Delaware River Fishing Report by Ben Sheard 2012-05-27

Posted on 27-May-2012 by Ben Sheard

Well, today looks like another day with ideal conditions.  We have great water on all of the branches, great cloud cover, and lots of bugs too.  Everyday and every stretch of water has it's ups and downs but the conditions are perfect.  The upper West Branch at Stilesville is flowing at 577 cfs with a temp of 54 this afternoon, down at Hale Eddy the flow is up to 732 cfs with a temp of 55 degrees.  This level is great for the West, making it floatable and wadeable too.  The upper East Branch at Harvard is flowing at 933 cfs with a little warmer temp of 64 due to the volume of "spill" water coming over Pepacton.  Then, downriver at Fish's Eddy the flow is 1790 cfs with a temp of 62 degrees. The main Delaware at Lordville is 3,260 cfs with a temp of 64 degrees.  We are seeing lots of different bugs throughout the system which is great but can really complicate matching the hatch when you have good numbers of 4 different bugs in varying life stages.  We have been seeing good numbers of 14-16 Sulphurs on all branches starting around 2pm.  Have a few good emerger patterns as well as spinners and nymphs if you like because number-wise these will be the most prevalent bug you'll see and the fish tend to look for the cripples or just feed right below the surface when there are lots of healthy naturals on top.  We are also seeing some great March Brown hatches from afternoon on, and the fish are taking them.  Emergers, comparaduns and spinners are working well.  The Grey Fox in size 14 is also a bug the trout will be looking for and picking from the surface.  There have been pretty good Isonychia on the lower West and Main D but we are starting to see good numbers of them on the upper West in the last few days.  The Iso has always been a great prospecting fly over the moving water and a good fly to throw at the one-rise-wonders which come up once every 15-20 minutes to get your attention.  Last but not least, have a few small, #16, tan caddis for the mid-day pre hatch risers.  We also have some pretty good streamer water too if you like catching big fish.  We have some good cloud cover today but the weekend looks to be sunny for now.   Lotsa' luck