Some might call it a one star performance - - -
With the morning temp 46, I started a fire in the stove to warm up the camp. At 9:45 I got the bright idea to drive up to the UEB to see if there were any tricos. Looked at all of the riffs from the Sunoco station to Harvard without seeing any waxwings, tricos or rising fish. Back to camp.
At 1:45 I left camp again in the bright sun and headed for Deposit. Crossed the river at Hale Eddy and drove up the back side. From the NYS launch site to the railroad bridge above the sewage treatment plant the fishermen and boats were lined up like a picket fence. Drove over the town bridge and there was not a fisherman in sight. Two hours later I knew why. There were bugs and rising fish galore. There were just two problems, none of the feeding fish was over eight inches long and almost everyone of them knew enough not to eat a fly with a hook in it.
Moved farther down into the No Kill, got my allotted spot, and spent the next two hours casting to the half dozen fish rising in front of me. In the two hours no one moved. I hooked three fish and landed one. The fish were all good sized but are so beat up all they could do is put their nose on the bottom and wag their tail enough to keep out of a landing net.
My last stop was in the section of the WB where the sun never sets. Walked a long way upstream to get away from other fishermen and down the river came two drift boats banging and bumping the bottom. The guides had to get out of both boats and drag them over the shallowest bars. I don't think it ever occurred to them that they might be impacting other peoples fishing in a negative way.
Even with the disturbance caused by the boats, there were fish feeding (subsurface) on the bugs that were hatching in the bright sun. When the sun finally went behind the hill the fish started to look up a bit. There were lots of them and they were good sized and mostly they didn't like the flies I showed them. All told I hooked five and landed but two. The difference in their condition vs the No Kill fish was amazing, jumps, runs, more jumps and more runs and then - - gone.
In fishing parlance, today I got a good old fashioned ass kicking.
At 1:45 I left camp again in the bright sun and headed for Deposit. Crossed the river at Hale Eddy and drove up the back side. From the NYS launch site to the railroad bridge above the sewage treatment plant the fishermen and boats were lined up like a picket fence. Drove over the town bridge and there was not a fisherman in sight. Two hours later I knew why. There were bugs and rising fish galore. There were just two problems, none of the feeding fish was over eight inches long and almost everyone of them knew enough not to eat a fly with a hook in it.
Moved farther down into the No Kill, got my allotted spot, and spent the next two hours casting to the half dozen fish rising in front of me. In the two hours no one moved. I hooked three fish and landed one. The fish were all good sized but are so beat up all they could do is put their nose on the bottom and wag their tail enough to keep out of a landing net.
My last stop was in the section of the WB where the sun never sets. Walked a long way upstream to get away from other fishermen and down the river came two drift boats banging and bumping the bottom. The guides had to get out of both boats and drag them over the shallowest bars. I don't think it ever occurred to them that they might be impacting other peoples fishing in a negative way.
Even with the disturbance caused by the boats, there were fish feeding (subsurface) on the bugs that were hatching in the bright sun. When the sun finally went behind the hill the fish started to look up a bit. There were lots of them and they were good sized and mostly they didn't like the flies I showed them. All told I hooked five and landed but two. The difference in their condition vs the No Kill fish was amazing, jumps, runs, more jumps and more runs and then - - gone.
In fishing parlance, today I got a good old fashioned ass kicking.
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