Who needs olives anyway?
Awakened Tuesday morning to a steady rain that put the kibosh on the paint job and moved lawn mowing to the top of the list for tomorrow. Spent the morning tying up some killer sulfurs. A counterclockwise rotation of moisture laden clouds kept it raining in one or more places most of the day. A raincoat was required at all times.
Seemed like a good olive day from the get go - it wasn't. Drove the length of the WB from Hancock to Stilesville early afternoon and saw neither bugs nor rises. Blind cast an iso for almost two hours in a riff in the lower section of the river. Hooked and landed two nice fish. Got back to the car just as one of the showers hit.
Drove back up to Deposit still looking for a rising fish. Finally saw a couple of risers and a few sulfurs at about four o'clock. Sulfurs hatch when the water temp is in the low 50's and with limited sun the water didn't warm up as early as usual. The hatch might have been late starting but once it got going it was impressive. The sulfurs went where I was, from four 'til dark and there were confirmed reports of sulfurs down at least to Hale Eddy.
The fishing - The five hour long orgy of sulfurs and rising fish was what fishermen fish for. It started out slowly with mostly yearling fish feeding but as the hatch increased in volume every fish in the river (and there are lots of them) joined in. The fish in the Delaware get fished to as much or more than the trout in any river in the country. They do not suffer fools (or poor casters, or poorly tied flies for that matter). The sulfurs I tied in the morning were too big for the summer sulfurs that were hatching and the trout were happy to let me know it. Kept downsizing until finally some of the fish agreed to see how they tasted. As the light faded and the feeding frenzy increased the likelihood of a fish eating a well placed casts became better and better. Actually reeled it in (at 9:20) without ever tying on an olive or one of my new sulfur spinners.
The summer sulfurs are here and hatching, when and where is anybody's guess.
Seemed like a good olive day from the get go - it wasn't. Drove the length of the WB from Hancock to Stilesville early afternoon and saw neither bugs nor rises. Blind cast an iso for almost two hours in a riff in the lower section of the river. Hooked and landed two nice fish. Got back to the car just as one of the showers hit.
Drove back up to Deposit still looking for a rising fish. Finally saw a couple of risers and a few sulfurs at about four o'clock. Sulfurs hatch when the water temp is in the low 50's and with limited sun the water didn't warm up as early as usual. The hatch might have been late starting but once it got going it was impressive. The sulfurs went where I was, from four 'til dark and there were confirmed reports of sulfurs down at least to Hale Eddy.
The fishing - The five hour long orgy of sulfurs and rising fish was what fishermen fish for. It started out slowly with mostly yearling fish feeding but as the hatch increased in volume every fish in the river (and there are lots of them) joined in. The fish in the Delaware get fished to as much or more than the trout in any river in the country. They do not suffer fools (or poor casters, or poorly tied flies for that matter). The sulfurs I tied in the morning were too big for the summer sulfurs that were hatching and the trout were happy to let me know it. Kept downsizing until finally some of the fish agreed to see how they tasted. As the light faded and the feeding frenzy increased the likelihood of a fish eating a well placed casts became better and better. Actually reeled it in (at 9:20) without ever tying on an olive or one of my new sulfur spinners.
The summer sulfurs are here and hatching, when and where is anybody's guess.
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