Pacemaker Fishing Forum

My wife planned an amazing event to celebrate my birthday with 4 days at West Branch Anglers on the West Branch of the Delaware. It's a 5 hour drive from here so we planned on 4 nights there. We got up there around 4 PM, unpacked and I was on the water by 5 PM right behind the house because the fish were rising everywhere.

Day 0-

I only fished about an hour and a half and missed a fish on a dry fly. When the fish stopped rising I went to a nearby riffle and started nymphing. I only hooked one fish but it was a long and thin brown trout pretty close to 18 inches.



With 3 full days of fishing coming up I called it quits after that fish and enjoyed the sunset as it was the last one we would see with cold and rainy forecasted for the next few days.



Day 1-

Thursday and Friday were guided float trips with a guide named Kevin. My wife would sit these days out since her shoulder was hurting and it was going to be cold and rainy both days. We fished the upper part of the West Branch near Deposit, NY. It's not the prettiest section of river but has some beautiful water and typically holds big fish. We did an 8 mile float and the closer we got to the lodge, the prettier it got.



We picked some fish on nymphs and streamers in the AM while on the drift and on a more finesse approach with a dry fly with a single nymph mid day. Many of the fish there were beautifully colored up like this one.



The real goal was to wait for the Blue Wing Olive mayflies to start hatching later in the afternoon and target rising fish with dry flies. They hatched big time and we found rising fish in several places. The guides there use a downstream and across presentation technique that I've never done so it took a lot of practice. I missed a few fish, hooked a couple and lost them both after a few jumps. I was feeling optimistic since I was able to get a few fish to eat.

Further downstream in a back channel of an island we found a large pod of fish feeding. It was pretty calm water so we needed to stay quite a distance away. I made a few great casts (I surprised myself ) and hooked and landed this beautiful brown. My biggest fish on a dry fly so far.



After admiring that fish, releasing it and some high fives, we watched the fish build right back in the same seam. Within only 2 or 3 casts, I hooked up again. While a bit smaller, this one put on a show but we got him to net.



The fish finally went down and we fished our way to the ramp and picked a couple more fish. A great first day in the books.

Day 2-

With the weather being even colder on Friday, Kevin and I met at the fly shop at 9:30 to let it warm up a bit. We were on the river and drifting by 10:00 and by 10:10 I hooked my first fish on a nymph and I hooked up big. My 5 weight rod doubled over and put that 4X tippet to the test. I new it was a good fish but unsure how big until it jumped. We both stayed calm, enjoyed several long runs and finally put this stud in the net. 22.5 inches, measured on a board. My biggest trout ever. When it went into the net, I wasn't sure if it was even 20 inches because it was so thick.



Kevin joked "we should quit now" but we had 7.5 miles to the ramp and were hopeful for another great dry fly afternoon. We nymphed a few and I did get 3 or 4 fish to eat the dry fly but only landed one. I healthy brown.



Kevin and I had two great days and caught some spectacular fish. It would definitely be tough to beat.

Day 3-

I had only originally planned 2 days with guides and was going to wade fish the rest of the time. A few weeks ago the river was up almost 4X the flows we had this week. With the fear of not being able to wade anywhere, I booked a 3rd day with a guide. I'm glad I did. Matt Ertzinger has been guiding on the West Coast, Salmon River, NY and the Delaware. Matt was a great teacher and helped Erika for her day on the water. She struggled early because she hasn't had a fly rod in her hand in over a year and Matt was patient and super encouraging.  This was a super easy day for me as I got to observe a lot since we would only be casting 1 at a time when fishing drys. Matt took us to a different section of river and we even got out of the boat and nymphed a beautiful riffle. I picked up 3 pretty quickly there including these 2.

 

There was no rain on Saturday so it warmed up a bit but Erika had already gotten a chill and that made it tough for her to focus when casting the dry fly. She took a break and put me on deck while she layered up and got warm. Matt taught me a LOT about fishing to rising fish and it quickly paid off. A beautiful brown on a size 20 fly and 5X tippet.



Erika warmed up and we found some aggressively feeding fish and we were able to get fairly close to them and she landed her 1st two fish on a dry fly.

   

We stayed upstream a long time with the rising fish and Matt teaching Erika. It was already after 4:30 and we weren't even half way to the ramp. The plan was to run and gun and stop if we saw something or drifting through some good nymphing water. We came down a channel around an island and Kevin spotted a single fish feeding regularly. Single feeding fish in a place like that are often large so he wanted to take a shot. The water was calm so we needed to stay a long way off so Erika wouldn't be able to reach it so I was on the rod again. Between the distance to the fish, it's proximity to the bank and an over hanging tree I didn't think I would be able to get a fly to it. It took me about 14 or 15 casts but laid a beautiful cast just upstream and got the fish to eat. I was as thrilled to get that fish as I was with the 22.5".

   

We then power drifted to the ramp and Erika got one more beautiful rainbow.



This section of the river was a lot more scenic. We fished a bit and enjoyed the ride down to the ramp.

      

Day 4-

I got up early today to get a few hours on the water before checkout. I hiked down to the riffle we fished from shore yesterday and I had the stretch all to myself for almost 2 hours before any other anglers showed up.



I landed 6 fish to end the trip and even had a double on for a while but only landed one of the fish. Here a a few samples.

     

The upper Delaware is a great wild trout fishery. While it doesn't have the population of trout it had 5 to 10 years ago, the quality is great and it's famous for it's bug hatches and dry fly fishing. Erika has already said she wants to go back next year. She got no argument from me.