Averaging down.

Spent the morning working around the camp.  Migrating birds have begun showing up. The male bluebird returned last week and Saturday he was showing his house to a prospective mate.  The tree swallows showed up yesterday and started fighting over the other nesting boxes. Purple finches finally appeared at the feeder (they were at the feeder in Lafayette last week). It's early days but buds are swelling and the grass is starting to grow.

Got two reports from reliable sources of olives and rising fish on the West Branch Saturday. Drove up the West Branch and stopped at a friends house on the river to say hello and see if I could spot any risers.  There were four fishermen in sight with a good fish rising twenty feet behind two of the fishermen who were busy talking. Left the four fishermen and drove downstream.

Stopped at the lower game land parking lot where there were no cars and walked down to the river.  There were a few olives and there were several risers in the big slow water pool. Hiked downstream and got shots a four fish that were cruising around looking for olives. One ate my fly, one said no and the other two ignored my offerings.  At this time of year you can't expect to string together two days like I had Saturday.

With Cannonsville spilling, the water was up to 1200 cfs, there was a sneaky draft that wrinkled the water (the fish don't like that - they can't see the eagles), and even though the air temp was warmer there was no sun to heat the water.  Don't know if any of those factors put a damper on the fish's feeding - maybe they just took Sunday off.


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