The Delaware River - a better place to be.

 Spent a long day on the river yesterday (Wednesday) and was so tired that I hit the sack without my Perfect Manhattan (you probably don't have to use caps on both words but if you don't capitalize Manhattan spell check goes nuts).

Got to the river in time for the early sulfur hatch and where I fished, I was way too early. Peak of the hatch lasted about twenty minutes and all it really did was show me that yes, there were good fish in the pool. The rest of the four hours was spent working on the occasional fish that rose to take one of the sulfurs that hatched either before or after the apex of the hatch. Perseverance produced what would, in other years, have been a nice days catch but it was something of a grind.  Called a time out (I get two each half plus the TV timeouts) during which I ate my sandwich, was accosted by a member of the Deposit Men's Club for sitting in my car with the motor running and my foot on the brakes (brake lights were apparently annoying), while I chatted with one of my long time river friends.  Was about to head out for the evening sulfurs when a nasty little rain storm hit.  Muddied up Oquaga and with T-storm warnings until 10:00, I decided to fish close to the car. Fate deals the cards, you just play them. In a section of the stream that I normally walk through to get to "the good place", there were fish (nice ones), eating every sulfur that came their way whether it had a hook in it or not. Enough of the eaten sulfurs had my hook in them to make the evening a great day all by itself.

Today, (Thursday) I set out late, after mowing the lawn and tying up enough flies to get me through the day and at 12:30, right between Smith's Motel and the Cow Lick, cruising along at 55mph, I had to hit the brakes to avoid hitting (no, no not gimpy the fox) a good sized black bear. First one I've seen all year.

Got to the river and picked a pool that had rising fish (lots of them when I looked through the binoculars) and waded in. Chatted with a couple of "experienced anglers" one of whom turned out to be "somewhat" familiar with the A-119 fishing reports, and moved downstream to get out of everyone's way. There were risers in a waning hatch, but you earned every fish. Relying on our vast number of years of experience everyone caught fish. Reeled it in about 6:30, had a sandwich and drove downriver to take in the "fantastic" evening sulfur hatch/spinner fall, except it wasn't. The sulfur hatch was modest and the spinners were still over the riff when I headed for the car. Why? The fish, at least where I was, were taking something on the surface, mouths agape but wouldn't give my sulfurs a sniff. Hooked one on a midge and then saw the little olive spinner all over the water, tied on a 22 and hooked a nice fish (lost it) before heading for the car.

Even if you know what's supposed to happen, you know it often times doesn't , watch out for bears and enjoy your time on the river - it's special no matter what.