Two day Jay

We battled tough conditions for brown trout yesterday, it felt like a day the fish should be chasing meat, but it was a ‘meaty ocre’ bite. We caught a few “fun sized browns”.

Today we opted to chase the early season Shad as they migrate up our river.

We had early success in the morning landing a few shad first thing. Then as the sun came out and wind picked up, the bite slowed a bit. We ended up hooking ten and landing five on white and pink shad flies. A few fallfish and bass were landed as bycatch. One rainbow was hooked briefly.

Hoping some mayfly hatches will begin tomorrow and throughout the remainder of the week as the water levels drop and the temperatures rise. Best wishes to all who fishes!

A different kind of spring day.

My buddy Gary from Long Island called and told me he was hitting some of his favorite spots wading today. I had some guide meetings and other commitments in the morning and I met up with him in around noon.

He had Wade fished a few spots in the morning and caught his personal best brown trout on the west branch! Check out this pic! He hand painted his new rapala to look like a baby brown trout. And hell yeah did it work! This fish measured 28”!!!

Then after meeting up with Gary we headed to the NYC reservoirs and targeted respawn smallmouth. After getting blanked on our first few spots, we found the motherload. I landed close to ten bass between 14”-19”. And Gary put a hurtin on a few too.

Always grateful for a buddy to call and share some new spots and take the lead on a fishing day.

A cold day, full of brown trout.

With the main forage being Alewives these brown trout are fat and juiced up with early season energy. A good number of alewives are found for the first few miles below the Cannonsville dam right now. And we’re seeing a majority of the trout are feasting on them. Some skinny trout mixed in.

Today’s bite started slow, with the best bite window coming between 1-3pm. Then many follows and more hookups afterwards. Dan B. And his finesse with high quality equipment was able to put 20 brown trout to the boat today with three measuring 19.5”.

A great day for a cold start in graupel snowflakes, and 39 degree water in the morning. Here are some photos of the dead alewives and some quality browns Dan landed today.

April is here, 2026 Season is underway.

Happy 2026 to all of the anglers out there. We have started guiding daily on the upper Delaware and will do our best to post photos of successful anglers here on our photo blog.

We have full reservoirs throughout the river system and the fish are hungry. Water temps and flows have been higher than average in late March and early April, as we have had some warm days and rainy nights after a harsh winter. But cold spring days and nights aren’t over, so the conditions vary.

Alewives have been spotted as a main forage in the West branch. We will patiently wait for the constant warmer temperatures and the first mayfly hatches of the year.

We have limited dates available throughout the spring months. Feel free to give us a call at 570-647-7030 to get on the water

Here are some pictures of David G. and Ben G. from separate trips to start the season.

Happy 2026! And late season recap!

2025 wrapped up with some awesome days on the water. Walleye season was cut short this year with cold weather and old man winter showing up just after Thanksgiving.

We had an epic day catching two 27” fish on our final outing of the year. Photos to follow. We wish everyone a warm and safe winter! Thanks for your continued business support and think spring!

Steve with a slammer 27” brown trout for the final fish of the 2025 season.

Evan with a 27” walleye!

Gary Jr. with a keeper walleye, one of many on this day.

Joe E. and Evan with double walleye.

Late summer and fall 2025

Oh what a summer it has been. Overall steady river flows with limited precipitation. The trout fishing shut off in mid July and bass and walleye took precedent from August to October. Some nice trout began biting again in mid October and we had a few weeks of great pre spawn brown trout fishing. And some slammer rainbows in the mix too.

Now November is here and we are primarily Walleye fishing. Please give Evan a call at 570-647-7030 if you’d like to get on a Walleye trip this fall. Or buy a Christmas gift certificate.

Here are tons of photos of our successful anglers over the last few months.

Summer has been incredible

This fishing season has been wet, and full of fish, by wet, I mean rainy with plenty of water in our entire Delaware river system.  But as I tell my clients, “the fish are already wet” they don't care, so as long as you're able to fish in the rain, let's go.  Overall I'd say that from April 1-July 7th of this year the overall size class of trout, stripers, bass, walleye and shad are possibly better than ever.  Or it at least seems that way in my observations of my day to day guiding.  I do have pictures to prove it, most of which are on my blog and website.  But basically it has been a great season so far of fishing and spending quality days with good people on the river.



July 6th, 2025 Fishing story

Now, onto the best 10 minutes of fishing this season.  On July 6th we planned an early morning float on a frequented stretch of river that is well known as brown trout fishery and the occasional migratory striped bass opportunities.  Paul, Matty and I met up at 6 am and were fishing by 6:15 am, natural colored streamers on fly rods “moved” some fish, while a silver single hook blue fox spinner landed one rainbow trout in the first two hours of the day.  Pretty slow morning by my standards, then the sun came out and the low clear water and high sun did not bode well for the fishing activity to increase.  My best fishing buddy Matty landed a nice 17” acrobatic brown trout and he asked if it was picture worthy.  Mutual agreements said no, not really…

So after a morning of fly fishing and light tackle spin fishing for trout, we moved down to the deepest hole on that particular stretch of river.  “And now for something completely different”, we targeted stripers we knew had been there in the weeks prior.  But the river had dropped significantly over the past few days and the low clear water yielded arguably tough conditions.  I had saved a few dead fallfish in my freezer from a previous trip where clients were interested in Channel Catfish and Striper fishing.  So when we got to this pool Matty and I both set up circle hooks with chunk bait out to soak in the deep water.  

Matty and I have fished together for about ten years, and to say the least we have no shortage of epic fishing stories. From 23” dry fly brown trout, to back to back 33” and 36” muskies, and 30” walleye’s.  We’ve caught a lot of big fish together.  Now personally, as a guide and fishermen, I have seen good luck, bad luck, beginners luck, those with skill and no luck, and those with skill and luck.  Matty is the kind of fisherman with skill and luck. I’d consider myself in in a similar category, knowing however, that I will rarely catch the largest fish of the day.  I may catch the most, or a really nice one, but someone else is bound to catch one larger than me, trust me.

So, as Matty says, it's about a 3 minute rule in our typical striper spots, that if you throw a bait out and don't get it eaten within about 3 minutes, they're probably not there.  With some exceptions of course.  So about 3 minutes after my bait hit the water, I saw the line moving and pulling out of my reel.  I cranked my reel handle forward to engage the drag system, and I was hooked up.  As I fought the fish at first, I was near certain it was a striper, I was right.  I have caught over 100 stripers in this river, but never one over 28”, so I have been wanting a 28+inch striper for years now.  As it came up to the surface, I saw its size, and thought "it looks bigger than a schoolie”, and after about a 5 minute battle, I brought the measured 30.5” striper into the net.  It met legal requirements within the 28-31” slot limit, and I planned on cooking it for my wife and family.

I don't think we had even taken a picture of the Striper yet, and I hear Matty say he's getting bit.  I look up at his rod, and see him set the hook.  Now the fish on his line immediately took off on a crazy long distance run.   Unlike what most stripers do, I internally thought, “I wonder what that is”  . I didn't think much of it as I was dealing with the fish I had just caught and revelling in my own sense of glory. Matty is a guy with a jovial demeanor, and an insane amount of excitement when it comes to successful fishing operations.  So as he catches a glance of the fish he confirms it is quite large, but still thought it was a Striped bass, our target species.  Upon second glance, he sees spots on its side, and yells, “It’s a trout! This is the biggest trout we’ve ever seen”  Paul and I still hadn't seen it, and were now intrigued, so we stood up to watch the battle.  As the seasoned veteran angler Matty is, he fought this fish on a medium action Ugly Stik, with 8lb test line, and handled it like a professional angler.  Anchor rope and boat angles can be detrimental to battling a big fish on a light line, but knowing how to do it can yield success.  As the fish came back around, we were all losing our minds at the size of this river trout.  The average size brown trout in this river is 16-19” with many in the 19-23” range  but seemingly very few in the 25-30” size class, as is typical in most river fisheries.  

Paul has been working on his netting skills and made it look easy this time, thank the fish gods.  The brute brown made it to the net, we all were freaking out at the size of this fish, as it was way larger than most trout we’ve ever seen.  My personal best is a 26" brown. That fish was nowhere near the length or girth of this particular fish.  This fish measured exactly 30”. Matty’s fish wasn't longer than my striper, but it was most definitely heavier and more of a unicorn.  Both fish were awesome, and the whole moment in time was incredible. 

As we were targeting stripers, I did not expect to hook into brown trout on cut bait. I've never caught a single trout on cut bait in my entire life, but I always call the Delaware, a river “with no rules”.  The fish unfortunately swallowed the hook pretty deep.  Upon first glance we tried removing the hook, but blood was spurting out of the fish's mouth.  We agreed that this fish would likely not pass the hook through its digestive tract and that it had fought its last battle.  We did not want to kill the fish, but we knew that it was not likely to survive if let go, so we opted to ethically harvest the fish to feed our families.  The brown trout is bound for the smoker along with some landlocked salmon I have in the freezer.  

In about fifteen minutes two 30” fish were netted on my older original drift boat, Paul on the oars and net, Evan with the striper, and Matty with the brown trout.  Both personal bests for Matty and I, and that brown trout was a true river monster for the fishery here.  It broke the previous Sweetwater Guide Service record for brown trout by 3” held since 2007.  This fishing day will go down in history as one of the best.

Bill with his first ever Striper.

Jay with the smallmouth and the Sun Dog in the back.

Alex always catchin' nice brown trout.

Luke hammering smallmouth.

Rowan slammin bass.

Brothers with the double on the fly rods.

My buddy Mike on the Upper Green RIver in Wyoming.

Jay slammin a striper on the Fly rod.

Serene Moment in Wyoming.

Bob G. always on the bass.

Harrison with a rare summer rainbow.

Harrison settin the hook.

John C. loves the fallfish.

Pete L. always on the trout.

Dan. with a nice smallie.

Dan and Mary having a day.

Deanna on the board.

Lindsey K. Having herself a day!

Charley on the dry fly.

Bruce with a foggy rainbow trout.

Green Drake (Ephemera guttalata)

Bruce with the sunny day Brown.

Jack having himself a day.

Jacks slammin the stripers.

Jack with a nice rainbow

Jacks second Striper.

Scot with a 22” Brown trout on the dry fly.

“Are you gonna row back up there?”

Russ’s Rainbow.

This fish went on some run. David displays a hammer rainbow.

Mark always on the good ones.

Mark hit the stripers hard on this day.

Nice one after nice one.

Scott and Joe simultaneously hooked up on stripers, and tangled lines. only one made it to the boat.

Joe with the Brown trout of the day

Roger with a 28.5” Walleye! He’s on the Braggin’ Board!

Roger slammin brownies.

Lorraine with the slammer rainbow!

Fred’s nice brown trout.

Bruce summer day Brown!!

Ready for spring!

As April approaches, the trailers are greased, the boats are clean and the fly boxes are full. Evan and Mike are ready for another season of putting our clients on fish. Thanks to all of you, our schedules are pretty full through June.

Feel free to reach out and we’ll get you on the water for a summer float or get on our fall schedule.

Here is Chuck with the biggest Walleye of the season. 29.5” long. Released for a healthy spawn.

Paul and Evan got on the finger lakes with guide Kurt Hoefig and put a hurting on some Atlantic Salmon. Here are some photos from that quality March fishing outing.

Here’s Ethan with the first brown trout of our 2025 season on the Delaware.

Here’s David G. with a quality Walleye

What a season. Walleye fishing heating up now.

Evan and Mikes season was full of fish and great days on the water with our friendly clients. We fished a ton this year even though Mike is attempting to retire or at least go to super part time for guiding.

Evan has a new 8 month daughter Desirae and guides regularly from April 1 - January 1. Please reach out to Evan at 570-647-7030 for future bookings.

Now that all of the leaves have fallen off the trees, walleye fishing is getting very good. Low flows have them schooled up in the typical pools and the short days and low light conditions are ideal. Give us a shout to get on the water.

Summer 2024 updates

Spring finished out strong with good trout fishing, the Stripers showed up, and we are now transitioning into a summer of Smallmouth Bass fishing. We had some incredible days, and its all thanks to our great clients and friends for fishing with us repeatedly throughout the season. Evan and Mike want to say thanks to all of our repeat customers, who keep our business up and running.

Here are a photos of our successful anglers.

May 2024

This May has brought awesome bug hatches, decent weather and great fishing conditions. The trout have been keyed into March Brown mayflies regularly, and the Sulphur hatch has also begun. We caught a few stripers on May 17th which was the earliest we have ever caught them north of Callicoon in the river. The American Shad run has been pretty steady, with Many buck and roe shad being caught in the evenings and on cloudy days. Contact us to get on the beautiful Upper Delaware river. Here are some photos from the last few weeks.

Deanna with a beautiful Fallfish

Deanna practicing her casts.

Herb with a feisty rainbow trout

Herb with a chunky one.

Happy Herb and his rainbow trout.

19” Brownie for Keith

24.5” Striper for Keith. first one of the year.

Rainbow for Keith.

20” Striper for Mason.

Guide fish, dry fly brown trout.

19” Brownie for Keith.

Sulphur cloud of bugs.

Paul with a chunk rainbow.

Descending into Stacers Run

Dry fly trout for “Noice” guy Steve.

Beautiful evenings.

19” fat brown for Bruce taken on a March Brown dry fly.

21” brown for Bruce

Bruce’s 21” fish. look at those red spots.

Bruce with a nice roe shad on the fly.

Bruce putting up numbers.

Bill with a 20’ Bow!

Bill with a backwater pickerel

Paul with a Delaware river Brown

Ethan with a nice brownie.

Ethan with a Beauty.

March Browns, on the Menu.

locked in.

Bill with a 21” brown and his grandson Wesley.

Wesley with a 21’ Pickerel.

2023 Late Summer and Fall Update

Late summer and fall brought mild weather and stable river conditions. We did not receive many rainstorms that blew the river out for too long of a time. This had the fish in a holding pattern for most of the last few months, making them a breeze to find and battle into the net.

Mike and Evan want to give a big Thanks to all of our clients and friends who keep us busy, on and off the water. You prove the successes of our hard work , and we Thank you. Here are photos of many of our successful Sweetwater anglers. Enjoy the gallery and give us a shout at 570-647-7030 to get on the water for the 2024 season.