The "sulfur zone".

With flash flood and severe thunderstorm warnings in effect for the area I decided to fish close to the car.  Ventured into the "sulfur zone" and found to my surprise that it was almost deserted.  Perhaps the weather forecast kept people away or just maybe fishermen are finding the fish too difficult to catch.  In any event I had a riff/pool all to myself.

Arrived riverside about 1:45.  There were a few fish rising to the first few sulfurs. The rising was quelled by two pontoon boats that came through the pool. The lead boat sat in front of me playing with his oars and talking on the phone for five minutes.  When the second boat arrived they rowed through the pool two abreast effectively spooking every fish on half of the river.  At the current low water levels anyone in a boat should know that they are adversely affecting the fishing of everyone they go by.  If you feel you must float please move past anglers as quickly and with as little disturbance of the water as possible.  Fish are not thinking about what they want for lunch or dinner when boats are passing 12 inches over their head and oars are chopping through the water like knives in a butcher shop.

The fishing?  Well, the hatch was modest, at times it went fairly well, then it came to a halt, then it went again.  The fish did as the hatch did.  They went, they didn't went and then they went again. The hatch came to an end about five.

If you were sitting on the bank chatting with a friend you would have seen a few splashy risers, nothing more.  I was standing in one spot in the riff for about five minutes when I noticed a nice fish (a 15 incher ?) sipping away not fifteen feet from me.  After another five minutes I noticed another fish of about the same size not five feet away from the first fish.  Both fish were rising several times a minute and were almost impossible to see.  Threw about 15 different flies at both of them and never got a sniff. The rises they made would have disappeared in a tea cup.

If you are fishing in the sulfur zone, go slow, look carefully and you will see fish.  You might not catch them, but you'll see them and at least have fun trying to get them to look at your flies.

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