So it's summer now out here along the Delaware River. It's been a hot one coupled with what seems to be daily monsoons that arrive in the afternoon, which is very Florida-like. And when the air is warm the waters of the Delaware River usually follow suit. Sometimes, it's too hot to play catch and release with the striped bass who stayed put for the summer. There's not a ton of water around either, today's flow is 5,600. That's a far cry when I was in my glory a month or so ago fishing in 45,000 cfs.
And the temps...just too warm. We're probably averaging 80 degrees between day and night. That's a lot of stress on striped bass, even the ones who are used to the warmer freshwater temps. One thing that's holding is the DO, which is around 8 mg/ml these days. When the rain comes it doesn't cool the river, in fact it seems to bump the temps up. We need cool tailwater releases. How nice it would be if there was a dam about 5 miles upriver, not that I'm a fan of dams.
So the striped bass. We know what they eat, usually depending on the time of year. Early on its herring, shad, menhaden, maybe some small white bait in the brackish and salty water. There's crabs and sand fleas and worms. In freshwater there's all types of morsels for them to eat. In the summer the river is full of life, with the usual suspects abound, and juvenile forage fish to come. All of those herring and shad that were produced upriver will make their way down to the salt in the late summer and fall. In the meantime, eels, shiners, bluegills, catfish, trout, sticklebacks, gobys, snakehead fry, perches, other bass, crayfish, hellgrammites, and all types of insect larva float by ready to become a snack or a meal.
One of my favorite swimming things I've seen in the Delaware waters near Trenton are hogchokers, which resemble fluke or flounder. They can grow up to 8 inches long although the ones I've seen are only a few inches. Legend has it that farmers used to feed them to their hogs, and they choked on them, hence the name hogchoker.
But as of late I've been trying, and dying, to get one of these bastard bass on a mouse fly. It's a nighttime thing, one because of the higher water temps, and two, it just seems like a nighttime thing. While I've had a few follows and one swirl, it has been hard to get one to commit. I've taken off the mouse fly and tied on a hookless baitfish fly and quickly had them eat, only to become unglued because there's no hook. But if there was one I would have had them dead to rights, I hope they know that.
I first tried mousing for trout in 2007 when Chris Roslan and I did an assignment for Eastern Fly Fishing magazine. We headed north to Canada to the Minipi Camps where the brook trout were plentiful, big, and not shy when it came to big flies, including mouse flies.
Throwing mouse flies to fish in the Delaware River was first introduced, or at least I saw it, about 10 years ago when Joe Cermele, now of Cut and Retie fame, HERE, gave it a go on the Upper Delaware River targeted big browns a night. He teamed up with a local guide and Jimmy Fee from On the Water Magazine and started a trend that continues, up until today, for some. Some say the fish should be rested at night, as they get pressured all summer long during the day as sulfur hatches keep the fish up and the anglers out.
Joe put together yet another great video of the night he went mousing. Hopefully I'll have some success soon with the striped bass. And hopefully the river cools off so I can fish with a hook.
