A return to the West Branch.

With a tornado watch in effect and thunder storms predicted for two-thirty, I opted to fish the upper WB at a spot close to the car. I had avoided the algae plagued  West Branch all week, first because of the algae, second because of the rain induced muddy water.  Found the river at an ideal level,  running clear and with a reduced amount
of algae.

Arrived about two-forty five to find a mix of bugs on the water with very few fish up. The summer sulfurs got going about 3:30 and the fish  started feeding with some vigor. There were dark clouds overhead, thunder and lightning in the air and when it started to rain hard I headed for the car.  It was 4:00 and I had landed five
of seven fish hooked,  losing a big rainbow and a two year old brown to large clumps of algae.

Returned after about half an hour to find lots of bugs and very few feeding fish. You had to find risers, mark them, get close enough to cast and wait for them to feed again. There were good fish feeding and I hooked three more nice ones.  One got into a clump of algae and broke the tippet, one came unstuck as it dropped into the net and was able to jump/swim out and one I landed (an eighteen and a half inch rainbow which ended up fish of the day).

Left when the bugs quit at six-thirty and headed downstream. Got decoyed into the game lands by the lack of cars and fished to rising fish until dark.  Got half a dozen refusals and hooked two nice fish, both of which broke my  six-x tippet.

Fishing the most popular places is a sure way to "limit your catch".

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

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 (...
Read more