Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River (No.2)

The East Branch of the Delaware River

The West Branch of the "D" is considered to be the best trout fishing river in the east coast.
One of the reasons is that there is quite a bit of possibility for fishermen catching 20+ inches trout with dry-flies.
Even though I didn't catch such a "big shot" last week, I have to say fishing here has better days than some good days in other rivers.

I'd like to talk about a funny experience I had fishing in the East Branch of the "D" with my wife several years ago.         

We were drawn by an article on Fly Fishermen magazine which said we could fish large trouts with dry-flies when a lot of Green Drake hatched during the two weeks period in spring time, and these large trouts would surface to eat them.

Green Drake Fly (tied several years ago) 

To prepare for the trip, I spent a lot of time tying fancy Green Drake flies.  

When my wife and I arrived at one of the pools of the East Branch of the "D", many fishermen (even from Canada) had already lined up from the head of the pool to the end - they probably read the same article. We had no choice but to squeeze ourselves to the end of the line.  All of us were waiting motionlessly for the Green Drake hatches and spinner falls till dark, but Nothing Happened!  Everyone was very disappointed. We were in the water for about two hours.  

I remembered hearing a guy said, "What the hell are we doing here?" while he was leaving.  We also left, so did other fishermen.

After this trip to the East Branch, I returned there a couple of times without much luck either.
On the other hand, fishing the West Branch is challenging, but I have great fun.

I have made one more video of last week's trip. Please enjoy.

      

                             

Fishing the West Branch of the Delaware River

I fished the West Branch of the Delaware River for five days last week.
The weather was good most of the days except the first day which had some scatter shower.
But it turned out to be the best day for fishing as fish was the most active.
As the days went, fish became less and less active, so did the insects.
I had to spend the whole day wandering around the River and searching for rising fish, and yet not much luck.

In the evening of the second day, by chance I found a spot in the middle of a huge pool where decent size fish came up every evening after other fishermen had left, and I was the only one staying behind.
This spot saved my days. I could catch 2 or 3 around 15-inch fish there in the last half to one hour before dark.
I caught most of the fish in this spot than any other places.

The largest fish I caught there was a 17-inch brown with my iso dun, and it was also the last fish of this trip.

 My extended foam body Isonychia Dun and Spinner Fly:

 I especially tied these large flies for this fishing trip.
 Iso is supposed to be in season now in the Upper
 Delaware River.
 It took me a lot of time to tie each of them. Imagine
 I had to tie several.
 The point of these files are:  they are unsinkable
 because of their foam bodies.
 I must say my effort was paid off by catching the        
17-inch brown, the largest fish of this trip.

 Delaware Isonychia Mayfly