We’ve been busy with guide training and our travels over the past week have taken us to the Upper and Middle Delaware, Susquehanna, and Lehigh Rivers. Honestly, nothing has fished stellar. We had a large healthy trout caught by Colin in our guide school while targeting smallies, but in general the smallmouth ahve not turned on in great numbers on the Lehigh yet. We’ll have more exploration this week.

The Susquehanna was sad. I don’t know what else to say. The water is cooking and the bite is early morning and evening and it’s not good. Last year we saw some quality fishing which made us hopeful and we intend to test fish a little further north  but the Harrisburg area is not fishing well.

The Upper D was challenging as always. We were there bedore the short bubble of water was released and I’m pretty sure everybody landed fish. Brian Z. from Maryland had a hog on in the West Branch but it came unbuttoned. I(Tim S.) lost a nice brown aside of the boat. Hatches were BWOs(#14-22), Sulphurs(#14-20), Cahills(#12) and various caddis. Best hookups came from CDC and Unusual BWOs(#14-20), and E.Vitrea dun imitations(Large Amber Sulphur #14).

We’ll have more reports this week. The Tully and the West Branch of the Delaware are fishing well at this time. Not much is fishing consistently for smallmouth, a cool down would help.

We had one of our Lehigh crews on the Upper D over the weekend. The conditions were challenging, windy, low, and clear. Hatches were moderately heavy at times but it was usually pretty windy when they were good and the wind mostly kept the fish down. Hatches seen were BWO(#16-20), Sulphurs(#14-16), Slate Drakes(#10-12), Cahills(#12). A few Green Drakes were spotted near Hales Eddy and we saw a few fish feeding heavily on caddis near Balls Eddy at mid-day when it was sunny and warm. Risers were not consistent on Sunday until late afternoon and we had one fish follow a streamer in off color water on the mid-West Branch. A few fish were hooked/missed by everybody on BWO drie. Andy, the young gun of the trip, showed that persistence pays on the Upper Delaware by enticing a 22″ brown to the surface with a big Slate Drake tilt wing dun. It was quite a fight and ended well with a big slammer in the net.

Monday, on the West Branch and Main, we had risers for nearly the entire day with a few fish missed here and there but no solid hook ups until around lunch when Andy once again hooked a brown, 21″ this time, with a small cdc caddis. At lunch Bob P. hooked a nice fish but lost it on a wild run. We hooked/missed/landed a few more trout and Bob managed to land a 20″ shad in the Junction Pool on a #18 BWO. The fish were tough, but not impossible, and the whole river system will benefit from some rain. We were able to float both days but had to walk from time to time. Water temp in the Main near Stockport on monday evening was 66, so cooler air temps are helping the river out very much at this time.

I met Kazuo in Hancock in the morning and we did a little wade fishing on the Upper West Branch before floating to Hale’s Eddy, angler pressure was light. Kazuo missed a nice fish in the afternoon with a small BWO, hatches were slow and not many bugs were present on the water. We had a brief spurt of Dorothea Sulphurs(16) from 2-3pm but no fish were landed during this time. Eventually we managed to land a small brown, but saturday was tough.

We decided to wade sunday morning and although the first spot we hit was a bust things started looking up once we relocated near Ball’s Eddy. Kazuo Landed a nice bow and a few smaller browns on nymphs and dries, all attractor patterns. We relocated once again and found some Green Drakes hatching at 1pm. The wind must have really stirred up some shallow areas becaude the amount of drifting debris and insects was frustrating. Apart from the massive amounts of algae, there were Cahills, Olives, Rusty Spinners, Golden Stonefly adults, Green Drakes, Sulphur nymphs, and various caddis(hatching and spent) on the water and the fish were tough as a result. After lunch and a mid-day nap, we returned to a stretch on the Middle West Branch and found risers immediately. Kazuo missed a nice trout with a rusty spinner and finally landed a nice brown with a Slate Drake dun pattern.

Hatches are sporadic at this time during mid-day hours but solid activity has been seen on most evenings. Plan to stay late for the best fishing. The flow will alledgedly be raised on 6/1 which we would be great. Check you water temps before fishing. At 6am on saturday the Main Stem was already 73 degrees at Lordville. Slate Drakes are just getting started and should provide good fishing soon. Sulphurs have been good.

Heavy algae blankets much of the river in the slower sections, we drifted a 1/4 mile through one stretch without seeing the bottom of the river. Didymo is rampant so please take the time to clean your gear fishing another river.

Joe and I(Tim S.) were invited to guide in the FUDR.org One Bug Tournament this weekend and were more than happy to help. I arrived a little early on friday(the 23rd) with intent to fish but arrived to find that my trailer plug had worked its way loose on the road somewhere, making repairs necessary. I talked to anglers at the friday night festivities and the consensus was that the massive clouds of caddis that I plowed through on my way up Rt. 191 were untouched by the Upper D trout which were focusing on Hendricksons instead.

Saturday(the 24th) was beautiful, the weather was perfect. Decent numbers of Hendricksons, BWOs, and Blue Quills hatched throughout the day. Joe and I were stationed on the Main Stem from Stockport to a private take-out at Equinunk Creek which proved to be tough from the heavy pressure that it has been receiving, I saw about 30+ anglers at Knight’s on friday and cars were parked at every access point on the Main. Nevertheless, fish were caught before the official start time(uncounted) and missed during the tourney. Long casts were critical as most fish shut down when the boat got within 50 feet of them. Lighter tippets(5x) produced fish but they broke off easily. Anglers above and below the three boats on the Stockport-Equinunk stretch reported better activity.

Sunday(the 25th) wasn’t much better on the same stretch for us.A nice fish was hooked below Buckingham but got loose after 10-15 seconds. Sam Decker landed a small bow with a Hendrickson dry near Equinunk and Joe had one trout landed in his boat for the day. Success was better above and below us again today. It was cold and wet and the bugs all came on in waves too short to generate consistent activity.

Monday(the 26th) I floated by myself. Some sluggishness from a few friends floating in another boat delayed my launch until late in the day, the float was Lordville to Long Eddy. I floated at least a mile before seeing any consistent activity. I put plenty of good drifts over risers with a P. Adams before switching to a Blue Quill Unusual which resulted in a landed fish very quickly, small fat bow about 14″. Another fish or two were missed on the same pattern within a half hour. Because of the cold and driving rain, the transition from drift boat oar to fly rod was rough, if I had someone to switch off with I would have expected better results from being able to spot risers quicker and get a better position on them and be able to cats better. I worked on another pod of fish in the early evening for a few minutes but had only misses, on the same Blue Quill Unusual. I tried several other flies and saw no reaction from the fish. Out of five hours on the water I probably spent at least three rowing.

A few March Browns, Grey Foxes, and little Dorothea Sulphurs were seen on the water throughout the weekend, it’s way too early for these hatches so don’t get too excited but I expect anglers will be reporting them in the coming days/weeks.

Stilesville to Hales Eddy was the plan. Streamers got whacked throughout the day but it was mid afternoon when we finally got hooked up well enough to land the fish. For his first time on the Upper Delaware, Dan agreed that it was worth the effort - having lost a few big fish that he hooked up with he finally landed a beautiful 23″ brownie that put up quite a fight. This fish absolutely inhaled a white 5″ Chain Reaction Leech and made our day. Needless to say, two days on the Upper D and Dan is in love with the river, hopefully we’ll get to fish there together in the future. Our other Guide School attendee, Charlie, had various hookups but the fish were pulling Houdini tricks today with everybody. Toward the end of the float, Blue Quills began hatching in good numbers and a few fish between 12-14″ were landed but no big fish were spotted. The river just needs a little consistent warm weather and it will be rockin from top to bottom. Surface activity still seems to be better on the Main Stem.

Whew! Hit the Upper D today for a two day Guide School training session. We launched at Balls Eddy and floated to Buckingham. The plan was to fish streamers until we saw a head poke out somewhere and we did just that. The lower West Branch did not produce any fish for us with just one hook up on a streamer. A moderate hatch of stoneflies were in the air but despite the breeze, few of them were blown onto the water and no fish were seen taking anything off of the surface. From the Junction Pool to Stockport we dealt with high winds and whitecaps that seemed more appropriate for an episode of The Deadliest Catch than a day on the Upper Delaware. BUT, then the winds died a bit and a few fish were spotted surface feeding. A generic cdc emerger pattern with a rust body and a dun cdc wing got a strike immediately, but the fish was missed - chalk that up to tired arms from rowing the high seas for a few hours. The next riser was not so lucky and a 22″ brown was landed shortly after. It’s a bit early on the Upper D yet but consistently good fishing is near.

I had Joe and Josh out on the Lower Delaware River this morning and we had a good time as usual. Josh was hooking smallies with poppers while I was still getting the boat and extra rods squared away. We had action top to bottom with a lot of fish missed on poppers. The guys fished poppers in all of the water under 10′ deep and saw fish hit their poppers the whole time. In the deeper water we switched over to spin tackle and plastics were the ticket accounting for a number of bass.

Matt, Brent, and I(Tim) hit the Lower Delaware today to do a little scouting. The fishing was pretty good. The water was a bit high for fly fishing but the spin fishing with lots of fish hooked with grubs and a few nice walleye hooked with crankbaits. Fish were spread out with just as much action in the fast water as slow. The smallies seemed to be all over the water column in water under 10′ deep and on the bottom in water deeper than that. Some fish were hooked with Olive Chain Reaction Leeches and buggers but not much surface activity was observed and only a few fish were hooked with poppers.

Another Upper Delaware Trip and it was a goodie. We floated from Stilesville to Balls Eddy and once again the Chain Reaction Leeches got the job done sub surface and brought fish to the net within sight of the boat launch. White and Olive were both effective colors. Water temp at Deposit was 49˚. The sulphurs hatched in insane numbers after a mid-day thunderstorm and provided several hours of good fishing. Lehigh Unusual Sulphurs and simple parachute patterns were both effective.

We decided to hit the Upper D for the day and give the Lehigh a little rest. It was a good decision, the high water may be bad for wade fishing in many spots but is an ideal flow for drift boating. Hook ups on white and black Chain Reaction Leeches began soon after dropping the boat over the bank at Stilesville but the fish were hard to land in the high water. This would be a dominating theme for the day but the fishing was exciting nevertheless. Within a few minutes of drifting below Deposit, the dry fly fishing began to take off and several large browns were hooked but not landed. Thanks to the unusual acrobatics we got a good look at all but one of the dry fly hooked browns the last bulldogged it’s way into the backing before finally coming unbuttoned. Fish were hooked on a combination of sulphurs and bwo’s. Water temp was 48˚.