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At Least We Are Saving On Suntan Lotion.

 There have been days when both Jean and I have wondered what we were thinking to come back from sunny, warm Florida so early. Thankfully, this was not one of those days (at least for me). Got to the river at 2:00 (paraleps  usually hatch before Hendricksons), and the water was covered with them. There were a few of the size 16 olives mixed in and after 4:00 a few Hendricksons showed up. The fish ate like pigs at a troth. The only problem was the weather. The sun actually made a cameo appearance while I was enroute to the stream. The clouds quickly regrouped and conjured up some rain. The air temp reached the mid-fifties and the water where I was, got to 47.5 degrees. But the GD Hendrickson wind brought tears to my eyes. On every cast at 3:00 or 9:00, (12:00 being upstream and 6:00 being downstream), the wind took your fly and leader and did whatever it pleased with it. Finding where your fly landed was a challenge, instant drag (it was an upstream wind) was a foregone conclusion. The
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I Feel Lucky!

 Started out at 2:00 today and headed over to the Beaverkill which was back up to over 1,400 cfs as a result of last night's rain.  Why? There had been Hendrickson's there the last two days and the water temp was at 46 degrees, (Hendricksons will hatch at 48), and there was a bank I could walk and fish. Got off rte. 17 at Horton and drove along the river, there were small mayflies hatching and a few fish rising. Couldn't set foot in the water anywhere.  Drove to my bank walking place and that's where I got lucky. No, not with fish. Have one of those white bottles of High N Dry flotant that I use on Hendricksons. It fits in the jacket pocket that I use for fly flotant but it's too tall to close the flap. Lost it once this year putting on my vest and thankfully found it in the grass when I returned to the car. Lost it again on Tuesday (had no clue where). Was walking along the bank looking for bugs and risers when I saw the little white bottle bobbing around in a back
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The Fragile Magic's Gone.

 Change's keep on changing. Todays cloudy weather kept the sun from warming up the water. Air temp got to 62 on my car thermometer but none of the rivers got up to 50 today. Used up the two best high water pools yesterday and my first two choices today each had a pair of fishermen standing on their banks looking for risers. Had rising fish (4) in the third pool, caught a fourteen inch brown, felt but didn't hook a second fish and was refused by the other two.  Was lured over to the West Branch by DRC's glowing reports (not really) and by the fact that the NYC's DEP had shut down the Cannonsville release, which resulted in a somewhat more manageable wading level. It was a fool's journey, without the sun, even the reservoir surface water remained in the mid forties. There were a few paraleps, but no real feeding. Saw half a dozen fish rise once each, rose three fish, hooked two, and landed one thirteen inch rainbow. Clearly my wand is in need of a charging station. Wa
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It Was A Day That Exceeded Expectations

Was in no hurry leaving Lafayette this morning. Told Jean my plan was to start work on the fence replacement project, that I wouldn't be fishing today, and that my stay would be determined by if, how fast, and how much the rivers dropped. At present, even with today's drops nothing is able to be safely waded. On the way down I stopped in Deposit and chatted with "Mike the Cop" who was eying Oquaga, which was clear and dropping into a fishable level. Next stop was the Troutfitter where I hoped that a guide had let slip something about a pod of bank sippers that could be reached from shore. No luck there. Got to the Lordville Estate just before noon, unpacked the car, put stuff away and then attacked the lady bugs that have no problem getting in in the fall but can't seem to find their way out again in the spring. I mean them no harm, but the Eureka Dust Buster takes no prisoners. I emptied the bag outside and some dust coated Lady Bugs were still alive, hopefully t
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Don't Even Think About It.

 It got up to 60 degrees today but without the sun there wasn't much improvement in the water temps. There was a downstream breeze that was a little troublesome at times, but the main problem was the lack of the sunshine needed to warm up the water.  The bugs (all kinds of them) wanted to hatch but the water was just a bit too cold. We had bugs from 2:00 until about 4:30, but not as many as yesterday and the bigger fish just weren't up. Yesterday our smallest fish was sixteen inches, today our biggest fish was seventeen inches. Yesterday we were well satisfied with both how we fished and what we caught. Today not so much. We ended up rowing out when both the bugs and the fish quit. Two other boats floated the same water we did. they appeared to be throwing at fish but we never saw them net any. Update Friday am. - - The outlook for the rest of the week looks grim. The rivers are blown out from last nights rain, not a bit of sun is expected to appear until Monday and rain is in
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Don't let that that rain come down.

 My South Holston river friend, (one of only two people who will fish with me), (the other is currently on injured reserve), is up for a visit (he brought his boat) and today we floated. There might have been some question about where we chose to float (no one else launched where we did), but we enjoyed the fact that we never saw another fisherman, let alone another boat, on the river all day. The weatherman might well have gilded the lily a bit when he predicted a chance of showers and a high temp of sixty degrees. It rained all day, and the temperature peaked at fifty three degrees. When I read the forecast for the rest of Mark's stay (rain for the next four days) I was thankful that we got in the day that we did today.  How was our day? We sucked it up, paid an extra $5.00 to launch (didn't have the proper change), parked in the wrong place (got a note from the owner where we put in), never made it to the predetermined takeout place, and had a delightful day counting bugs (t
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We got our money's worth.

  It was a can't miss event. Motels were sold out two years ago at prices five times there normal rates. Traffic on I-81 near Syracuse was a solid two lanes of cars on both Saturday and Sunday all heading north into the "totality zone". Jean and I live in Lafayette which is just east of I-81. Originally we were in the zone and gave consideration to renting out rooms at rates high enough to take care our real property taxes and the balance due on our 2023 income tax return (don't believe everything I say). A week or so ago someone discovered that either the moon had shrunk or that the sun had gotten bigger and that perhaps a smidgeon of the sun would be peaking around the moon in Lafayette. We cancelled the rental idea and gave (brief) consideration to driving forty-five miles up 81 to our niece's house where a totality celebration was scheduled. In the end we decided to put two chairs out on the porch, each put on a pair of "eclipse glasses" that Jean bo
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