Is the DELAWARE Canal DRYING UP...?! [S16/EP21]

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Look at this. Look at this. Ain't this beautiful? Right over here, it says right over there, Cold Springs. Cold Springs. What? Blitery. 1904 to 1973.

[00:00:15]Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green bri. Flow gently. I will sing thee a song in thy praise. My marries asleep by thy murmuring string. flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream. And then right here on the left side, check this out, man. Hey, you all probably seen something like this, right? Very, very similar, by the way, to that fishing spot that we just hit in the previous video here on the YouTube channel, right? Because that's the exact spot right there by the bridge just about like a hundred years ago or something like that, right? Boy, oh boy.

[00:00:55]I just made it over here to Yardley.

[00:00:58]I'm sure that some of you locals probably heard about this already. Let me move my stuff over here a little bit.

[00:01:05]Some of you probably heard about this already. It's been all over the news, man. A portion of the Delaware Canal has dried up, fellas, north of here, you know, killing thousands of fish, man. In spam of like, I don't know, 3 4 days or something like that. They said in the article that it was because of a faulty pump. So, it wasn't even because of the drought that we've been having over here. You know, it was a human error. That being said, I don't know about you, I am very, very concerned to see how my section of the canal is doing nowadays. So, I just made it over here to Yardly, man. We're going to go there and check it. Let me tell you, I don't even know if today we will be able to catch some fish or not. Let's go there first, check out the situation and then we will talk about it. I will let you know that every summer, usually late summer, because this canal is so poorly managed, it does tend to dry dried up a little bit, but I have never seen this kind of stuff happen around the month of May. You know what I mean?

[00:02:18]because the PA fish and boat commission is stocks the place with trout in April.

[00:02:22]Right. Like I said, the section that dried up that was on the news is more north of me. I'm here in Yardley by lock five. So, we're going to check the situation of the place right now. Okay. I think we still should be okay, but you never know. So, Oh, yeah. Mhm.

[00:02:46]Still got plenty of water over here, baby. That doesn't mean that it is going to be any better later this year, but let me check this side of the canal.

[00:02:56]How's it going, man? How's the fishing going?

[00:02:58]>> Just got here.

[00:03:00]>> Oh, all right. Well, I wish you luck, man.

[00:03:02]>> I think I follow you on Instagram.

[00:03:04]>> Hey, that's what's up. I appreciate all the love and support, man.

[00:03:08]>> Oh my goodness. Actually, on a side note, folks, I'm going to give it to you. The water level is much lower than a few days ago. I kid you not. A few days ago when I came here, the water level was right around here. Okay, you can kind of see right. The water level was like right around there. So, we lost about I would say maybe 9 ines 1 to 2 ft of water in the month of May.

[00:03:40]Yeah, the situation is dire. Ah, this is worse than I expected. I've never seen like this around this area for the month of May. I'm going to be real with you all. Usually, it is more towards end of July, August that this place like totally entirely dries up. You know what I mean? But at this time of the year, let me just show you right there by the bridge, right? Do you see the mark over here of where the water was just a few days ago? Is it still black over there?

[00:04:15]That is crazy.

[00:04:18]So, you all know what we're going to do in this video, man. We're going to we're going to have to save this fishf style. You feel me? Catch and release, baby. Catch and release in the grease.

[00:04:32]That's right. Put them in the oven so that they can become a part of me.

[00:04:38]Oh, come on now. What would you do, man?

[00:04:40]Wait for this place to dry up and then all the fish just rot and they all die, the stock trout, and they just go to waste. Come on, man. Let's Let's put it to good use, right? Let me get my fishing gear set up. Let's go. Let's get this late fancy store out of here. Wow.

[00:04:54]This is a pretty sad situation right over here. I'll give you that.

[00:05:00]I can see the bottom of the canal already.

[00:05:05]The water is like super shallow.

[00:05:09]Uh there's fish though. I just got a bite on the power bait right here by the bridge. This was my second cast over here.

[00:05:16]You know, this does not look like the type of environment that is suitable for trout in the long term now. So, the best that I can do for them is really to bring them to the oven. I'm not even making this up. The water levels are like this today. You know what I mean?

[00:05:33]But who knows how it is going to be a few days from now.

[00:05:37]Last time that I was here was Sunday and the water levels are already like this.

[00:05:43]You know, who knows what is going to happen another week over here for this fish. Maybe this place is really going to dry up.

[00:05:53]That is crazy.

[00:05:59]It's like 3 ft tops over here.

[00:06:05]18 inches of water.

[00:06:10]Wow.

[00:06:11]I mean, where are the trout going to go?

[00:06:14]You know what I mean? It's shallow everywhere. Water temperature is rising.

[00:06:18]Of course, they got to be under the bridge.

[00:06:21]They're stacked up right over here right now.

[00:06:25]Look at that.

[00:06:29]Where they got to go? At least it's a good fight, you know. Yeah. Come over here, baby. It's hard to land in two now because of all of this. You know what I mean? The water is supposed to be like right right here. I'm not even making that up.

[00:06:45]Boy, come up here. Second one of the day on the power bait. Look at that.

[00:06:52]Beautiful. Beautiful though. Gorgeous rainbow trout on Korin Kusmikis.

[00:07:03]Come on, prepare that doll for a pizza.

[00:07:09]Mama mia molto.

[00:07:13]Let's go. Bambino.

[00:07:17]They're all stacked up under here.

[00:07:20]Makes the fishing fairly easy, you know.

[00:07:25]Boy, oh boy. It's the only place with shade right over here. The water is 3 ft deep. So, like I said, where where else they got to go? Look, I'm not even lying to you. I come over here. I cast my stuff down there. You know what I mean?

[00:07:39]I'm not even cutting the clips over here just to kind of show you like, yeah, dude, they're all stacked up right over here. You know, they have nowhere else to go. Just imagine two, three feet of water on that side, on this side without shade. Frank is gonna get to them in no time at all. You know what I mean? You all know that. Frank, man, I saw him today when when I was over there. You know, Frank is going to get him. You self-preservation. Even for stocked fish, you know what I mean? Even for stock fish, they're like, "We got to go to the area where there's less chances for predators, right?" Oh, this is a nice size one, too. We're going to measure all of them at the end of the video. So, I'm just going to show you what I do over here when I catch them, right?

[00:08:26]Because I'm using power bait, though.

[00:08:29]They always swallow the hook. I just use my Ventol pliers over here.

[00:08:35]Saltwater anglers got to got to laugh at me, you know. Yeah, that's right. I'm using my titanium vinsl for stock trout.

[00:08:42]And now I'm going to bleed them. I'm going to kill them and I'm going to bleed them so that when I cook them, they taste better. This is truly such a sad thing to see. The article on the news said it was a broken pump and they have no estimate as for now as to when they're going to fix it. Can you believe that? So the so the water is looking like this today, but it could be dried over here in like a week or something like that. You know, I don't know how many pumps they got working to bring water here at the Delaware Canal from from the Delaware River. But I can tell you though, man, this circumstances, this conditions, man, is not really the conditions for trout to live happily in the wild. You understand what I'm saying? If this was a a class A stream right here in Pennsylvania that you have like wild fish, native fish, they're able to breed and reproduce all year long. That's a different story. You know what I mean?

[00:09:46]That's a different story. But this this ain't it, man. You know, not enough cover over here. The water temperatures are rising. It's getting more and more is stagnant over here every day.

[00:10:00]There's a sprung to disaster. They're all stacked up right over here. Look at that. They're all stacked up right over here. Look at that. Yours look like a decent sized one, too. Not even making this up.

[00:10:12]My brother, you come over here. Any bridge at the Delaware Canal right now.

[00:10:17]You catch your limit on power bait, man.

[00:10:20]That is just crazy. I'm going to flip this baby up here. You know, man, look at that. Fourth one. Fourth one of the day right over here. Look at that.

[00:10:31]I don't know, man. For me, I could be wrong, but for me, at least this fish, they got to go to the oven. They got to become a part of me for sustenance. Put them out of their misery. You know what I mean, man? And got my trout stamps money worth. All right. Easy now.

[00:10:49]Small and compact.

[00:10:57]Let's go.

[00:11:01]Got a hit already. Not even making this up. Just cast this baby out there.

[00:11:06]Instant hits.

[00:11:10]That is so crazy to me, dude. Whatever trout was left in the canal is all stacked up there. You know, it's all stacked up cuz my last one of the day, if I can land it, we're going to measure them. We're going to measure them. every single one of them, you know. Good lord. This one didn't even fight, bro. Jeez Louise.

[00:11:33]Okay, easy. Now, look at that. Maybe a half pounder right over here. All right, last one. We just got our limit all on power bait today. Okay, it's bleeding a little bit, too. All right, let me do the outro over here real quick. We're going to measure all of them. I am not going to sugarcoat it. I'm going to be real with you all.

[00:11:55]If you live around the area and you enjoy eating trout, stocked trout, I really do encourage you to come over here to the Delaware Canal and harvest as many as you can within within the legality of the law, okay? Which is five a day at a minimum of 7 in for 2026.

[00:12:19]It saddens me to say this, but the article online even mentioned that they don't even have an estimate as to when they're going to fix that pump north upstream of here. So from Sunday to this Friday today, the water dropped by 9 in.

[00:12:39]This is an estimate 9 to 12 in. So at about 2 ft only God knows you know next week where the water level is going to be if that pump is not fixed. And like I told you folks you know this environment right now man it is almost middle May.

[00:12:58]Water temperature is on the rise and we all know that these drought right here they are not suited to live somewhere where the water temperatures are too high. What is going to to happen to them? They're all going to die. Whether the canal dries up or not. Okay, let me use this opportunity to measure the fish for today. We are at like what? 42 or 44 cents per pound at the moment. All righty. Got to get that money. Got to get the trout st money worth. Let's do this. We got five very, very beautiful trout right over here. Look at that, man. Boy, the sizes for today, truth be told, were not that bad at all. So, let's see what we got over here. We got 041.

[00:13:51]Okay, beautiful. I think this is going to be about the same.

[00:13:57]044.

[00:14:00]Okay, this one's going to be a tad bigger than that. Probably 61.

[00:14:07]Okay, I've been measuring so many trouts since the beginning of April. I am becoming a professional when it comes to this kind of stuff. 66. That's definitely our biggest of the day so far. I mean, it is going to be our biggest of the day. And finally, we got 046 over here. Leo, you can add all five of them to the 2026 totals. Okay, beautiful limit right over here. I'm going to put them back in my cooler and I think I'm going to cook two or three of them tonight together with the inner circle, you know. But yeah, folks, just summarizing this video, it is a very sad situation over here at the Delaware Canal. Usually this place does dry up, but much later in the year, end of July, beginning of August, you know, when the trout sincerely are almost all gone, right? Or Frank ate them all. But this year, because of that pump around the beginning of May, tough. I'm going to keep you folks updated on the situation over here. If you folks come over around this area and you see that the water level is too low, that the fish are in like little puddles of water, please let me know in the comment section of YouTube so that we can come over here with a net and try to rescue some of them in the future, okay?

[00:15:30]because I'm telling you sooner or later.

[00:15:32]I don't know when this year that is bound to happen. But this is it for today. I hope you folks enjoyed this video. tight lines and I'll see you all next time.