Wind knots and tailing loops.

 Home for the weekend watching the sunfish in the bass pond guarding their spawning beds and counting the trout the heron has yet to catch in the trout pond.  Most of the trout have scars across their back from narrow escapes. The trout have changed the way they eat the pellets I throw them. When a heron has been visiting the pond they come up from under each pellet and quickly go back down.  Before the Heron arrived the trout would swim just under the surface gulping pellet after pellet. Wish I could teach the Heron the merits of catch and release fishing.

On to the questions -

Chris - In "A Season on the Delaware" I listed 12 things I know to be true. One is that on the Delaware it's harder to fool a fish with a big fly than a small one. Your experience supports my belief.  It's not that trout don't like the big bugs, it's that a MUCH higher percentage of them have hooks in them and within a day or two into a hatch most fish have suffered a bad experience eating the big ones.  FYI, I saw the big bugs back of the Sunoco station the night you fished and the ones I caught were brown drakes. Their bodies are longer, darker, and skinnier  than the green drakes which were hatching the same night up at Harvard.  Two years ago in high water I was on the UEB on the first night of the hatch. A dozen big fish ate my drake imitation. Two nights later I returned (there were at least 15 trailers at the Oxbow campground)  and hooked the first fish I saw eating a dun. I then spent two and a half hours casting at boils where fish ate the nymph on the way up without hooking another fish. Fish learn fast - just saying.

Dennis - Bugs and risers in the AM.  There is almost always something on the water, not heavy hatches but enough to get fish feeding. Spinners, caddis, Cornutas, Tricos (later in the summer). The key is to watch the water and identify what is there for the trout to eat (Sometimes it's a little sister sedge).

Jack m. - You asked if I have talked with FUDA and or the DEC about the problem of too many large hatchery trout in the UEB. The people at the DEC have always been willing to listen to me. Most of the time they can't or won't do what I suggest. Why? Sometimes, believe it or not, I'm just plain wrong. Other times there is no money for the proposed project or there are political pressures that prohibit them from doing something even they think is a good idea.  They have a job to do and making waves is often not wise. Just image for a moment someone taking pictures of the DEC removing 50, 16 to 20 inch trout from a pool on the UEB. Most anglers are hard pressed to identify a hatchery fish from a wild trout. I've seen fishermen line up to fish below below Oquaga when the hatchery trout are dropping back into the cold WB water and they are mostly 10 inch fish. No sane employee of the DEC would consider removing the fish - even though it would be good for the wild trout population. You just have to go catch one for dinner.

Jack m. and See ennus? - You both asked about blind casting. I am a dry fly guy and don't use a dropper or (for my friend in NC) throw a "cast of flies".  As to size, I try to throw what they are eating. Ten years ago my answer would have been, "There are two attractor flies, a march brown and an isonychia. They just don't work well any more (see paragraph two above).  Most all my blind casting is done in riffs and runs.

Thanks to all who contributed their thoughts and experiences. How about someone posting a picture of the big one they caught just to let DRC know they aren't the only ones catching fish. See you on the river Monday.