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Thursday, July 17, 2008

2008 Mid-Summer Fishing Report & Update

The West Branch of the Delaware is still fishing at its technical finest with sulfurs, blue wing olives, isonychias, Cahills and some terrestrials.. The water has been mostly on the low side, except for most Fridays and Saturdays when there have been water releases, with the best fishing concentrated on the upper section of the river. Light tippets are the norm and landing a jumbo brown on 7 or 8X is a very cool experience.

I've added a Dave Scadden Three Man Pontoon Boat to my fleet which has been allowing me to float the West Branch even with the low water flows we've been having. The way this whole water release game goes is that we've been seeing water released on Fridays and Saturdays for reasons too complicated to get into here. So mostly on Friday and Saturday there's been enough water to use a drift boat. On other days the pontoon comes into play.

The Main Stem smallmouth bass fishing has been pretty sweet the past couple of weeks and should stay that way well into October. We've been seeing big numbers of fish and a good number of big ones. As always, the spin rod produces the most fish, while the fly rod produces the most challenge. Either way, it's just plain fun!

Saltwater fishing off Northern New Jersey has been very good with big bluefish leading the way. Fluke fishing has been good too with enough keepers mixed in with the shorts to make for some tasty dining. Stripers are mostly done for the summer, although fish are still hitting baits from time to time. Striper fishing should pick back up again in the fall.

Bluefish on the fly are savage fighters and a great fish for the fly fisherman new to the saltwater. Looking forward to the albies...