Quite a day!

 It was an unusual day to say the least.  With the prediction of gale force winds there was little likelihood of getting in any meaningful fishing.  Looked out in the morning and not a leaf was stirring. Filled the car with trash and headed to the transfer station and then drove up to Oquaga Lake to help Jean unload a car full of household goods she was delivering to a friends house.  When I drove through Deposit there were bare rocks out of water in the middle of the riff above the town bridge.  The water was dead calm.  Not so at Oquaga Lake where foot high waves were breaking against shore.

On the return trip about 11:30 I found fishable conditions and decided to try to get in a little fishing before the wind hit. Put on the gear, walked to the river and the wind and rain started.  Reeled it in and headed back to the Lordville Estate for lunch. The storm didn't amount to much and I set out to fish again in a relatively light breeze at about 2:00.  Got into the water, hooked and lost a couple of fish, heard the wind start to howl and saw the rain between me and the hills.  Made it back to the car just as the full fury of the storm hit. The drive back towards Hancock was an event with heavy rain and the predicted gale force winds seeming to come from every direction.  Arrived in Hancock to find dry pavement and a light breeze.  Still in my waders I said "Why not?" and headed down the path towards the river. Didn't get 50 yards when the wind started to blow, back to the car I went.

Parked next to the river away from the trees and sat out the storm. The rain didn't last long and as it let up the fish started to rise, with blue sky showing in the west I put on my raincoat and waded into the stream.  The fish fed on cripples and hatching bugs for about an hour and they weren't the least bit fussy.  Was in a world of my own when I heard thunder, looked up and saw that dark purple clouds had replaced the blue sky.  A fisherman hollered at me about the lightning just as I hooked a nice 15 inch brown.  As soon as I got the fish in I headed for the car. The angler was a blog reader and had recognized me.  We had a nice but brief chat as the storm bore down on us. 

Called it quits as the storm hit and drove out of it before reaching Lordville. I was even able to get out of my waders before it started to rain again.  It was still daylight and I didn't realize that the power was out until I tried to cook dinner.  Ended up heating up some frozen soup over the wood fire in the stove.  Went to bed in the dark at 7:30 and was just awakened when the power came back on. It's 12:30.      

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