In a Dorothea hatch think 18s and 20s.

 Jean and I left for home right after the Lordville fourth of July parade yesterday. There was almost no traffic heading west on 17 (no drift boats or fishermen in the river either) and north on 81. Both the east bound lane of 17 (heading to NYC) and south bound lane of 81  had traffic but less than a normal Sunday afternoon. Came back down today again in moderate traffic.  Don't know when most of the long holiday weekenders drove home.

After taking two and a half days off  spending time with Jean, I was ready to atone for Saturdays embarrassing performance. Got to Deposit about two thirty and saw neither bugs nor risers in the long pool below the iron bridge in Deposit. My river friend Mike was fishing above the bridge which I took to be a good sign as he doesn't waste time where there are no rising fish.

Drove down to the middle section of the WB and found a modest afternoon hatch of Dorotheas with fish rising to eat them. Put on the waders and fishing vest (how the vest can weigh 30 pounds with just a few boxes of sulfurs, olives, caddis, stenos, isos, and spinners I'll never know). The fish are on their game. Never hooked a fish on an upstream cast. Hooked almost nothing casting at three and nine.  It was only when I cast between four and eight (12 o'clock is straight up stream, six is straight downstream for those of you that have never been in a bonefish boat), that fish came to the fly.  At first the flies were too big and all I got were refusals, when I finally got down to Dorothea size I got takes, took my time playing the fish and landed most of them. It shut down about 5:30 which was fine. I was hungry and I just knew there was going to be a big sulfur hatch starting sevenish.

 Drove over to Wendy's and confidently ordered a number five artery clogger combo which requires half  a roll of paper towels to protect your shirt and wipe the spilled sauce off your waders and car seat. The "medium coke" that comes with the combo is in a container that is too large to fit in the cup holder in my car's console and consumption of half of the container resulted in two unbuckelings of my wader suspenders during the evening fishing. I did get $.14 cents back from the twelve dollars I gave the lady at the second window and I'm sure the calories consumed will ward off starvation for the rest of the week.

Following the meal I drove  along the river in Deposit.  There were rise forms everywhere but there wasn't a bug to be seen, until I took out the binoculars. The water was covered with tiny olives which the trout were NOT eating on the surface. Hooked one fish on a floating nymph and when the hatch petered out I went further downstream to be sure to get into the evening sulfurs and I did, sorta, for about half an hour. Then everything quit, the bugs, the fish and yes at 8:45 A-119. Why?  It was a thermal surge.   I was sure of it. They have sent at least three of them down the river in the last few weeks to keep the temp under 75 at Lordville which is great for the river system, but not so good for fishermen fishing in the surge where the pulse of cold water shuts things down.

Retreated to the Lordville Estate feeling good about the day but disappointed with the evening hatch. Looked at the Stilesville flow and THERE WAS NO SURGE, just very cold release water that wasn't warmed up due to the absence of the sun. The evening water temps just got cold enough to shut everything down upriver.  Hope people fishing down river got bugs and rising fish late.