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.

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