Does the three legged fox like pralines and cream ice cream?

 Yesterday I suggested that you go to the BR about 7:00 for some sure fire action. Well today you didn't have to wait 'til seven. It was a BR day from the get go, good water temps and a cloudy, misty sky usually means the BR fish will be willing to eat all day long. So who fished the BR? There were but three trailers parked at Buckingham and I never saw a boat downriver.  Why? Well there was a south wind blowing up river at 10 to 15 mph, no fun for the guy rowing the boat. Left camp about 9:30 and drove up to Buckingham to see if there were any trailers scheduled for a shuttle downstream.  There were none. Fished a piece of the river well below Buckingham for four hours without seeing any boats, fishermen, or bugs and not more than five rises to anything but my fly.  It was wonderful, the fish were looking to eat and my fly was the only item on the menu. 

Spent the afternoon finishing up the thinning of the peaches on one of the three peach trees, replacing and repairing the mornings battered flies and attempting to read a few pages of a book which hit me in the face a couple of times before I laid it aside and took my nap. 

At six o'clock I headed out, undecided about where to fish (fished a great sulfur hatch last night on the WB and was reluctant to miss the action by fishing where there were no bugs).  Stopped at Buckingham, Shehawken and  a pool on the BE without seeing any bugs (so much for "It was an olive kinda day").  Drove up the WB and at 7:15 when it was time to fish or cut bait, I waded into a pool, with the south wind still blowing (the south wind doesn't go down with the sun like the west wind does).  Saw a couple fish rise and saw a few sulfurs both on the water and in the air.  The later it got the more sulfurs hatched and the more fish rose. It wasn't like last night, but the fish that rose had less to choose from. They demanded an accurate, drag free cast, which the wind didn't make easy but they saw your fly and if it passed inspection, they ate.

How'd I do?  A top three day for sure, hooked and landed a 22 1/4 inch rainbow (my all time best on the Delaware) and he didn't even win "fish of the day".  A big brown (22 3/4s) ate a sulfur just before dark. Both fish led me on merry chases down river, the rainbow exposing bare spool twice while I traveled a good 200 feet downstream trying to avoid a spoolout. The brown left the pool, took me down through a riff and with a size 18 sulfur in his mouth, just would not give up the fight.

Just so you nature lovers know, my story about the three legged fox got shelved until the next edition by the editor who said "It is a fishing report you know".      

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