Of bugs and boats.
Follow the bugs and avoid the boats. That's been my mantra for many years. When Paul Weamer (many, many years ago) worked in the log cabin fly shop where Rte 191 crosses the WB, I would come in and look at the shuttle slips. Paul thought I was trying to find out where the guides were fishing so that I could go where they were. Had a hard time convincing him that it was so I could go where they weren't.
Boats keep the fish on red alert. Every guide and good fisherman knows where the pods of fish are and they all anchor up or at least make sure their fishermen are ready to cast when they go by each pod.. When 20 to 40 boats go down a section of the river in a day the fish are under constant assault. Wade fishermen would catch more fish if they just got away from the boats.
Bugs on the other hand are something you need to be around. It's what the fish feed on and you want to be near feeding fish. However, it's not as easy as it may seem. Bug hatches don't stay in the same place. They usually begin hatching in the warmest water (downstream from the dam's cold water releases) and move up stream as the seasonal temps rise. I usually fish five days a week and my most difficult (and usually poorest) day is Monday when I return after two days at home. Why? I'm not in synch with the bugs.
Today it was easy. One look at "barking dog" boat launch told me all I needed to know. At noon it was full of trailers with at least ten of them parked on the access road. There were also a dozen trailers already at Balls Eddy. Stayed on Rt 17 and saw numerous boats anchored up in the lower portion of the BE. The BR down to Buckingham was also probably just as crowded.
As I drove east on Rt 17 past Hancock my windshield became a mass of smears and little green balls (caddis eggs). The blip, blip, blip on the windshield was constant all the way to Roscoe. The shad fly, apple caddis, popcorn caddis, grannoms (call it what you will) are ready to lay eggs and are making their upstream migration flight. The flight and spinner fall is something to see. But the place where the spinners are falling is the place to be.
Boats keep the fish on red alert. Every guide and good fisherman knows where the pods of fish are and they all anchor up or at least make sure their fishermen are ready to cast when they go by each pod.. When 20 to 40 boats go down a section of the river in a day the fish are under constant assault. Wade fishermen would catch more fish if they just got away from the boats.
Bugs on the other hand are something you need to be around. It's what the fish feed on and you want to be near feeding fish. However, it's not as easy as it may seem. Bug hatches don't stay in the same place. They usually begin hatching in the warmest water (downstream from the dam's cold water releases) and move up stream as the seasonal temps rise. I usually fish five days a week and my most difficult (and usually poorest) day is Monday when I return after two days at home. Why? I'm not in synch with the bugs.
Today it was easy. One look at "barking dog" boat launch told me all I needed to know. At noon it was full of trailers with at least ten of them parked on the access road. There were also a dozen trailers already at Balls Eddy. Stayed on Rt 17 and saw numerous boats anchored up in the lower portion of the BE. The BR down to Buckingham was also probably just as crowded.
As I drove east on Rt 17 past Hancock my windshield became a mass of smears and little green balls (caddis eggs). The blip, blip, blip on the windshield was constant all the way to Roscoe. The shad fly, apple caddis, popcorn caddis, grannoms (call it what you will) are ready to lay eggs and are making their upstream migration flight. The flight and spinner fall is something to see. But the place where the spinners are falling is the place to be.
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