Days on the Delaware River
Just got back from a few days on the Delaware River, in upstate New York. Magnificent country, endless trout waters, funky little towns, all of it surrounded by the Catskill high country, part of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Delaware was new water for me. Eons ago I fly-fished the Beaverkill River and the Willowemoc Creek, but not the Delaware. Somehow it never made it on my radar screen back then. That changed when I got an invitation to spent a few days on the Delaware River with Captain Pete Farrell, who knows these waters well.
So how was the fishing? Well, first the bad news. During the prior week the Catskill experienced heavy rains and all the rivers were swollen. And the high water not only affected the wading, it greatly reduced the hatches the Delaware is famous for at this time of year. As always Mother Nature holds the cards.
So, as you can imagine. there were long faces in the fly shops. We should have been seeing rafts of Hendricksons, March Browns, Blue Quills, Grannon caddis, and Yellow Sally Stones. Oh well.
But hold on, there was some good news too. Our days on the Delaware did have a few shining moments. Both Pete and I managed to land a large trout. Pete had a big beautiful “bow”. Nice going Pete! And I got a thick 23″ butter yellow brown on a Hendrickson dry. It was one of the most beautiful trout I had ever seen – fat, a perfect specimen in every regard. Captain Pete estimated it to weight 5 or 6 pounds. Ahhh, days on the Delaware!
