So what did you have for dinner?

Arrived a little late due to construction tie ups leaving Syracuse and going through Binghamton. The river in Deposit was like a ghost town.  Don't know if the rain and high water discouraged everybody or if there were poor bug hatches over the weekend.  There were bugs on the water when I got there so I suited up and had at'em (for a short while).  The high water put a lot of the river out of the reach of wade fishermen and the few rising fish quit as the hatch peatered out before 4:00.

Drove down river below Monument where the river widens and wading is easier in the high water.  There were a reasonable number of wade fishermen and a line of drift boats that could have blockaded Delaware Bay. Took refuge in a short, narrow side channel that at one time (while I was fishing) had three boats in it. The area I fished has lots of fiddlehead ferns along the bank and it was my plan to pick them for dinner.  Instead I had bug soup!

There was an epic caddis upstream spinner migration, coupled with a hatch of several different caddis, some Hendricksons and olives.  There were also paralep, Hendrickson and caddis spinners on the water from my arrival until dark.

The fish?  Many were concussed by oars and anchors, run over by boats or trod upon by heavy footed anglers. With all of the bugs that were on the water there should have been fish up everywhere and there were (in the half hour before dark).

The fishing?  It was a bright sunny day.  The hatch at least above Deposit was sparse.  In the middle section of the WB (Monument to Balls Eddy for those of you who accuse me of being purposely vague) there were more bugs than the fish knew what to do with.  If you looked carefully in the soft water there were sippers.  In the faster water there were splashers.  Just before dark there were fish up everywhere.

How'd I do?  You earned your fish. Most of the fish I caught had at least one other hook mark in their mouth.  They all know the game now.  I could not hook a fish on a Hendrickson dun or spinner.  The fish ate small emergers, carefully.  That said, I had a very nice day.  An 18.5 inch brown beat out an 18.25 incher for fish of the day.  During the  feeding blitz just before dark I hooked but one fish, never even got another look (they were probably on the GD pupas again).

 

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