Mergansers should have to fish dries.

It just wasn't my morning.  Went looking for Tricos on the upper east and both my first and second choice spots were already taken.  Third spot was vacant and I saw fish gulping spinners downstream about a hundred feet from where I went in. Started working slowly downstream towards the fish when a flock of 26 (I counted them) mergansers swam by me on the far bank and headed right into the feeding fish.  What ensued was fascinating but difficult to watch.  For fifteen minuted the mergansers turned the pool into a frothy whirlpool of  mass hysteria.  I saw six trout eaten and probably missed many more.  The birds acted in harmony to create mass subsurface confusion/panic.  There were drivers who created the disturbance and eaters who waited for the panicked fish to come to them they then dove and came up with a fish.  When it was over the mergansers formed a line across the river, and went downstream with their eyes under water looking for yet another meal. If what I described wasn't bad enough, as I was crossing the stream to leave a "little flock"  of  13 Mergansers swam by me.  My morning fishing left something to be desired.

Because I didn't fish much in the morning, I went up to Deposit at sulfur time to see if I could find room to fish without a reservation.  I couldn't.  Drove down to the game lands where I found a few risers in the bright and hot sun.  Landed a nice fat, hot and  feisty brown that went 17.5 inches.

At 7:30 I headed for the big river, a plan that has been working for the past couple of weeks. Tonight there were two trailers and no cars at Stockport, so I walked in and down.  Not only were there no cars, there were no risers (or bugs).  When it was too dark to see much of anything, a few cornutas hatched.  I saw some fish eating the nymphs just under the surface and finally one fish that was eating duns.  The fish (a 19 inch brown that was easily fish of the day) took me downstream and well into the backing before ending up in the net.

Today I saw deer, turkeys, eagles, far too many mergansers and drift boats and more than enough fishermen.    


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