"Current" state of affairs.

For you early risers, the trico hatch offers an opportunity to sharpen your dry fly skills. Be on the river early and look for a cloud of the little buggers swarming over a riff (Cedar Waxwings will be having them for breakfast). Get downstream in a quiet pool below the riff and wait for the fish to start feeding. Most literature says the spinner fall will occur when the temp hits 69 degrees. I've gotten to the river when the air is 67 and found the water covered with spinners. Play it safe and get there early. If its windy or it rained hard during the night, sleep in. Tricos don't like cold water, they can be found on the big river, the lower half of the west branch and on the upper east branch below Shinhopple. If you get there early you can fish duns. The fish eat them but the main attraction is the spinner fall. Six-x will do the trick but seven-x will give you a better presentation. The yearling trout (they are now about 9 inches long) will be up in pods and are quite easy to fool. There are big fish eating the spinners, look for slow takes with bigger wakes and/or big noses. Its a thrill of a lifetime to hook and land a 20 incher on seven-x.


The WB in and around Deposit remains the place to be. The guides that are still working the river are all up there. The sulfur hatch is waning but I received a report from Rick at the Troutfitter, who fished Monday, that he found good sulfurs at 10:30 in the morning. Instead of going back to the camp for lunch I headed right from EB trico fishing to the WB sulfur hatch. A fools errand (it not only cost me the price of a Wendy's crispy chicken medium combo) but today was cloudy, there was less of the warm rain water in the river and as a result the water temp was much colder. Sulfurs are fussy, they like to hatch at about 52 degrees. That happened at 10:30 Monday but it sure didn't happen between 11:15 and 2:00 today.


If we ever get a break in the hot humid weather the upper big river is begging to be fished. The fish are fine and they have gotten a well deserved rest from angling pressure. Wait for a few cool nights thatlower the river temp and have at it. A rainbow that is well rested is a handful for any angler.

Repost
1

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