[CapeMayRay]

Anyone fish that area or up that way. I have never fished it with a fly rod. Any ideas of what to use and how to fish it? What should I try to fish for and is there a better time as it gets warmer. That is a whole new ball game for me.

Later in the season I know you can get stripers early in the morning or around dusk when fishing structure.

 

[Belmo]

There's a guy who posts here, Ray, whose screen name is DJAnkle. He lives in New Hope, I think, and fishes the Delaware a lot. He's not a fly fisherman, but I'd email him and ask him for advice. You can find a post of his here: http://206.130.108.134/forum/showpost.php?p=2108845&postcount=15

Believe it or not, there are guys who fish from the banks of the Delaware, using surf gear (long, heavy rods, big spinning reels, etc.). They fish for spawning stripers, and they occasionally catch big ones. I'm sure there are decent-sized stripers in the river as far as New Hope, but I have no idea how one would go about catching them. Good luck.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Thanks, I use to fish for muskies around there with surf rods and big plugs as where you would catch them and their size you would need heavy stuff when fishing from land.

 

[Never Better]

Hey Ray, Hope all is well and looking forward to seeing you on the water soon. I used to fish the Bucks county stretch of the Delaware a lot with the fly rod years ago before I got spoiled by the Susquehanna. There are lots of great bass areas for the fly and I concentrated on the New Hope to Frenchtown stretch with Byram being one of my favorite areas. I would try to be on the water in low light and usually used deer hair sliders , kind of a precursor to the Crippled Minnow. The key for me was to fish the fast pocket water- the bass there were much more likely to pounce on something quickly and didn't have time for a long eyeball at your offering... the neat part of that stretch is you never know whats gonna grab your fly- walleye, wayward stocked trout ( there even used to be a population of native browns, not sure about now) , stripers, muskies and the long-eared sunfish ( river sunnies to me , which can put a nice bend in a five weight ! Its simple fishing and May and early June are prime time but the white fly hatch in late summer can be a blast also.
Good luck
Tom

 

[CapeMayRay]

Tom, thanks for the information. That whole area looks great.

At charter captains meeting last night I talked to a couple of guys and they said the water was still really cold at the inlet and in the back bay here in Cape May and that a few guys using clam bellys in the back were not even getting any hits, so there is no rush to get the boat in.