Got the sour taste out of my mouth.

 Said I wasn't going to the Sulfur Zone today, well, I lied.  Left the LVE about 2:30, surveyed the river on both sides from Hale Eddy to Stilesville.  There were sulfurs hatching and some fish rising most everywhere.  There were also multiple drifters and waders in almost every pool. About 3:15 I finally found an empty spot that had both bugs and fish.  Decided to set a 15 refusal limit.  When the 15th fish refused my sulfur I turned around and headed for the car. Two more fish refused my fly on the way back. If you're curious, I hooked two fish and landed one ten incher. It was 4:30 when I got in the car.

My feelings about the Sulfur Zone are well known. Too many boats and people. Last season with heavy hatches and feeding fish in both the afternoon and evening you just had to be there.  This year the hatches just aren't as good, it happens.  There are both bugs and fish but I've only seen two or three times when the hatch was heavy enough to get all the fish up and eating.

What to do?  I expect that most will continue to throw flies at fish in the SZ.  A-119?  He probably will, but only if he has to.  Water temps are what dictates where you can fish at this time of year. Today, and if the weather prediction is correct, for at least the next week you can fish where ever you want (of course some places are fishless this time of year).  The prediction of over an inch of rain tomorrow might also throw a monkey wrench into everyone's fishing plans.

The fishing - You already know the bad part. Fished down low on the WB and up high on the BR.  The waxwings told me where to go. There were bugs hatching over the riffs and fish were looking for them. There wasn't much action until the sun went behind the hills but fish that haven't been cast at eight to ten hours a day are much more willing to eat what's put before them and some nice ones did. A pair of 19 inchers, one a brown, the other a rainbow tied for fish of the day.

If you are adventurous and leave the SZ, don't expect miracles. Bugs are scarce and mostly hatch in the last hour of daylight. If you are heading for home at 5:00, stay in the zone.  If, however, you are in it 'till the end, look carefully for rising fish.  They have not been pressured for the last six weeks and will eat a well cast fly almost every time.    

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

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