Upper Delaware Fly Fishing Report
AUTUMN FISHING
This morning we had a pretty heavy frost in the Upper Delaware region. For the next few days the trend of cold nights with nice days in the 50's is expected to continue. This is a perfect time to be out on the water.
Anglers who plan to fish in the coming days will now find our fall foliage to be in full color. The leaves are now falling and the peak of the colors should occur in the next 2 weeks.
Our guide trips have been going well and our guests are taking some nice fish.
Anglers will find all of our rivers to be low this week. There is no rainfall in the forecast or release changes coming so these are the conditions that will around for a while.
Over the last few days there has been an increase in the Blue Wing Olive activity. This cold weather hatch is one that brings some excellent dry fly action every year. Based on what I have been seeing we can expect to see this hatch to become reliable any day now. Over the last few trips I have been finding more rising fish but it is not well established yet. It will eventually build to a point where these tiny flies cover the water daily and the trout feed non stop. I will keep you posted as the action improves.
Right now you can expect to pick away at the trout if you are persistent and choose to fish nymphs and cover a lot of water. This is pretty easy since wading opportunity is unlimited at this time. Overall we have been having the best action with smaller flies. #14 - #18 BH Nymphs and Caddis Pupas are working well. Our Ice Caddis patterns is still taking the most fish along with Copper John Soft Hackles (red). With the low water lighter tippet will produce more strikes. In the water that is not heavy I have also been using poly yarn indicators rather than bubbles to land the flies in a more stealthy fashion.
The Dry fly activity has been an afternoon event. The best action has been around 5:00 on most days. There have also been isolated areas of insect activity that we float through that have been producing some action. Isonychia patterns are still taking fish but they are not as hot as they were a few weeks ago. Caddisflies and Blue Wing Olives are more the staple now and these are on the trout's mind. We did good recently blind casting the larger October Caddis Patterns in moving water.
Whenever we find steadily rising fish I go right to either a BWO CDC Knock Down Dun or a Hackle WIng Rusty Spinner, both in size # 18. These patterns fished on a long leader tapered to 6X will get confident takes on your first drag free drift.
We have all of these patterns in stock so stop by the fly shop before you head to the river.
We are now taking bookings for the remainder of the Autumn season. This year we will be fishing the Upper Delaware until around November 15th.
Our guides will also be available on the Salmon River and other lake Ontario tributaries through the end of December.
Give us a call today at 607-290-4022
