing so far 600CFS at Lordville

 

[afishinado]

Shaner wrote:
looks like they opened up the WB some more with a spike and climbing still up over 800CFS while the EB is below 300CFS and the first gauge on the Main is only showing so far 600CFS at Lordville

+1....I saw that this morning. Lordville will rise when the water works it way downstream. Surprising since Cannonville is at < 70% capacity here.

I'm not sure how much precip is expected with the hurricane arriving off the coast this weekend.

 

[Shaner]

I seen the hurricane changed and not supposed to really get any from it.

 

[vcregular]

Probably dumping from Cannonsville to satisfy Montague which is down to 1800. I guess Wallenpaupack is not generating over the weekend which is why they are looking to pull water from upstream to meet the 1750cfs target. Just my guess.

 

[afishinado]

vcregular wrote:
Probably dumping from Cannonsville to satisfy Montague which is down to 1800. I guess Wallenpaupack is not generating over the weekend which is why they are looking to pull water from upstream to meet the 1750cfs target. Just my guess.

Yeah VC. The DRC site report echoed the same theory:

After having a steady release of 500 cfs for most of the Summer a lot of us were wondering when something crazy would happen. The release was cut to 400 cfs yesterday due to a change in the FFMP charts. This morning the release from Cannonsville was increased to 795 cfs. This is likely due to the downstream flow targets. Our best guess is that they are not going to run water out of Lake Wallenpaupack this weekend and the recent rains missed us dropping the flow in Montague, NJ. At some point we will likely be cut back to 400 cfs when they start to release downriver again. Hopefully they will step it down gradually when the time comes rather than drop us 50% in one shot. Dropping the release 24 hours before they increase the release seems a bit crazy but I’m sure they will say they had to run the releases that way due to the FFMP. If that’s the case then the Flexible Flow Management Plan isn’t all that damn flexible.

The flow last summer was the total opposite of this summer because of the higher releases due to the bore hole problem at Cannonsville.

The upper mainstem was cool most of the summer and the fishermen were spread out. This year, the temps are only cool enough for fishing close to the dams.

Westbranch, according to his post, didn't even wet a line.

westbranch wrote: ....Day after day drift boats line up from the start of the No Kill to Barking Dog and just pound the rising fish on the right bank. I've seen boats stay for 3-4 hours anchored over 1-2 rising fish.

Yeah, they get there early and anchor up over their honey hole, hoping to see a fish show their head. It's a lot like guys claiming their territory opening morning of trout in PA, or the same on the Salmon River or Oak Orchard.

Can't wait for this summer to end.

We may have to open Andy's can of worms to even get a bite!

 

[krayfish2]

Thankfully, the sore arm will keep me from doing something foolish like a suicide run. There will be hundreds of yaks (most likely) and the storm off the coast which will probably provide strong upriver winds.

I'll be interested to see how they slam the gate shut come Monday afternoon. The Lordville gauge is only at 600 and I can't remember it being that low. We really need that storm to jump left near the Delmarva