Way, way , way too many boats and fishermen crowded onto the West Branch.

Earlier this week I said guides would be leaving for gigs out west and that many fishermen would be hanging up their rods for the season.  With everyone who was floating or wading limited by high water temps to the WB and the BR down to Stockport you would think the drakes had just begun. It was nothing I wanted to be a part of and for the most part I wasn't.

This morning I drove over to the EB where all the fish had been feeding yesterday morning, just to look.  There was nothing to see. Glassed the river and never saw a rise. Returned to camp to begin the peach thinning project. I have a tall, wobbly old step ladder that came with the property when I bought it. Carried it out to one of the freestone trees and began pulling peaches off the already sagging branches.  The freestones wont be ripe until September and if the number of peaches isn't reduced by over 80% the trees will be destroyed by the weight of the peaches.

While I was picking peaches the hen turkey walked by the tree on her way to dust under the porch.  She returned a few minutes later and seemed unaware that I was even there until I tossed a peach in her direction. She was twenty feet farther away before the peach (about the size of a large grape) had even landed. She had her eye on me all the time. 

Saw my first bear of the year driving from Hancock to the fishing camp.  The bear crossed Rte. 97 just before the Cow Lick ice cream stand.  Earlier this week I stopped to take a picture of the third rattlesnake of the season. Today there were deer everywhere and at all hours of the day. The doe and fawn on 97 were crossing in the same place where I saw them a week ago. There were deer in downtown Lordville tonight on my return from fishing and I saw well over a dozen (mostly yearlings) crossing the road today.

The fishing?  You ask.  Didn't do much as the prospect of dodging both boats and waders didn't appeal to me. Left the LV Estate about 3:30 and went up to Deposit. Saw nothing worth  putting the waders on for. Stopped to see my river friend Ray in the middle section of the WB and decided to fish there. Hooked and landed two quality fish, one a brown and the other a rainbow blind casting a size 18 olive for no more than 20 minutes.  Should have reeled it in but no, had to fish for another hour and a half without hooking a fish. Drove back up to the NoKill and found an open pool with several rising fish. As soon as I got there the boats started showing up. One anchored about 100 feet below me right in the "Honey Hole".  I hooked five fish in about twenty minutes (lost two of them), and - - -  it just stopped - -and - - so did I.

Something has to happen. Either it cools off enough to expand the area that can be fished or a lot of both guides and fishermen leave or I go back to doing jigsaw puzzles (and thinning out the peaches).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All my life's a circle.

  Headed down to the Lordville Estate about nine this morning after watching a nice buck decide  not to tend the scrape I was perched above. Drove through Deposit where the Troutfitter Shop was dark and closed for the season. My fishing equipment did not make the trip. Had far too many things to do in the few hours of daylight we are currently being allotted. The doe with two fawns was in the backyard when I arrived and was joined by the orphaned button buck who spends his time either bedded down in my flower garden or walking around under the peach trees looking for the peaches he grew so fond of in September. Arrived with a trailer full of wood hitched to Jean's car (it has the trailer hitch) and spent the first hour replenishing the wood I burned this season. As if by magic both wood piles topped out just below the garage windows. Was interrupted by the button buck who walked up between the house and the garage and stood watching the wood stacking operation. A river friend and f
Read more

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN!

 It's Wednesday night, a fire is going in the fire place, an empty Perfect Manhattan glass is washed and back up on the shelf, 30 shrimp netted from Zane Gray Creek ((did you know that Zane Gray (famous fly fisherman and writer of westerns) was a dentist and that his office is now a museum that you can visit on the Delaware River?)), have been consumed by Jean and me, prior to the three pieces of venison backstrap that traveled from home to Florida and back, an early spring snowstorm is raging outside and most importantly, we're glad to be back home again! With that season opening sentence, Mrs. Haskins has no doubt thrown in the towel and disavowed all responsibility for my literary malfunctions. Run on sentences she could handle, but my never before attempted "double aside" was apparently beyond the pall. I sent her a "Go Duke" banner with apologies and hopefully she will cool off before the fishing heats up. Our trip back home was uneventful. Started at 2
Read more

A rational explanation escapes me.

 Yesterday after driving up and down the "Sulfur Zone" in the afternoon without seeing bugs or rising fish, I headed back to Lordville without even putting my waders on. Headed out again at 6:00, got into the river around 6:30 and had two hours of delightful dry fly fishing to medium sized fish eating duns in a good sulfur hatch. Today, I made the trip up to deposit at about 1:30 figuring the cloud cover would delay the hatch (if any), it did, but by 2:30 the afternoon sulfurs were going and the fish were up and on them. Enjoyed about two hours of good fishing with four decent fish hooked and landed, two yearlings landed and a passel of refusals. About 4:30 the rise forms changed to boils and my fly was ignored. Tried half a dozen flies without so much as a look from the still feeding fish. Was happy with the afternoon fishing, (a big step up from Sunday), and at 5:00 it was too late to drive all the way back to Lordville. Decided to get something at Wendy's (calorie capi
Read more