Ode to the Little Sister Sedge.

When I'm out in the river I have a habit of picking up hatching flies and putting them in a little plastic container which goes into the fridge when I get back to camp.  The flies are torpid but alive the next day and serve as models for my fly tying.  As a result I have many flies in my boxes that I never use.  One of them is the Chimarra, until today, when I used it and then had to change it's name to Little Sister Sedge (courtesy of Paul Weamer's book on NY hatches).  

With the temps predicted to be in the 80's I decided to do a split day (fish in the AM, nap mid day, and fish in the PM).  This I did. Decided on the BR, not usually a good decision when the temp is soaring and the sky is cloudless but I wanted to get away from the WBA and the insanity that has become fishing the WB of the Delaware River.  Was on the river at 9:00 (about 2 hours too early) and saw no bugs or rising fish. Blind cast spinners, olives and caddis but my presence wasn't even acknowledged by a refusal. When I saw the first rises I threw several different flies, with the same result.  Was contemplating reeling it in when I noticed the little flies in the air and then on the water. Caught several, they all had emerald green tail assemblies, black bodies and dark wings. "Chimarra" I said and put one of the size 20 flies from my caddis box on.  It was magic. If you think the fish don't see your fly - think again.  Good drag free casts of the tiny little fly to rising fish got eaten. The problem was an absurd number of the fish came unstuck. Some with the net in my hand, some with 50 feet of backing off the reel.

When I got back to camp at 2:00, I looked up the fly. It was not a Chimarra but a Little Sister Sedge, its size (20),  the Emerald Green rear end and the fact that it was hatching the third week of May all lined up with Weamer's description. But I digress.

Went back about 6:30 (after a nice nap) and was again too early. When it began to happen it was again the Little Sisters at play and the fish went nuts. The time was short and I didn't manage to hook nearly as many as in the Am, but did land the fish of the day, a deep, heavy 18 inch brown. 

Will be tying more Little Sister Sedge in the AM.

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