Maybe the fox is working for the highway department.

 As one who has been touting the fishing on the freestones I felt an obligation to post tonight.  The big three freestones (BR, BE, BK) all were over 70 degrees this afternoon and with tomorrow's temp scheduled to approach 90, they should be crossed off everyones list for possible weekend destinations.

Another place that could use a rest is the Stilesville area, especially the red barn pool.  How come? I stopped there about 5:30 in my daily drive around and counted four vehicles in the parking lot, looked out at the river and saw but two anglers both of whom were heading for shore.  Put the binoculars on the water and saw both bugs and risers. Suited up and waded out. In answer to my two questions ( Did you  each drive two cars? and were there bugs?) The two departing anglers said, " The other guys went upstream and  there were bugs and risers earlier but it had gone dead big time". They wished me luck and headed for their car.

My first three casts produced two hookups and a refusal and I was into fish for an hour and a half. Most times when the hatch is waning the fish start to look up and will be far more willing to eat a dry than when the water column is full of nymphs.  The fish - were pathetic.  I've been fishing the BR where the fish are well rested and have healed up from their big bug season wounds. The pasture pool fish are both wounded and exhausted. When a brown is tired he will put his nose down and just pull hard enough to keep from being netted, that's what they did. The rainbows have parts of their mouths missing (their mouth structure is far more delicate than that of a brown). Both the browns and the rainbows are mere shadows of what they were before the first Hendricksons hatched. The solution?  Short of closing the river there is none. It's time for the summer sulfurs to start their early afternoon hatching and the concentration of anglers will only increase.  Maybe its time to require the  use of barbless hooks? 

When things went dead, I drove down to Hale Eddy where it appeared that the flyfishing class was over, so were the evening sulfurs. Saw neither bugs nor risers.  Drove upstream  until I found bugs, boats and rising fish. Seven boats went by me without disturbing my fishing. The last guy, in a small pontoon boat, put every fish in the river down with his rowing, missed me (in a river almost 100 yards wide) by five feet and said "I've got a long way to go" as his justification for coming so close. 

On the way home I drove by a skunk that was casually walking across the East Branch on the route 97 bridge, saw my crippled fox removing a road killed squirrel from the road just past Smith's motel, and backed up for a closer look at about 18 inches of a rattlesnake that was sticking out of the tall grass onto the side of recently oil and stoned Lordville road.  Didn't think there would be anymore snakes as the oil and stone surface is gray in color and not as warm as the tarvia it covered. Perhaps the snake didn't know.

Quick note to Jim N. and anyone else interested. Don't know much about shad. They are probably  post spawn and most that eat a fly don't fight very hard (did hook a hot one that even jumped last night).  As to flies, they wouldn't even look at an iso but were quietly sipping the tiny stuff that was on the water. They readily ate a size  20 olive.

Hope you have a bang up time on what is, yet again, a holiday weekend.






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