Smallmouth Bass Turn On Along the Delaware Despite Low Water

What's biting

What's next

Over the next two to three days, expect the pattern described by Old School Outdoors in Ewing to hold: a low, still-recovering Delaware River with smallmouth bass continuing to strengthen and catfish staying active after dark and into early morning. The Fisherman's freshwater notes point to a transition from a choppy, drought-affected June into the more predictable "Dog Days" stretch of July, and that shift typically brings steadier feeding windows rather than the on-again, off-again bite anglers dealt with through the spring.

If flows stay low, look for smallmouth to keep concentrating around deeper holes, current breaks, and shaded eddies where oxygen and cover overlap — the same water Old School Outdoors flagged as needing some extra walking to reach once levels drop. Catfish should keep responding well after dark on cut bait and stinkbaits in those same holding areas, and as water temperatures climb through July, that bite typically only gets stronger.

In the Pine Barrens, tannic ponds and slow cedar-lined streams should keep producing largemouth bass and chain pickerel on an early-morning and late-evening pattern, with fish tucking into the thickest remaining vegetation once the sun gets high. Topwater presentations worked along shaded edges at dawn and dusk are the classic play for this stretch of the calendar, and that should only improve as the heat settles in and insect activity peaks.

Crappie fishing, which has slowed regionally, isn't likely to bounce back until later in the season — that's a normal mid-summer lull as fish move off spring cover and scatter to deeper, cooler water, so anglers chasing them may want to shift effort toward bass and catfish for now.

The Last Quarter moon this week won't dramatically reshape freshwater feeding the way it can influence tidal fisheries, but the shorter early-morning and late-evening light windows remain the highest-percentage times to be on the water regardless of lunar phase. Anglers planning a weekend trip should prioritize dawn and dusk sessions, keep an eye on rainfall for any rebound in flow, and be ready to downsize presentations if the Delaware stays skinny. Checking a local forecast before heading out is worthwhile given how unsettled conditions have been this stretch.

Context

Freshwater fishing in the Delaware River and Pine Barrens region typically settles into a dependable summer rhythm by early-to-mid July, and this season's path there has been somewhat bumpier than usual. The Fisherman's freshwater correspondents describe a June marked by wide temperature swings, unreliable forecasts, and a developing drought that left rivers running below normal — conditions that pushed fish into a less predictable pattern than the steady topwater-morning, deep-water-afternoon rhythm anglers usually count on this time of year.

That said, the underlying species mix and timing look on-schedule. Smallmouth bass improving through late June into July, largemouth settling into an early/late-day pattern as vegetation thickens, and catfish turning more active as water warms are all textbook seasonal progressions for this region — the drought has mainly affected water levels and access, not the calendar of when these fish typically turn on.

Crappie sliding into a summer lull is also normal; that fishery usually peaks in spring and tapers as water warms, regardless of flow conditions. The Pine Barrens' pickerel and largemouth fisheries, which depend on stable, vegetated, tannic water rather than river flow, should be less affected by the low-water pattern than the Delaware River corridor itself.

No source in this week's intel directly compares the current season against prior years' benchmarks, so beyond the general "later and choppier than an average June" read from regional shop reports, there isn't a firm signal on whether this season is running meaningfully ahead of or behind normal.