Main Stem Delaware River, NY/PA
As buds on bare, brown branches herald the coming spring, Hendricksons and Blue Quills pop from the riffles. By Memorial Day, Green Drake hatches that raise your own hackles will last well into dark, the rises from big trout sounding like cinder blocks slamming into the river. A few weeks later, as the setting sun illuminates lush riverside trees, an orange cloud of Sulphurs measuring hundreds of feet in any direction dances over fast water. When the choreographer signals, the Sulphur spinners fall to the water and rainbow and brown trout—and smallmouth bass and shad—gorge on the abundant insects.
Two months later, juvenile shad from a previous spawn gather en masse, riding the late summer–early autumn flows hundreds of miles, fleeing from trout, smallmouth bass with bursting bellies, walleyes, and resident striped bass. Meanwhile, upriver, rainbow trout are slamming swung caddisfly pupa patterns so hard that they snap 4X tippet.
A few short weeks later, the conflagrant autumn leaves have fallen, and diminutive Tiny Blue-Winged Olives carpet the surface. The hatch and the spinner fall overlap, and the minute mayflies spark trout to rise rhythmically in the frigid flows. Maple and oak leaves ride the currents with the BWOs, and the formerly lush landscape cycles back to brown. Such are the seasons on the main stem of the Delaware River.
The main stem, averaging more than 100 yards wide, with fertile riffles and mysterious deep pools locally called eddies, offers outstanding and diverse fly-fishing opportunities. The Delaware was (and is) a legendary warm-water fishery (most lists of top smallmouth bass rivers in the United States rank the Delaware in the top 10). But in the late 1800s, a train transporting McCloud River rainbow trout fry derailed in Callicoon, New York. Fearing the fry would die, Dan Cahill (a brakeman on the train) rushed to release the tiny fish into the Delaware. Against all odds, and only because this strain of rainbow is exceptionally hardy, the fish took root in the warm-water ecosystem. These rainbows have an extraordinary ability to tolerate warm water (last summer, during the White Fly hatch, I saw them rising in 78-degree water, though this in no way suggests targeting trout in such warm water is healthy—it can be lethal for the fish.)
With the completion of Pepacton and Cannonsville Reservoirs in 1955 and 1964, respectively, icy releases from the new dams radically changed the Delaware. The fantastic warm-water fishery was pushed downriver as the cold-water fishery usurped former smallmouth territory. Today, many anglers believe the Delaware River system offers the best wild trout fishing east of the Mississippi. One river, two world-class fisheries. But the trout don’t necessarily come easy. Mike Bachkosky, who has frequented the river for 60 years, often says, “Everything else is checkers. The Delaware is chess.”
The East and West Branches of the Delaware River are exceptional, well-publicized fisheries. The main stem is a different beast. The East and West Branches are large rivers, but not nearly so robust as the main stem. Trout population densities are higher in the branches. Because the main stem is bigger and has fewer fish per mile, and because of frequent windy days in the early season, proficient casting is critical. You need to be able to accurately cover water. Much of the river runs smooth, making for technical fishing, so anglers typically present dry flies down and across—effective reach casts are monumentally important.
Moreover, access for walk-and-wade fishing is limited on the main stem, partly by private land and partly because the river forms lots of long, deep, pools that limit where wading anglers can reach fish. And wading anglers need to watch flows—if the river flows at more than 2,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), it becomes dangerous.
Anglers flock to the Delaware’s branches to target rising trout during predictable hatches. But the main stem is far more enigmatic, and full of surprises. Once, when drifting the lower main stem, with my rod rigged for dry-fly action, I spied two striped bass behind a boulder. One was easily 30 inches. Not that I was necessarily out of the action: Mike Bachkosky once landed a 20-inch striped bass on a size 16 Sulphur dry fly. And on a similar pattern, I once caught a hefty American shad. My brother-in-law, while scuba diving in the river, came face to face with a muskie. Those deep Delaware River eddies shelter many secrets.
Main-Stem Trout
The cold-water section of the Delaware extends from Hancock, New York, to Callicoon, New York. Most fly anglers who target trout, especially those who travel from afar to the Delaware, drift the river, which offers three float segments: the upper main stem from Hancock to Buckingham, Pennsylvania; the middle stretch from Buckingham to Long Eddy, New York; and the lower reach from Long Eddy to Callicoon.
The upper section has the densest trout population, and consequently the densest population of drift boats and wading anglers. Buck to Long, as the middle reach is known, offers some of the river’s best fishing amid fewer people, and when seeking a respite from the crowds, guides drift Long Eddy to Callicoon. This lower stretch has the fewest fish, but a greater percentage of the remarkable, powerful rainbows, descendants of the fish that have survived for decades in enemy-occupied territory dominated by warm-water predators. I have fished this stretch of the Delaware for nearly 40 years. Rare is the fish I catch that is under 14 inches; most range from 16 to 18 inches, and plenty of them top 20 inches.
Throughout the main stem, my favorite strategy is to single out and target individual trout. Much of the river features steep, boulder-lined banks. Big trout make lunch and dinner reservations in such places, and they’re challenging to catch. When you spy one, subtly working, you must go into stealth mode. You and your guide strategize in whispers; then your casting skills are put to the test. These fish require perfectly timed, drag-free presentations. When trout, particularly rainbows, rhythmically rise in the pools, they often move a few inches with each rise, intensifying the importance of accurate casting. Just when think you’ve made a perfectly placed 50-foot reach cast, your quarry moves a foot upriver or to the left or right. You might work the fish for 15 minutes or the rest of the day. It’s like multidimensional chess, and such encounters are unforgettable, from the blown casts to the frustrating refusals, from the pronounced exhales when you swore you made the perfect presentation without so much as a glance, to the unforgettable take and unstoppable run into your backing.
Main-Stem Hatches
The Delaware is renowned for its dense mayfly hatches, and while most days produce dry-fly action, some mayfly emergences are better than others. Author Al Caucci says the Hendrickson is the king mayfly of the system, and this famous hatch is an epic event on the main stem. Between late April and the third week in May, Hendricksons are hatching somewhere on the river. Deprived of hatches for months, and having not seen an angler during that time, the trout are easier to dupe early in the season. They soon become less gullible.
After the Hendricksons come March Browns and Green Drakes, then Golden Stoneflies, all with brief but prolific hatches, making the days surrounding Memorial Day perhaps the best of the year for anglers. At that time, the Sulphurs are in full swing, creating near daily fishable hatches that last well into fall. In late summer, and extending into fall, Slate Drakes (Isonychia) hatch in swift water.
Then Tiny Blue-Winged Olives become a dominant hatch in autumn. I live 2 miles above a drift boat launch on the main stem. Once the BWO hatch starts, I can tow my 16-foot Hyde XL to the launch at 1 p.m., row upstream to where I want to be for the hatch (and the spinner fall, as they are often simultaneous), and start fishing at 1:30. I will fish until dusk (Delaware River trout love to eat dries in the dark). I bought that boat one autumn, and this routine was my first experience fishing the main stem by boat. The first trout I hooked and landed from my drift boat came to a minuscule dry fly during the hatch of Tiny Blue-Winged Olives and was just over 20 inches long—quite a maiden voyage for the new boat. Such opportunities abound throughout the system in the autumn.
Generally, the Delaware is considered a mayfly river; however, caddisflies can be important throughout the year. The main stem features long riffles where swinging a caddisfly pupa is highly effective. Use 4X or even 3X tippet, however, because Delaware River rainbows slam a swinging fly so violently, you’d think they were small steelhead; in fact, a friend I met while steelheading, upon catching his first Delaware River rainbow, grinned and said, “Fish hit like a freaking steelhead,” and that was “just” a typical 16-inch Delaware trout. Pupa patterns usually produce better than caddisfly dries, but keep a few Iris Caddis and parachute-style caddisfly patterns handy.
For the main stem’s trout, stick with flies the sit in the film rather than high-riding patterns such as the famous Catskills-style dry flies. Excellent patterns include Sparkle Dun, Comparadun, Sailboat Dun, and The Unusual—the latter three being flies of local origins. Delaware River trout love to gorge on spinner falls, often well into dark, so also carry an assortment of spinners. Long rods—9.5 to 10 feet—are handy for wading anglers because sometimes long casts are required and, if you are wading deep, the extra length helps keep your line off the water. Nine- and 9.5-foot rods are ideal for casting from a boat.
Any discussion of Delaware River possibilities must include shad. The spring spawning run primarily comprises 16- to 19-inch hickory shad. American shad are far less numerous, but significantly larger. During their spawning run, shad stick to the main channel and will hit small attractor-style wet flies and small streamers. Fresh-run shad are frequently referred to as “poor man’s salmon” and fight fiercely, explaining their popularity with fly anglers. After the spawn, shad will take trout flies, but the longer they are in the river, the less energy they have for a good fight. Of course, there are exceptions: one spring day, I caught a postspawn shad that tore backing from my reel and leaped multiple times; I had to pull anchor and chase the fish by boat. From mid- to late June, shad school in large numbers and gorge on nightly Sulphur hatches. Somewhat resembling a school of saltwater predators savaging a school of baitfish, shad will pack tightly and swim up, down, and across pools, foraging on emerging insects—this behavior can resemble their spawning activity, which occurs in the same pools, but these feeding shad are devouring mayfly duns.
Be flexible if you are traveling to fish the main stem. In some years, the water warms enough by mid- or late June that anglers should avoid targeting trout in the lower reaches. For colder water, head higher up, closer to the convergence of the East and West Branches at Hancock. During cooler summers or summers with higher flows, the entire main stem remains fishable most of the summer; such was the case in 2021. But a year earlier, a hot summer led to elevated water temperatures throughout summer, meaning the ethical option was to leave the main stem trout alone and fish the two branches. Prior to mid-June and after Labor Day, the main stem is almost always fishable.
Warm-Water Wonderland
Fortunately, as warmer water slows the trout fishing, it ignites the smallmouth action. Callicoon is in the heart of transition water, where the river produces good fishing for both trout and bass. The first year that I targeted smallmouth on the Delaware, I mostly caught small fish. I focused my efforts on the top of the water column and secured stinger/trailer hooks to the bend of the fly hook. The next year I focused my efforts on the bottom and ditched the stinger hook. Targeting the drop-offs where mammoth boulders dominated and rushing tailouts, I started catching much larger bass, most from 12 to 15 inches and a few even bigger. The key was to fish deep and slow.
Often I have been treated to lunker smallmouth rocketing straight up through 10 or more feet of water, heavy sinking line in tow, bursting through the surface and then crashing back down, only to bulldog back toward the bottom. They routinely prove their reputation for being the hardest pound-for-pound fighters in fresh water.
Mid-August through October is prime time for smallmouth on the main stem. That’s when baby shad begin their journey to the ocean, traveling in massive numbers. Warm-water predators, including smallmouth, striped bass, walleyes, and even big sunfish, feed ravenously on shad fry. Even the seldom-seen largest fish—15- to 18-inch smallmouth—abandon caution and aggressively race from cover to hammer shad, and flies that imitate shad. The action can be so maniacal that it recalls bluefish and stripers in the ocean crashing schools of baitfish. Charging bass can even cause fleeing baby shad to launch themselves up on shore in a desperate bid to escape. This is the season of white streamer patterns and violent takes that nearly rip the rod out of your hands.
Prior to outmigration of juvenile shad, when white streamers are the ticket for Delaware bass, stock your smallmouth box with a variety of pattern that allow you to fish anywhere from the surface to along the bottom in deep water. Clouser Minnows and Clonkers are ideal for probing the depths, but I also like fishing deer-hair surface patterns on sinking lines. Each time you pause during the retrieve, the buoyant top-water bug ascends to the surface, then dives again when you strip line, producing a less dramatic rising-then-sinking pattern than you get with a lead-eye pattern fished on a floating line. But with both tactics—floating flies on sinking lines and weighted flies on floating lines—the jigging action results in rod-wrenching strikes.
Crayfish-imitating flies, such as the Full Motion Crayfish (a proven winner on the main stem) can be deadly. Surface bugs and shallow-running streamers can draw explosive strikes. I fish a 6-weight rod for smallmouth, but you might want to go heavier—but definitely not lighter.
In addition to smallmouth, the Delaware is home to numerous species of sunfish, including one of the most colorful freshwater fish, the red-breasted sunfish. Yellow perch abound and are aggressive. Downstream from Callicoon, the river’s abundant structure provides superb habitat for bass and bream. Moreover, early and late in the season, when the water temperature is to their liking, trout often rise for hatching insects on this section of the Delaware, so keep those dry flies handy.
Bruce Concors, executive producer of the documentary film Land of Little Rivers, about trout fishing in the Catskills, once said to me, “You go to the Beaver Kill, Willowemoc, and Neversink to learn how to fish. You do not go to the Delaware to learn how to fish. You go to the Delaware for the challenge, to test your fly-fishing skills.”
Not many rivers can boast of being prime fisheries for both trout and warm-water species, and that’s one of the attractions of the main stem of the Delaware. It’s a big river in a land of little rivers. In the main stem’s secretive flows, you face off with trophies, testing your tackle, skill, and will.
Bob Lindquist, a freelance writer and frequent presenter to clubs and at fl- fishing shows, is a retired teacher and coach who lives along the Delaware River in Callicoon, New York.
Sailboat Dun, Sulphur
By Bob Lindquist
Hook: Ahrex 501 or Fulling Mill 5050, size 18
Thread: Yellow Semperfli Nano, size 18/0
Tail: White microfibets
Abdomen: Thread, yellow EP Fibers coated with clear Solarez Bone Dry
Hackle: Pale yellow or light ginger
Thorax: Yellow-orange dubbing blend
Wing: Pale gray EP Fibers or snowshoe hare
The Unusual
By Mike Bachkosky
Hook: Ahrex 501 or Fulling Mill 5050, size 16‒18
Thread: Tan or yellow Semperfli Nano, size 12/0
Tail: Snowshoe hare
Wing: Butt ends of the hair used for the tail
Body: Orange or yellowish dubbing
Mainstem Delaware
NOTEBOOK
When: Late April‒early November.
Where: Southern NY–northeastern PA, from Hancock, NY, to Callicoon, NY.
Access: Limited walk-and-wade access best as a float fishery—wading is dangerous at flows over 2,000 cfs.
Headquarters: Hancock and Callicoon, NY.
Appropriate gear: 9-ft. 5- or 6-wt. rods for boat fishing, 9.5- to 10-ft. 5- and 6-wt. rods for wade-fishing (7- and 8-wt. rods to target large fish with streamers), floating and sinking-tip lines, 2X‒6X tippets.
Useful fly patterns: Trout: Parachute-style dry flies, Comparaduns, The Unusual, Quigley Cripples, Iris Caddis, Sailboat Dun, spinner patterns, soft hackles, Main Points Pupa, Taboo Caddis, Barr’s Emerger, Golden Stonefly Nymphs, Pheasant Tail Nymph, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymph. Bass: Clouser Minnows, Clonkers, Full Motion Crayfish, Muddlers, George’s Killer Fly, surface bugs.
Necessary accessories: Polarized sunglasses, headlamp, waders/wading boots, wading staff, large landing net.
Nonresident license: License reciprocity in effect between NY and PA. NY: $10/1 day, $28/7 days, $50/annual. PA: $12/1 day, $52/annual.
Guides: Cross Current Guide Service and Outfitters, (800) 463-2750, www.crosscurrentguideservice.com; Blitzbound Charters (Jason Dapra), (631) 662-4734, www.blitzboundcharters.com.
Books: Fly-Fishing Guide to the Upper Delaware River by Paul Weamer.
Bob Lindquist
Bob Lindquist, a freelance writer and frequent presenter to clubs and at fly-fishing shows, is a retired teacher and coach who lives along the Delaware River in Callicoon, New York.
