Spinners save the day

Tied spinners and march browns to prepare for what I was sure would be another all day fishing bonanza. If you had sent me to an arroyo I would have gone willingly, sure in the knowledge that I could float a fly and catch fish. The feeling was enhanced at my first stop on the big east when a nice bow ate my march brown.

And then - The frosty morning turned into a hot sunny day.  I never saw a march brown hatch, the Hendrickson's never showed and even the sun loving caddis failed to make an appearance. I never cast at a rising fish and at 6:30 I had caught just the one fish.

The boat traffic on the WB was heavy.  I pulled into one launch site for a look at the river and couldn't get near the stream.  There were four boats in the water loading fishermen and another on the ramp waiting to put in. Every vista of the river showed a row of wade fishermen with an endless string of boats weaving though them.

By 6:00 many of the anglers were off the river or standing along the shore in small groups.  I drove up river to get behind the boats and found an empty spot where a riff dumped into a pool.  There were caddis egg layers in the air but no risers. Put on a spinner and looked for risers. It wasn't long before the fish started feeding and
they obviously hadn't been hooked on many spinners because they ate mine without hesitation.

The spinner fall lasted about an hour and a half and was a  modest one with a mix of caddis and Hendricksons.  I have not seen or heard of a massive spinner fall of all the bugs we saw last week, be prepared, today might be the day.

If you are going today be patient, bring your spinners and stay 'til dark.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Had To Get Out The Neosporin For The Tooth Cuts On My Index Finger.

  To say the Delaware  is a hard river to figure is an understatement. Yesterday was an overcast day that had fishermen thinking olives. Turned out the water was probably too warm for olives and too cold for sulfurs, in short, a dud. Today the air temp was a little cooler, (I think), with a mix of sun and clouds and the sulfurs, (both yesterdays and todays), hatched. The fish? At least where I was, went nuts, threw caution to the wind, and ate everything that came down their feeding lane, both with and without hooks. Heard from two sources that the sulfur hatch at the red barn was also very good today. If my last report on the red barn sulfurs was erroneous, blame it on Ed who has been in Hawaii for the last two weeks, (hence no reliable red barn reports). The fishing mid-day was so good, and the number of fishermen in the "Zone", (it's Friday afternoon), so high, that I decided to fish down river during the evening hours. Fished a pool in the middle section from 6:30 unt
Read more

Fishing A Cold Blow From Out Of The North.

  Jean came down and we spent the weekend watching wildlife in the backyard, driving around the area and enjoying two "nights out", one with David and Maryann, (the apprentice Troutfitter Inn cleaning lady). A shout out of thanks to her for spending four hours on the road to have dinner with us. Not sure the company or the meal was worth the drive. We drove up to Stilesville to witness the hordes of anglers, and then along the reservoir all the way up to Walton, where we usually stop and go in some of the shops. It was threatening to rain so we elected to keep going. It was raining on top of the mountains but we took route 206?? to Downsville anyway. We hit the rain part way up the mountain and then drove down the other side to Downsville in a torrential down pour. Came out of the rain at Downsville and drove down route 30 with the intention of checking  out the trout in some of the BK's thermal refuges, saw the muddy water at "Jaws" and drove back to the Lordvi
Read more

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN!

 It's Wednesday night, a fire is going in the fire place, an empty Perfect Manhattan glass is washed and back up on the shelf, 30 shrimp netted from Zane Gray Creek ((did you know that Zane Gray (famous fly fisherman and writer of westerns) was a dentist and that his office is now a museum that you can visit on the Delaware River?)), have been consumed by Jean and me, prior to the three pieces of venison backstrap that traveled from home to Florida and back, an early spring snowstorm is raging outside and most importantly, we're glad to be back home again! With that season opening sentence, Mrs. Haskins has no doubt thrown in the towel and disavowed all responsibility for my literary malfunctions. Run on sentences she could handle, but my never before attempted "double aside" was apparently beyond the pall. I sent her a "Go Duke" banner with apologies and hopefully she will cool off before the fishing heats up. Our trip back home was uneventful. Started at 2
Read more