Let’s say you get your hands on Kip’s time machine from Napoleon Dynamite. You insert the proper number of crystals but instead of going back to the halcyon year of ’82, you choose to travel 500 years back in time to the banks of the Delaware River for some casts. The river would undoubtedly churn with fish — stripers, shad, river herring, bowfin, mighty Atlantic sturgeon. In a slow glide, a pod of risers casually sips hatching insects. You approach, make a cast, and immediately hook what feels like a decent fish.

In the Northeast, as the last delicious days of late April blossom into early May, a certain section of the Delaware River gleams like the center of the universe. No, it’s not the Upper Delaware’s wild trout section, smothered by too many drift boats and wade anglers (yeah, I’m one of them). To reach these less fashionable waters, head south into the 40-mile-long Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area — sometimes called the Middle Delaware. Swap out your five-weight with a stout six or a forgiving seven. And don’t forget the stripping basket you used last fall for stripers.