I realize now how lucky I have been to catch a single striped bass in the Delaware River. At least decent sized fish in the early to late spring. Later in the spring and early summer it's smaller fish that eat smaller flies like "normal fishing". Cast out, present some kind of decent fly, catch a fish. Or not.
But before that it's pure torture. This is my 5th year fly fishing the Delaware. Don't care about smallmouths. I suck at snakehead fishing. I'm all about the striped bass. But this place will drive you to drink, get divorced, or at least piss off the wife, and then, well do it all over again.
I'll keep it brief. There is a difference between fly and spin fishing. There is a difference between plugs and flies. There is no comparison between a BB-loaded-up-lure and a 10 inch Squimpish fly. They just don't do the same thing. First a spin fisherman with an 11 ft. rod, or shorter on a boat, can cast literally 300 feet and cover water far and near rather quickly. Those ba-donka-donk lures crash down, and get a reaction strike or not, and then swim, better than a far reach reach fly cast, behind rocks and into drop-offs, and then slowly swam back to the angler.
So with my shoulder and elbow blown out from two months of throwing an 11 wt I give you this. I have a Orvis 12 wt Clearwater rod. Love it. I'm using the Orvis Bank Shot 11 wt line, it only comes up to 11 wt, and then either a large fly, Beauty Shop mop or non-aerodynamic popper. I wade up to my waist and then do my best, and lately the wind haas been a bitch, to present my fly 50 feet? with the current running left to right. Now it's not just getting the fly out there, now it haas to either get down, quick, or popped quicker, or you'll waste the cast.
I do that, say 100 times per outing, covering a section of the river which is like the square footage of a floor tile in a large restaurant. What am I doing? Yes, I may try to my left or right, or up or down river, but the window of opportunity to catch is stupidly low. Low water, the current is fast and swift. High water, you're pinned to the bank. Those scenarios aren't always a bad thing, but the amount of hours you have to put in for all things to line up is, well, as my wife puts it, stupid.
I hate fishing from a boat, well, actually I hate fishing in a river boat. Well, like a river boat in current. That goes for a drift boat in the Upper Delaware to a jet boat in the mid-Delaware. Actually I like it if you're fishing with no hooks. You can see the blow ups, or rises, or the flash behind a fly. Once you hook them, and you know what I'm talking about, it's a race rather than a fight, and more so for the fly angler. Hit a bank a tad downstream from a drift boat and nail that 22 inch brown that's a bank feeder or cast downstream to a 20 pound striped bass that waiting behind a rock and you'll know.
But there is something that a boat can give you, well me, something I don't always get to see. A new perspective. And yesterday I got the chance and I really liked it. When you spend you're hours looking out it's nice to spend a few looking in. Rather than standing in the water you're on top of it. All those rocks and seams you can only imagine what they may look like come alive when you pass over or around them. And then there's the fish, or not.
In this game a good angler needs mobility. You need to move. The fish are. They are either moving south to north to get their freak on or east to west with the wind and tide or following bait. Standing in one spot with a fly rod for hours, to me, although peaceful sometimes, seems futile, now.
I saw what the difference topwater spin lures and fly rod poppers look like in a big river. While my popper looks nice, pops nice depending on the cast and current and retrieve, it is in no way, not even in the same class, as an 8 inch ba-donka-donk lure, which either the fish want to kill or eat. For my cute fly rodding part of the boat trip I had a few follows, one good blow-up, and the above fish that hit the popper as it hung off the boat behind us. Kind of like those March Brown fish you catch up in Junction Pool in Hancock. As for the spin fisherman I was with? Blow-ups. Follows. And a real fish. 100 foot cast side stream, not straight downstream, and then retrieved in a quartering way, and then ba-boom. It was a boat fish. No other way. And it came in quickly and went back after a quick picture.
So they say, or I say, "Boat fish don't count", mmmm, well in some waters if you want anything to count you have to leave that rock you've been standing on and get to where the fish are. It's that simple.