Summer Trout Fishing on the Upper Delaware Delaware River

The explosion of life that takes place during the first six weeks of each season is truly impressive.  Mayflies are hatching everywhere.  Fishermen also seem to be hatching everywhere! Then late June arrives. The Glory Hatches are over... or are they?

When you get to the summer months the names of the bugs change.  Stenos, Cahill, slate drake, isonychia, and terrestrials enter your entomological vocabulary. You also need to change tactics in order to succeed. Wild trout move into better habitat, call it their summer homes. They adjust their feeding activity to avoid predators and at the same time capitalize on the available food supply.

A good part of the Upper Delaware system is supplied with cold clean water throughout the months when most other eastern trout fisheries are put on hold until the cooling days of autumn. Sometimes the river doesn't receive the amount of water it really needs and other times heavy rains provide too much, but in any event, the fishing remains worthwhile if you match your efforts to the conditions.

The lower East Branch, Main Stem and the lower portions of the West Branch often become warm and unfishable. That's when you do what the trout do; seek out colder water. This time of year your most important piece of equipment is a stream thermometer.

In your search for the cold water the fish call home, your best strategy is to move closer to the source. Moving up river until you find water in the low sixties or colder will do the trick. During heat waves and minimal reservoir releases this is from approximately the New York State Line and upriver on the West Branch, and often in the shadow of the dam on the East Branch.

Time of day is another important consideration. During low water release periods, the mornings and evenings are cooler, and the low light conditions make the trout feel a little more secure from predators. Things change when the reservoir releases 500cfs or more of water for several consecutive days.  Daytime insect activity will increase with the higher flows and the abundant food supply brings out the fish throughout the day.

Tackle selection and fly pattern style differ little from earlier in the season. A nine foot, four, five, or six weight still work fine. You may want to lean more towards the four and five weights and  a little softer tip to protect the lighter tippets you'll be using, but your favorite rod you use other times will still work fine. Tippet spools of 5X, 6X, & 7X and an assortment of dry flies and nymphs take care of the terminal end.

Your dry fly box should contain sulfurs, Cahills, caddis, isonychia, blue wing olives, tricos, spinners and terrestrial.  Emergers, comparaduns, parachutes and thorax styles will be your most productice patterns.

For nymphs and wet flies, an assortment of bead head pheasant tails, regular pheasant tails, partridge and yellows, partridge and greens, isonychia nymphs, zug bugs, princes, leadwing coachman, copper Johns and caddis pupa will cover the subsurface action.  Don't forget to have a few streamers stashed in your vest either.  During higher water times or when Summer storms dirty the water, stripping streamers is a proven tactic for hooking up with some big browns.

Summer fishing is at a more leisurely pace than the Spring and keeps you on your game for the last hurrah's of Autumn.

For a fun guided day of summertime fly fishing contact Cross Current Guide Service & Outfitters