My girlfriends family organized a gathering near where she grew up in Connecticut last weekend, so like most fisherman I saw this as an opportunity to fish some new places out east. I was told by a friend who lives in central New York that the W.B. Delaware was the place to go in the middle of summer. Being a tailwater the river gets cold water releases from Cannonsville Reservoir to maintain an amazing year round wild trout fishery. Brook, brown, and rainbow trout can be found throughout the river with browns being the most common. I packed my inflatable pontoon and had my lady drop me off a few miles upstream from the cabin where we were staying at the West Branch Angler and Resort. The first hour of my float I had not seen any rising fish so I tried nymphing without much luck. I also tried an ant close the banks, but that didn’t work either. Once the sun started to warm up a bit I noticed my first rise, but not just one, many rises in a small area where a pod of trout had revealed themselves and their weakness…. a size 18 sulphur. I worked this group of fish for almost an hour landing only one and missing two others. As I floated down the river I found a number of runs with groups of actively feeding trout. It was indeed a great day to be on the river. The weather cooperated, the bugs came out, and the fish were hungry. I ended up landing a handful of trout. Most around twelve inches, but I saw plenty of 15-18 inch fish rising to sulphurs.
