It's better to have hooked and lost, than never hooked at all.

Returned to the big river hoping to convince the caddis pupa eating 'bows that Hendricksons were more nutritious and tasted better.  After three hours I had landed four fish.  Not bad you say?  Well, the rainbow was a nice one (fish of the day at 18.5"). (The other three were fall fish).  Turned my back on the pupa eaters and walked back to the car.  Met a fisherman coming down for the "epic spinner fall" he was sure was going to happen.  He said that there was a heavy hatch of Hendricksons in Deposit and that there were lots of big fish up.  When I went over the WB on Rt 17 at 2:00 I saw one fisherman and no boats - just sayin'.

Drove downstream on the BR hoping to get out of the caddis.  I did but I also got out of the Hendricksons.  There are lots Hendricksons and caddis still on the BR but the action is now at Buckingham and above.  The lower BR and the BEB are going into the doldrums (that dead period between Hendricksons and March Browns).  The Beaverkill is probably also entering the doldrums but I  haven't been able to get fifty feet of stream there to fish.

With the water dropping on the UEB, I headed there, hoping to find less boats, more bugs and feeding fish.  I did!  I've been out of sync with the fish this year and have to admit that I had my doubts about leaving the BR with an "epic spinner fall" on the agenda.  There was a car or two at almost every pull off I went by on the UEB and I saw some boats (most ethical guides leave the UEB to the wade fishermen when it drops below 500 cfs). Picked a spot with no fishermen and no boats in sight (only two went by).

There were Hendricksons and caddis on the water and fish actually eating them ON TOP!  How'd I do?  Not so well.  I hooked a dozen fish, which is more than enough to make it a good day, but I started out two for eight losing fish in more ways than you could imagine.  Finally settled down and had a chance to get back to 500 when I hooked a fish on a spinner late.  Didn't happen.

The fishing- If you come down, the action is now on the UEB and the WB.  Probably higher up for the Hendricksons with the apple caddis a little farther downstream.

A word of caution.  Does are dropping fawns and abandoning their yearlings.  The yearlings are out and about at all hours of the day and have no idea how to cross roads.  Had to brake for one that came out of the old Heckingers Mall at 11:00am this morning.  The yearling ran across all four lanes of traffic, went between two buildings and ran up the hill out of sight.  On the way down 81, I saw two guys dragging a dead yearling back to their deer damaged car. It's expensive meat and probably not very tasty this time of year. 

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

Don't let that that rain come down.

 My South Holston river friend, (one of only two people who will fish with me), (the other is currently on injured reserve), is up for a visit (he brought his boat) and today we floated. There might have been some question about where we chose to float (no one else launched where we did), but we enjoyed the fact that we never saw another fisherman, let alone another boat, on the river all day. The weatherman might well have gilded the lily a bit when he predicted a chance of showers and a high temp of sixty degrees. It rained all day, and the temperature peaked at fifty three degrees. When I read the forecast for the rest of Mark's stay (rain for the next four days) I was thankful that we got in the day that we did today.  How was our day? We sucked it up, paid an extra $5.00 to launch (didn't have the proper change), parked in the wrong place (got a note from the owner where we put in), never made it to the predetermined takeout place, and had a delightful day counting bugs (...
Read more