It's good to be back home again.
Returned from my trip to the Owyhee River in Oregon late Saturday night. Spent Sunday doing chores at home and left for the river about 11:00 this morning.
The Owyhee trip - The canyon is beautiful, the wildlife along the river abundant (mule deer, turkeys, ducks, quail, chuckers, eagles, otter, beaver, etc, etc). But the fly hatches have virtually disappeared. Have not seen any tricos in the last three years and the midges which provided great mid day dry fly fishing have been gone the last two years. The only hatch was pmd's and that was a mere ghost of its former self. The fish are still large (most all of the browns you catch are between 17 and 21 inches but the number of fish appears to be way down. The pmd's hatch from 2:00 until 5:00 and there weren't enough of them to create a meaningful spinner fall in the evening so there was a lot of down time. May look for a new destination out west next year.
The Delaware - Didn't need to read the fishing reports to know how it was last week. A prolonged heat wave sent water temps on the BE, the BR and the BK well into the 80's, that coupled with bright sunshine made painting the master bedroom seem almost like fun. It's still sunny with temps in the 80's and little chance for meaningful rain. HOWEVER, we are on the cusp of having the river master call for increased releases to meet minimum flow requirements at Montague.
Today on the river - Left camp about 3:00 and decided to spend the day on the UEB. On my drive from the Sunoco station in East Branch to Downsville I saw 0 parked cars and 0 fishermen (not a real good sign), also saw no bugs and no rising fish. Was tempted to head for Deposit but girded my loins and stuck it out. Fished four different places between Harvard and Downsville. Until the last stop I never saw anything bigger than a yearling (now about 8 inches in the UEB),rise. When they did I had no clue what they were rising for as there were no bugs on the water. On my last stop at about 8:00 there were a handful of good fish rising to what was at best a very meager sulfur hatch. The first fish came unstuck on the first jump. Broke the second one off on the strike. Took several deep breaths, settled down and hooked and landed three nice browns (15, 16 and 17).
The ride down - If you are coming from the Syracuse area and want to avoid the parking lot at the Binghamton construction site, exit at Chenango Bridge and follow the signs to I-88 East. Tell Siri or your GPS to get you to Deposit. You'll go about 5 miles east on 88 and then (after 5 or 6 quick turns) head south on a road that takes you to 17 east of Binghamton. It added five minutes to my eta (and I missed all four of the lights getting to 88).
The Owyhee trip - The canyon is beautiful, the wildlife along the river abundant (mule deer, turkeys, ducks, quail, chuckers, eagles, otter, beaver, etc, etc). But the fly hatches have virtually disappeared. Have not seen any tricos in the last three years and the midges which provided great mid day dry fly fishing have been gone the last two years. The only hatch was pmd's and that was a mere ghost of its former self. The fish are still large (most all of the browns you catch are between 17 and 21 inches but the number of fish appears to be way down. The pmd's hatch from 2:00 until 5:00 and there weren't enough of them to create a meaningful spinner fall in the evening so there was a lot of down time. May look for a new destination out west next year.
The Delaware - Didn't need to read the fishing reports to know how it was last week. A prolonged heat wave sent water temps on the BE, the BR and the BK well into the 80's, that coupled with bright sunshine made painting the master bedroom seem almost like fun. It's still sunny with temps in the 80's and little chance for meaningful rain. HOWEVER, we are on the cusp of having the river master call for increased releases to meet minimum flow requirements at Montague.
Today on the river - Left camp about 3:00 and decided to spend the day on the UEB. On my drive from the Sunoco station in East Branch to Downsville I saw 0 parked cars and 0 fishermen (not a real good sign), also saw no bugs and no rising fish. Was tempted to head for Deposit but girded my loins and stuck it out. Fished four different places between Harvard and Downsville. Until the last stop I never saw anything bigger than a yearling (now about 8 inches in the UEB),rise. When they did I had no clue what they were rising for as there were no bugs on the water. On my last stop at about 8:00 there were a handful of good fish rising to what was at best a very meager sulfur hatch. The first fish came unstuck on the first jump. Broke the second one off on the strike. Took several deep breaths, settled down and hooked and landed three nice browns (15, 16 and 17).
The ride down - If you are coming from the Syracuse area and want to avoid the parking lot at the Binghamton construction site, exit at Chenango Bridge and follow the signs to I-88 East. Tell Siri or your GPS to get you to Deposit. You'll go about 5 miles east on 88 and then (after 5 or 6 quick turns) head south on a road that takes you to 17 east of Binghamton. It added five minutes to my eta (and I missed all four of the lights getting to 88).
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