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.

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