Rain and snow are good for the earth. It falls and then it fills the lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers. More water is generally better good than bad. It's also good for those acquifers that are underground storage places for water, like wells and springs. The goal is to have them full which would then lead to a leeching into larger water systems.
What's not good are those torrential downpours that blow out water soaked grounds that lead to flooding. Either there's just too much water to begin with or the ground can't keep up with the pace of the water's deluge. These days it seems weather is and all or none kind of event, and that's not good, and leads to either flood or drought, depending on which side of the spectrum you're on.
The Delaware River is 330 miles long. It is un-dammed, the longest body of water this side of the Mississippi. Generally the further north you go up into the valleys and mountains you'll see snowpack and large sections of the river(s) that are iced up. As the air and water temperatures rise and the snow and ice melts it starts to increase the water volume and flow, which we are seeing now.
On the northern sections of the Delaware large sheets of ice are moving with the current. At times they can cause ice jams which can almost be called ice dams. They impede the water flow and can be dangerous causing flooding and damage to bridges, docks, and any structures along the river. At times they have to be mechanically freed to allow the waters to continue their flow down river.
I find it to be a good thing, kind of. The higher flows mixed with the mechanical friction type action clears the river and banks of debris, like silt build up and branches, logs, and even full sized trees. The problem with that can be if they get stuck in rocky or shallow parts of the river or in and around bridge piers and abutments.
In just a few days we've seen the Delaware River at Trenton go from around 6,000 cfs to 31,500 cfs. It's not alarming, and is good for the river. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a continued rise in the cfs this week as air temps are reportedly going to hit 70 degrees. And with the rise in air temps we'll see a rise in water temps. And that's good for the fish, and fishing.
While some species, like walleye and muskelunge like the cooler water, striped bass start to get active when the water hits around 50 degrees, and somewhere around 60 is where they start to think about spawning.
Before this sudden rise in flows the Delaware River near me hit just under 40 degrees, but the cooling effect of the big melt will keep the waters cool even if we'll be in shorts sometime this week. The more water means the suns warming takes a little time to have an effect on surface temperatures, especially if large sections of ice are in the increased flow mix.
And as the river crests it's full of things that have been scraped off the banks of the river, which includes silt, sand, and dirt. That will increased turbidity, which leads to lower visibility. I have found there's a sweet spot when fly fishing the rivers, a turbidity that's too low gives the fish more time to size up an offering I'm swinging in front of them, too high will mean they can't see it, but just a tad off color, with an increased flow, has the fish staged just out of the current, and leaving them to have to make a quick decision to grab a meal or not.
During the early spring I find there's two types of striped bass. Holdovers and migratory. When I worked up in Newark I would fish the rivers near there targeting winter holdover striped bass. It's similar to what anglers are now finding in places like the Toms River, or back of the Barnegat Bay. I would usually catch my first within the first two weeks of March, and then it would be sometime during the last two weeks where I'd find striped bass closer to home. The ones near me are the early migratory fish, although there's places along the Delaware that hold young striped bass that choose to stay in their natal rivers for the first few years before making their way out into the ocean, joining the migratory mass.
Besides the urge to spawn coupled with the environmental conditions, bait comes into play as well. American shad and river herring, both alewives and bluebacks, will make their spawning runs as well. I find the herring to be a perfect bait to match when tying flies as the shad are just too big. That's why anglers chunk the shad when bait fishing. Some say the striped bass come into the natal rivers following the bait, and some might, especially if they are choosing not to spawn that year. Striped bass can be of spawning age, and make the runs, but just don't get it done every single year. So they may come to just fake the spawn and eat their way up and down the river.
Each day now as spring gets closer more and more anglers will be catching, and posting, their catches on social media. They'll most likely be catching those holdover striped bass although some post, "The bass are HERE!", well they are, but they never left. Below is the first fish posted up on the One Stop Bait & Tackle down in Atlantic City in 2026.
But right now the striped bass are active down in the Chesapeake Bay as they stage before their spawning run. One environmental disaster in one of their natal rivers occurred in January. Nearly 300 million gallons of raw sewage entered the Potomac River after a 72-inch shit pipe broke. While e-coli is just bad all round, and might be for the striped bass and other fishes that spawn in the Potomac, it's the shellfish that continuously filter the nastiness, and viruses can linger in these to-be-caught human foods for awhile. It's part of the larger problem with our infrastructure that leads to environmental disasters. But back to the bass. In a week or so they'll do the same outside of the Delaware and Raritan Bays. It'll be then where we'll see the first catches of large female striped bass making their way up their natal rivers.
While they have sex on their minds I find the closer to the start of their trek they eat, mostly picking up bait along the way, and then the further they travel it's all about the spawn, although they'll swipe at big plugs or flies interrupting their pause in a lie as they rest. While the females are far outnumbered by the males you might find a horny male who has both chasing bait and sex on his mind. But it's usually after the spawn where the exhausted fish, females and males, look to recharge by eating before heading downriver and out into the ocean. And that's where the fly fishing gets fun.
2026 is off and running right on schedule. This morning we're enjoying putting those clocks ahead by an hour. Maybe that will help break the Cabin Fever, the seasonal depression, and get us more motivated and productive. It's been a long winter and we're already for a seasonal change.