Many seeing this headline from the get go, and rightfully so given my sharp tongue, assume this is about to be an all out blog rant filled with hate. Surprise, for once its not. The reality is this year has exposed what we knew was already coming on the West Branch of the Delaware- a capacity issue. I have been going up to my family’s cabin that is situated on the upper west branch for 21 years- and for somewhere between 10-12 of those seasons, the west branch was my favorite river. It was consistent both in terms of bug life and rising fish, it provided great summer fishing via the sulpher hatch that offered fun and technical dry fly fishing, and it had big fish. There was very little not to like.
At some point however in or around 2008-2010, the river started to see a dramatic increase in pressure, and not just wade anglers but boats. This was not just a one year thing, but rather has proven to be a year over year increase in boat traffic and angling pressure generally, that has had several notable impacts on how the river fishes and the quality of the experience. I waded the river last Sunday, which occurred to me as I was walking into the pool as being the first time I had fished the river all season. In realizing it I almost surprised myself, as I hadn’t even fished my home pool til June 5, despite spending approximately 40 days on the system this season alone. The pressure had caused me to subconsciously give up on the river to a degree I hadn’t even realized. This past Sunday reinforced why I hadn’t been there. A boat came down every 5 minutes for the entire afternoon- people rowed in front while rising fish were there, even casted to fish that I had right in front of me rising. The response from boats coming by was essentially “ this is the west branch what do you expect”. It was a sad day where I left the water at around 5pm just feeling like the river was done.
Getting to the impacts of the pressure-First, the fish are downright beat to death. It has become rare, rather than the norm one expects, to catch a large brown that doesn’t have some type of deformity that you notice upon landing it. This isn’t how things are supposed to go. You aren’t supposed to catch a fish and say “oh that’s the one so and so got” and recognize it by way of some signifying, man made feature that was created by poor handling and man generally by way of the tragedy of the commons playing out. Getting past the deformities, which is hard to say and harder to do, you also have the weight of the fish. The fish are noticeably skinny to anyone paying attention that cares, and not just trying to go by length without assessing the overall condition and health of the fish. The fish are skinny- which for a river that runs cold all year is not normal or natural, and a sign of how pressured they truly are. These fish are eating less then they need to be to maintain a healthy body weight and condition because of how frequently they get hooked on the occasions they do feed. Night time isn’t even a safe haven anymore as the mouse game has been blown up and absurdly over publicized with enough “night time is the right time” bullshit hash tags to make anyone that’s been doing it for a while puke. The west branch fish are skinny for stress and angling pressure, which is absurd given the overall river conditions present there that should allow any trout to thrive and be in prime condition throughout its life.
Beyond the condition of the fish being severely impacted by the pressure, we’ve also seen a change in the fish behavior itself. Fish are downright ignoring later season bugs now, because by this point they have been so beat to death they have become conditioned not to rise and eat the insects. I will avoid going into a “back in the good ole days” saga, but will simply say the hatch used to raise most fish in the river throughout the entire summer between the months of June through Labor Day. That’s done now, as by July 4th, these fish would prefer to eat subsurface than get their face ripped off even more by the same guy that ripped it off a little the weekend before. Fish aren’t that smart, but they aren’t that dumb either. The cumulative pressure that has come to a head here on the west branch at this present time raises real questions as to how we should proceed moving forward- as the impact the angler base is having as a whole is harming the fishing for everyone. I’ll get into the debatable options later, but this is the crux of why this article is being written. Fish are not acting like fish anymore on the west branch due to the amount of people pounding them every time they rise to take a dry fly. The impact of that is significant in terms of the later spring/.summer dry fly fishery.
Finally, there is the plain and simple issue of the impact on the experience. Initially, as crowds were increasing there were ways to not let it have a major impact on your day. You could time your float differently to set yourself apart from the others, you could come up with an unconventional put in/take out- but now the pressure is inescapable. The multitude of ramps and places you can put in hard boats alone, let alone the other locations you can drop a raft in make it a stream of boats all day, no matter your strategy. This is before considering the wade anglers which are also numerous, and who if I was them would be disgusted based on what ensued on this river on a daily basis. You can’t fish the river anymore without considering the human factor, not thinking (but knowing) a boat is coming around the corner within 5-10 minutes. You are on a riser wondering should I keep going because this fish is rising only somewhat steady and I don’t wanna get passed by 3 boats trying to hook this fish, rather than just doing what any normal angler would do on a normal river- trying to hook that fish in front of you. The experience on the west branch now is not what fishing is about, and not why most fish. Everyone is frustrated, guides and long time solo anglers of the river included. It’s an issue we all have to figure out, which brings me to the points below on debating what, if anything, can be done here.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
POINT 1
CREATING A WADE ONLY SECTION ON THE UPPER RIVER DOWN TO NORBORD OR BARKING DOG FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT
From the outset I think its important to explain my feelings that I think regardless of what is done here, the river is not going to be brought back to what it was. That’s not my naive goal here. Instead, my purpose in proposing these ideas is just to try and restore some level of normal and enjoyable fishing experience to the river, particularly in the summer where other trout water/options are limited.
Getting to point 1, one option is putting a wade only regulation in place from lets say the dam down to Norbord- or if wade anglers wanted to get greedy, barking dog. My half baked idea on this is the regulation would only apply during the later part of the season- with lets say the wade only reg applying between June 30-Labor Day. This would limit the boat show and have the dual impact of creating some safe havens for fish in areas where most anglers are going to struggle to present to them without a boat, and also limit the day-to-day shit show. The reality is this river during the summer months is easily wadable, that said people will bitch because they want their boat to bring their yeti cooler and because people in drift boats after a while don’t even want to put on waders. Ok- your first world problems and laziness are noted- but we are dealing with a legitimate issue here so some type of compromise needs to be made before the pressure issue boils over. This is one o the options. If you insist on being in the boat, you can float down from Norbord or barking dog- wherever the line in the sand is. Its an option and guys that haven’t worn a vest or waders in 5-10 years can express their complaints I’m ready for them.
POINT 2
SETTING LAUNCH LIMITS AT BOAT SITES
If you hated my wade only proposal, you probably hate the idea of this more. To be honest I hate it more for several reasons. Yes, in theory limiting boats at a various sites sounds great- however we all can envision the enforcement issues here and the politics that would play out. First, we have essentially zero DEC presence what so ever on the river- so there would be many violating the rules. Secondly, the way the authorized boats for a given day was decided would be hard to regulate, with predictable cries from private parties claiming the guides have all the spots/are getting preference, and guides claiming they don’t want this in the first place because they want to be able to float the river every day, not some days. But, because we are in a desperate and increasingly worse situation here, it is an option that needs to be mentioned and discussed. I’m curious to hear from those reading how they feel about it, both guides and private boats included. If this were to even be taken seriously and developed, a clear and transparent system would have to be developed, and would require DEC to enforce to make it legitimate. Because I have little faith in DEC to do anything right on this system, my faith is similarly just not there when it comes to this potential option for debate.
FINAL POINTS AND AN OPEN QUESTION TO THE FLOOR
Bottom line, everyone that fishes the Delaware system is aware how overrun the west branch has become. Its hurting everyone. We are living proof as a river community of anglers that “the more that love a river the more it is protected” is pure bullshit. I feel like a 7th grade social studies teacher in mentioning the concept of the “tragedy of the commons” but in this case it too directly applies not to raise it. This river is loved to death, and the experience is shot for anyone that knew what it was even a mere 8-10 years ago. Part of the issue I think is with many new comers to the Delaware system, comes the issue of no prior context and experience when it comes to comparing the river to its prior self. To them, getting a 18-20’’ brown with its right jawbone ripped off that’s half its body weight is still a long fish, and of course picture worthy. The west branch, even at its worst, produces fish that are bigger and better than your stocked New Jersey stream or most Ct Rivers. Ultimately, this comes down to making a broader and bigger decision for the quality of the experience. Do you want to have 10 drift boats anchored in the same pool you are in, giving you 50 feet or room before parallel parking right below you? Do you want to see heavy bugs and few heads because the fish are so pressured that they have developed the instinct not to eat the very food source they rely on, just to evade us? As wade anglers, I don’t even need to ask you, I know you’re disgusted. This is not an easy issue, but a necessary discussion. Something needs to be done, or it will certainly boil over in the years that ensue here shortly. Perhaps nothing speaks more to the decline in the west branch as a summer fishery than the fact that smallmouth bass trips are commonly offered and run now for many anglers during the summer months. Translation- the upper west branch is so shot and beat to shit that its not even worth taking you there if you can’t cast 60-70 feet and drop it on a dime, and even if you can you might not even get a steady big fish all afternoon because he is sulking in the mud because half his face was ripped off yesterday. Is this what we want to promote and deal with when we say we are fishing a wild trout river? I think the answer for most is no. The West Branch has arguably become the most pressured river in the United States when you compare angler traffic to fish per mile. Its Now time that we have to start the hard talk of figuring out how to regulate it in a fair and equitable way. I think its best we get ahead of the issue an start the debate, rather than wait for it to become an issue that boils over and angry minds prevail. That’s it.