Catching up on the bug hatches.

Drove back to camp early this morning after a nice day spent with two daughters and three youngest  grand kids.  Went out about 11:30 with no clue where I was going to fish.  Drove up the PA side and saw no risers on the river and almost no trailers (three) at Buckingham (it was way early so you can discount the number).  Turned right in Hancock and took a leisurely drive up old rte. 17. Stopped to glass the river for bugs and risers a bunch of times. Saw two good fish rise in private, posted water at Cooks Falls  and that was it.  Ended the drive at Carin's pool where I saw an angler catch a fish on a dry.

On the trip back down river I drove down a little used dirt road to a row of  summer homes on the BK.  A homeowner was walking to her car and I asked her if there was anyplace where I could park and fish.  She said I could park there and walk down her stairs to the river.  So I did.  Came out on the river just above where I had fished a week or so ago and walked upstream (a long ways). There were bugs hatching in modest numbers  (green drakes, sulfurs and black caddis) and an occasional fish rising.

So, how'd it go? Some places the fish hadn't been fished to - they ate.  Some places they had been fished to and takes were much harder to come by. A third of the fish hooked were beautifully colored wild trout, while two thirds were 14 to 15 inch stockers. A 19 inch brown was fish of the day.

Got back to the car at 5:00 and spent the next two and a half hours looking, without success, for rising fish.  There were brown drakes hatching behind the Sunoco Station in East Branch and some fish were up and feeding on them. Anglers (both waders and the two boats I saw coming down the UEB with the Harvard gage at  270 cfs) had them surrounded. Ended up in the fog while fishing the "Home Pool"  in the BR, otherwise known as the Lordville riff. There were next to no bugs, heavy fog and no fish rising.

If you are planning to fish in the next few days, look for bug activity (both hatching and spinners) on the WB and UEB.  The lack of spinners tonight might have been weather related but it seems most of the hatching on the freestones is over. 

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