The early weekend outlook.

Just so you know - both reservoirs are now spilling. The forecasts vary but there is sure to be more rain tomorrow. Fished both branches in rising water today. Neither branch should be waded at present levels unless you are familiar with the pool you are fishing and are a good wader. If we get the predicted amount of rain it will be a boats only situation again.

The bugs - Today the drakes hatched on the Upper East in good numbers from about 2:00 until 5:00. Was told that they did hatch again last night. I didn't stay for the evening fishing last night or tonight. The West Branch had good sulfurs late both nights, but the high and rising water tonight somewhat stifled the fish's feeding.

The fishing - The high water today made wading interesting but the fish threw caution to the wind and ate drake duns with abandon. Yes there were refusals but a good number of big fish ate flies with hooks in them. Should you go? To answer that question, given current conditions, there are several if's.

If you have access to a boat YES!
If it somehow doesn't rain any more and you are an experienced wader YES!
If you are new to the river or are an inexperienced wader you probably should wait for lower water.
If it rains another inch forgedaboutit.

The Drakes are most likely the last chance for you to see just how many really big fish there are in the river this year. The hatch is likely to continue for several more days. The Drakes come back as spinners the second night after they hatch. If you have a pass for the weekend AND mother nature is good to us, be here! There will likely be duns hatching, spinners falling and reels screaming. I just hope a few of the reels are in the hands of wade fishermen.

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

Don't let that that rain come down.

 My South Holston river friend, (one of only two people who will fish with me), (the other is currently on injured reserve), is up for a visit (he brought his boat) and today we floated. There might have been some question about where we chose to float (no one else launched where we did), but we enjoyed the fact that we never saw another fisherman, let alone another boat, on the river all day. The weatherman might well have gilded the lily a bit when he predicted a chance of showers and a high temp of sixty degrees. It rained all day, and the temperature peaked at fifty three degrees. When I read the forecast for the rest of Mark's stay (rain for the next four days) I was thankful that we got in the day that we did today.  How was our day? We sucked it up, paid an extra $5.00 to launch (didn't have the proper change), parked in the wrong place (got a note from the owner where we put in), never made it to the predetermined takeout place, and had a delightful day counting bugs (...
Read more