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

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