Smallmouth Crush on the Delaware

[thmyorke1]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

Looks like the Milford / Montague bridge in the back drop. If so, nice float, very productive and beautiful stretch of the Delaware. Nice seeing the smallies population flourishing again, the Big D can at times be a tough river to fish but at the same time is one gem of a diversified fishery and a beautiful part of the state. Sounds like you guys hit it right and had a great float, couldn't ask for a better day on the water.

Were most fish caught on artificials or hellgrammites and crayfish for the smallmouths. We're they concentrated in the rapids, deeper pools or spread out?

Did you see any signs of this year's juvenile shad fry on the river during your drift? September and October they typically start skipping their way on the surface down the river, curious if you saw indications of their presence during your trip.

Fantastic report.

Yes Milford to dingmans.

I didnt bother trying to park and walk on of faster rapids/runs, although Mikey with the drift boat and anchor was doing that in a few spots and they had more success.
In some faster moving water before/after the rapids, I would just drift a weightless fluke and every time it got picked up by a smallmouth.
I ended up focusing more on the slower water and hit the edges where the shore was, pretty much just outside the grass. I got most of my nicer ones there, spotted bigger ones as I floated over them. One of the better ones i lost at the side of the canoe was out of one of the creek confluences, smallmouth was sitting in like 5 inches of water and it waked and slammed my lure as I swam it back.

I did see some big schools of baitfish but unfortunately I couldnt tell if they were shad or not.

I could have sworn i saw some shad (like 8-10 inch) swimming fast around one of the slower/weedy edges. Couldnt get a good glimpse of them but definitely had the forked tail and oval body shape.