Fewer ants more Uncles

After a long overdue dump run, I headed back up the UEB.  The ease with which I found bugs and rising fish yesterday left no doubt in my mind that that was the place to go. There was only one boat trailer at Ox Bow Campground and not a single car parked along the river.  At 3:00 pm, roughly the same time I found bugs yesterday, there were none.  Risers, I saw not a one.  Boats, I saw one with a fly fisherwoman in the bow double hauling what appeared to be a streamer right up to the bank on every cast. That told me all I needed to know about bugs farther upstream. Did a u-turn and headed for the WB.

Took a long walk upstream (not an easy thing to do after high water bends the shoreline grass downstream).  Held up my vest and tiptoed through a deep area to get to where I wanted to fish.  It was well worth it.  The fish ate my fly like an M&M fresh out of the bag.  As is usually the case this time of year over half of the risers were 1.5 year olds ranging in size from 9 to 11 inches.  There were some nice fish to be sure but it's not May.  When the fog thickened and the hatch waned I made my way downstream to the car.

Arrived at the car about 6:30 and headed  to a different high water spot on the big river.  I was armed with my ant box and was determined to even the score after last nights debacle.  Navigated my way down another muddy trail with all of the shoreline grasses beaten down and ensnarled with flood debris.  I needn't have bothered, the water was covered with thousands of  the G.D. ants.  Found three fish happily dining on them.  Threw my ant, my olive, my iso, a spinner and couldn't even put them down.  Never even got a look.  Mercifully my fly caught on a submerged log, I broke it off and trudged back upstream to the car.

There is a heat advisory for the next two days.  The BK is at a great wading level but will probably be too warm to fish.  It's been dry for a week now and the tribs have dropped back to somewhat normal levels.  The WB and UEB flows won't change much until the release levels are cut back (probably on the 1st).  Wade carefully.

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