Tell me why all the bugs have to hatch at once?

Anybody who was on the river system this weekend knows, that every species of bug known to mankind was hatching on the Delaware River system. Not all in profusion mind you, but rain, bright sun, cold and wind made no difference, they hatched.  The fish?  They ate.  Coming out of the "Doldrums" not ten days ago, many of the fish were long and lean. Today all the fish (except those closest to the dams), resemble NFL footballs that are fully inflated.

Anybody who was on the river system today, learned that there is absolutely no correlation between prolific bug hatches, nonstop fish feeding and angler success. Bright sun, a pesky breeze and the fishes resolve to eat everything subsurface put a crimp into the success rate of most  anglers. Yes, there were risers, even in the bright sun but were they eating off the top? No. Most rises I saw were of the splashy variety that indicated that the fish was picking off emergers in the water column, black caddis being the most likely victims.

Note - There was an anonymous commenter on the pay side this morning suggesting that perhaps a "bad spool" of Cortland's fluorocarbon was responsible for all the breakoffs yesterday. Didn't give it a thought until I had another breakoff today. I changed spools just last Friday. The spool came from an emergency repair bag stored in a container in the car and has been there for I don't know how long (years for sure). When I wrote the blog title yesterday, I was making fun of myself (you know, "Couldn't be, me must be the tippet".) as I have used and liked the Courtland  fluorocarbon since it first came out, but maybe, just maybe, its been in the car for two or three years and with the hot sun --- anyway I'm switching spools tomorrow. Anyone who wants to try the spool to either confirm my fish playing ineptitude or to establish that it was kept long past it's use by date, just let me know. 

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