Tell me why, tell me why - - - -

 With little going on midday today I decided to try to answer your questions.

Jeff and Dennis - The hatches move up stream and the upper WB is the last place where you see a hatch.  Also some of the bugs (green drakes, ephrons and tricos for sure and I think march browns, to some extent, do not do well in cold water. They seldom appear in numbers above Hale Eddy and so they are not used as an attractor fly there. Without having been hooked on a march brown this year, your fish were probably more than happy to eat them, lucky you.

Jonny K. - You've done better than me catching one on a March Brown in the EB. You are correct in identifying those rises as fish eating march browns. I have fished to the rises with duns and they are ignored. Did get a smashing take when I let an emerger pattern be pulled under on the swing. What the fish have learned to do is eat the emergers when they swim up from the bottom and ignore the duns (you still see the big boil).

dave - The problem here is that I did not say "Big Bugs" but rather big bugs. I've corrected the page since your comment. I also try not to repeat things I have said over the years in an effort to be less boring. Perhaps some repetition would be helpful as there seem to be new readers every year. To me "Big Bug" season is the roughly six week period from the first quill gordons to the last green drake coffin flies. It's when everyone is fishing and it's you best chance to catch big fish on a dry fly.  When the drakes are done the summer fishing starts up  with sulfurs,tricos, olives, stenos, caddis and some sporadic isos. Sorry for the confusion, my bad.

Douglas D. -  Thanks for the kind words.  If you stay at the Troutfitter Inn, I'm sure that you will enjoy both the accommodations and the camaraderie provided by Dave and the other fishermen staying there. That said,  please know that I do not benefit by anyone staying at the inn. I agreed to write the blog when Dave and Rick purchased the Troutfitter six years ago. It is a labor of love for which I receive no compensation. If you or anyone else for that matter, wish to make a financial contribution to Angler 119, do so by simply buying "A Season On The Delaware".  The book can be purchased at either Troutfitter store or directly from Amazon if you are not in the area.  While all purchases of the book are gratifying, failure to buy the book will not prevent me from putting food on the table. 

Jim V. -  Good question.  Rest assured it had nothing to do with toads or my Hendrickson box either for that matter (was just noting the passage of time). I made the move for one or a combination of the following reasons.  There was a brisk south wind blowing, which doesn't "go down with the sun" like the west wind does. It would have kept the caddis spinners off the water on the WB. I don't like to fish the WB Sulfur Zone until the sulfur hatch as I'm pretty much stuck there for two months. The EB, at current levels, is difficult to float and therefore is not seeing much boat traffic.  The gray fox, sulfur and green drake hatches are due to happen there any day and it's fun to be there when it happens, (for the record I caught but one fish).  I try hard to fish as much of the river system as I can each year and the BK, BR and EB usually get too warm by the latter part of June.  That said, there are lots more fish and lots better bugs on the WB.

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