A better place to be.

Got a late start today and didn't get on the river until 3:00.  Fished a pool on the UEB which had pitched a shutout against me all three times I fished it this year.  Last year it was full of 15 to 17 inch fish.

Saw fish rising from the road but when I got to the spot where they were rising  - nothing.  My wake had put them all down.  It took about fifteen minutes for them to start up again and I then had rising fish until a thunderstorm hit.  Had to retreat to the car for my raincoat and sat on the bank for about an hour before the rain stopped and the fish started up again.  It wasn't the same.  The olives that had started hatching shortly after my arrival never got going again.  I decided to stay and wait things out, maybe sulfurs late or for sure a spinner fall.  There were a few fish eating subsurface, I got some looks and a few takes on a variety of flies but I never saw any sulfurs or spinners . Perhaps the heavy fog that enveloped the river after the rain spoiled both the hatch and the spinner fall.

The fish of the day was a brightly colored hatchery holdover of 17 inches.  The UEB this time of year isn't for everybody.  In fact there were just two other cars on the 15 miles of river between Downsville and East Branch.  Being on the river as much as I am occasionally requires a period of quiet time.  The last two days were well spent, my blood pressure is down.  Perhaps tomorrow I''ll fish the "sulfur zone".

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