Back into backing again

The past two weeks you just had to be up above Hale Eddy on the WB.  There were a plethora of Hendricksons, grannoms, apple caddis and of all of the their spinners.  It  was crowded but there seemed to be enough fish for everybody.  The fish?  They took a fearful beating. Their mouths are full of hook marks and they are exhausted ( try fighting for your life at least once a day for two weeks and see how you feel).  Yes, there are still caddis up there, maybe even the odd Hendrickson spinner but it's time to get out of Dodge (Deposit) and give the fish a rest. 

Where to go?  The freestones (BR, BK, BE) of course.  I left the WB last Thursday morning and have fished the freestones since then, with mixed results. BK had fish eager to eat a Gray Fox during off hours but there were no bugs or rising fish.  EB had a few March Browns but almost no rising fish during prime time. The BR had bugs Thursday night but shut down when the sun went behind the hills. Tonight the BR was on fire, big may flies, little mayflies and caddis, on the back of my neck, under my glasses, on the water  and in the fish's mouths. Became reacquainted with fat healthy fish that haven't been hooked lately, just WOW. All I can say is it's good to see my fluorescent yellow/green backing rocket out the tip guide following a well rested BR fish downstream.  It's a happening. Go to your "spot" or dare to try a new one (they all have fish). Had nothing but fish, bugs and geese within a half a mile of me tonight. May have even let loose with a few whoops each time the nail knot between the fly line and the backing went tick tick, tick through the guides. 

Side note - Read back through the comments before posting tonight and found  a couple of questions. Will try to answer them in the next couple of days.

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