Times they are a changin'.

 Fished the sulfur hatch up in Deposit this afternoon.  It didn't start until after 12:30 (they have bumped up the release so it takes longer to warm the water up into the 50's).  Bugs got going fairly well but so did the wind.  The fish? They seemed tired of eating sulfurs, there were a few brief flurries of feeding but it was mostly quiet. I left to mow the grass just before two.  When I left there were still a good number of sulfurs on the water.  If anybody stayed late and got into fish or at least saw lots of fish up please let us know.

This isn't a Q and A day but Ed S asked about the duration of the sulfur hatch and it's pertinent to today's report.  Sulfurs like about 52 degrees water temp to hatch.  When we get a reservoir spill in the summer the water temp goes way up and the bugs sometimes blow out.  Same thing happens if we get a lot of warm rain that raises the water temps. The sulfur hatch below Oquaga seems to me to have been diminished by the recent rains to the point where most fish aren't feeding on top.  Above Oquaga there are still bugs but the fish have become more reluctant to rise and fussier about what they eat.

If the releases are increased as they have been this week, there is more cold water and it takes longer to warm it up. As a result the hatches start later.  As August goes on. the sun is lower in the sky and less effective at warming the water.  This also causes the hatches to be later (or in the evening, to end earlier). As the cold water beneath the thermocline is depleted (which is starting to happen now) the water warms and the sulfur hatch comes to an end.

In answer to Ed S's question - It's way to  complicated for me or anyone else to figure out.  Have seen them gone by the first of July and have seen them hatch into September.  Right now they are in decline below Oquaga and the hatches are changing their start time, duration and intensity above Oquaga. Also I might add, the fish have become so hard to fool that my time is probably better spent looking elsewhere.

Tonight I tried two spots, one in the WB that had fish feeding on iso nymphs (look for the splashy rises).  Saw duns float long distances unmolested.  Departed the WB at seven with a few sulfurs starting to hatch and headed down to the BR where I saw one iso,  a handful of white flies and not a single rising fish. Did get two nice fish to eat blind casts but right now the Sulfur Zone appears to still be the place to go.

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