And the spinner falls are yet to come.

Today was a Big River day all the way.  At the present water levels everything is wadable and there is nowhere I'd rather fish than the BR.  For peace of mind, however, I shy away from the area between junction pool and Buckingham during the "big bug season" ( Hendricksons through Green Drakes).  There are just too many boats.  There were about 20 trailers in the lot when I drove past Buckingham on the way home and three trailers hauling boats had already driven by me on 97.

So where do I fish?  Anywhere from Buckingham down to Callicoon. The choices are endless - - as long as water levels make fishing the BR feasible.  It's been at least three years since early season water levels down river have been safe for wading.  My cut off point for down river fishing is 2,000 cfs on the Callicoon USGA gage.  Today, when I fell in, it was at 1,700 (a piece of cake).

"How did that happen?", you ask.  Swept off your feet in dangerous current?  No,  I was multi-tasking.  There are very few things I'm good at and multi-tasking is not one of them.  I had just caught a fish and was wading towards the next rising fish while dipping my fly into the fly floatant bottle.  One hand held the bottle while the other hand held the fly and the bottle cap.  The rod was tucked safely under my arm, my eyes affixed on the spot where the  fish had last risen.  The next thing I knew I was wallowing around in the water trying to grab my rod without spilling the fly floatant. Stood up, called a time out, went to shore and started wringing out clothes.

The fishing  - Hope you were all here and on the BR.  The apple cadis are hatching there all day long and the fish are, as usual, feeding on the emergers on the way up (I hate caddis).  The Hendricksons started about an hour after my soaking.  The fish love Hendricksons but do not like being hooked.  The so so tasting caddis pupa are a safe bet, but every once in a while a fish just has to eat a Hendrickson (some also eat apple caddis duns on the water).  If you cast at rising fish for eight hours (six in wet clothes) you deserve to hook a few of the dumb ones and I did.

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