As the water drops, the bugs commence to pop.

 I don't know what happened to all the wade fishermen that I thought would be on the river this weekend but they just didn't appear in the numbers I expected. Perhaps they all bought boats or were being rowed down the river in one of the countless guide boats on the water today.  The Balls Eddy  and Shehawken takeouts were all filled with trailers and anytime you got a view of the WB there was a line of boats as far as you could see.

After  two trips up the UEB without  seeing a rise yesterday, it was an easy decision to save the gas today. Hendricksons and apple caddis SHOULD be hatching on the UEB but they ARE hatching on the upper half of the WB.  There were a good number of trailers at Buckingham but nothing compared to the Balls Eddy and Shehawken takeouts. This would seem to indicate that while the BR is probably coming out of the doldrums, it is not "on fire" just yet.

The fishing - The trailers tell the story. The WB has the bugs, the boats and the fish. As a general rule a hatch moves upstream as the season goes on. Haven't been able to get into the bottom third of the WB but I suspect that the Hendricksons and apple caddis (and their spinner falls) are pretty much done there.  The middle section may still have a few bugs hatching but the spinner falls are what to look for.  Above Hale Eddy is where the bugs are hatching but as I found out tonight, the big evening spinner falls have yet to crank up.

The last ten days of well below average temps have slowed down the hatches which are now about on schedule. Start looking for gray foxes and sulfurs in the evening on the freestone streams. The fish there have been (relatively speaking) spared the onslaught of drifters and  a rising trout should give a drag free drift a good look. 

 


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