Main stem Delaware flow

[dryflyguy]

From what I've heard while talking to many fishermen up there over the years, Pepacton reservoir has better quality water than Cannonsville reservoir. So, NYC hoards that water for drinking purposes - while they drain Cannonsville down near the bottom, to keep the river flowing well down at Philadelphia. So that their water supply intakes don't end up drawing in salt water.
Sounds crazy to me. But is as as good an explanation as any for the way they manage the flows up there.

 

[pratt]

for what it's worth, the Wallenpaupack drawdown/release is scheduled to end tonight.... not sure if that will impact the releases up north or not....but I was told by someone that the ratcheting down of releases up north had to do with the major releases on the Lackawaxen (2x normal flow in that river for the last few weeks). Not sure how much truth there is to that....

I'm just happy because the Lackawaxen will finally be fishable (tomorrow morning!). there was a state stocking last week ~ but with a guage reading of almost 6 feet at the Rowland guage, fishing/wading would have been dangerous/deadly.

 

[krayfish2]

Wallenpaupack shutting down tonight is good news for fish further north. Bad news is Cannonsville is mighty low and NYC won't give any extra from Pepacton. Maybe they'll prove me wrong but I doubt it. The spawn might be very late or not at all due to abnormally low flows. No rain in sight. The last 2 years have not been kind to the system.

 

[DaveS]

Back up to 1687CFS. There's the water you wanted...

 

[afishinado]

ZZZZOOOP!!! :roll:

 

[DaveS]

WOW. This is great. Can somebody near there post up a picture of a dewatered redd? I can't think of a trout fishery in the East that has a bigger economic footprint. It's time to send some letters off to our representives. I my mind, this total disregard for downstream businesses and of course the fish and fishing, is the same as industrial pollution.

Ok maybe not, but it pisses me off!

 

[afishinado]

ZZZoooop!

 

[vcregular]

The more things change the more things stay the same on that river. It is a shame.

 

[krayfish2]

And ........cue the releases from Pepacton now that thermal protection is no longer needed. What a circus.

 

[krayfish2]

Spoke to staff at WBA yesterday. The lake is around 18% of capacity. Never seen anything like it and the water is running out quickly. There's a significant population of enormous browns and enormous smallies in that lake. Still not much water coming into the lake. I'd imagine portions of the lake will freeze solid this winter so expect some fish kills. In the very near future, the release will have to drop to under 150cfs. Likely that anchor ice will be an issue this winter and mid river redds / new hatchlings could be impacted.

As of noon yesterday, they had 3" on the ground in the valley and 5"-9" higher up in the park. It will take lots and lots of snow / rain just to get the lake at 80% by spring. Just dont see it happening and I'd expect to see very low releases in the spring of 2017. Praying for rain and for the feeders to be full / flowing strong. I'm trying not to write off 2017 already but things look bad. This is the product of drought, drainage of Wallenpaupack and refusal to release from Pepacton air other reservoirs. Hopefully the damage isn't irreversible.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

This situation is sickening. It seems like the water authority is intentionally killing the fishery so they don't have to listen to the belly aching.

It's just sad.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

(x)

 

[TJones]

Would a lot of those lake browns be upstream? Idk, what it looks like up there never fished above the reservoir.

 

[krayfish2]

There's 100' + of dry lakebed between the feeders and the lake. Doubt any fish got to them this year. It's been that way since summer. Lots of the feeders would be on private land so accessing the big boys is a problem but you probably could use a dip net in the lake and take a 15 pounder. Lol. Still no real rain in forecast so it will slowly get worse. I just hoping this is a one year issue and not a prolonged weather pattern change that causes years of droughts like they had in California.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

The long range precip forecast for the upper Delaware watershed looks like a crap-shoot: La Nina

 

[TJones]

Well... I guess that would prevent them from getting upstream lol