The game was closer than the score.

At the end of the day I had landed but one fish.

Decided not to fish tricos this am. Will probably try yet another place tomorrow. Reports from Deposit were consistent. Fewer and fewer sulfurs, some olives with an iso thrown in. Boats were anchored on the best spots. What risers there were, were looking at everything with their bifocals on. If the fishing was good DRC wouldn't have to go to their archives for "fish of the day" pics. It's not their fault, it's just the way it is right now.

Tonight I left camp at 6:10 and headed up the WB in hopes of finding bugs and rising fish in the cold water. I did! When I got in the water (above Hale Eddy) there was "smut" on the water, tiny little creatures that could not possibly be tied on a hook. The biggest flies I saw were spinners about one quarter the size of anything in my spinner box. In the slow water pool where I was there were a few fish sipping on'em. Hooked two of them and lost both. The second fish was a good one and hit the net just as he came unstuck.

When the blue air around me cleared I was able to see a few of the size twenty sulfurs starting to hatch. So were the fish. Actually I'm not sure they were as I didn't see a nose above the surface. They fed on the nymphs while I changed flies trying to at least get their attention. Jim Cerio, former guide and ace real estate broker in Hancock once said "When they are doing that I know I don't have the answer and so I tie on the biggest fly in my box and hope one is hungry. After being ignored by several fish I tied on a steno and hooked and landed my "fish of the day" a 16 inch brown. When spinners started hitting the water, noses started to appear. I put on a sulfur spinner and lost three more nice fish in the last 15 minutes of light. Sometimes it's just not your day.

On the way home, as I was slowing down to turn off 17 into Hancock, what else but a skunk ambled out into the road in front of me. With no time to brake I swerved as much as I dared and missed it. In downtown Hancock, at the exact same spot where the bear crossed last week, a coyote scurried across the road with it's tail between it's legs.

Fish won again today. If the best I can do is go one for six, I'm going to be sent back down to the minors. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

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