How Do You Think He Does It, What makes Him So Good?

Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist using the title.

 Chris asked a good question, answered most of it himself but it gives me another opportunity to stress what I believe are the things you need to do to catch more fish  in the Delaware River.

Casting - First, read  the Making the Cast page. Know that I'll never win a casting contest but I have learned to minimize drag better than most. Remember, if you want the fish to eat the fly it has to be moving at the same speed as the bubbles around it. 

Flies - Read, Finding the Magic Fly. I tie my own but I'll never be more than a mediocre fly tier. What I  try to do is make my flies look exactly like the ones hatching. They don't, but I keep trying. Years ago when fly shops had one Hendrickson pattern and one sulfur pattern and one - -  you get the idea, the mantra was don't fish shop flies. Why? Because everyone was fishing the same fly and the fish learned not to eat it. Now days the shops carry more variations of each fly than you could ever fit in your box. If you don't tie your own and rely on shop flies, buy some fly tying scissors and prune the shop flies where needed to make them look more like the real thing (you go to the barber shop in hopes of making yourself look better don't you?).  

Knowing the river - This is a big one. I've walked (and fished) the entire UEB, EB, WB, and BR from the dams to Callicoon for over 30 years. Because of the variations in flow releases, water levels, hatch progressions and water temps, deciding where to fish is a crap shoot every day. Yesterday I was in the wrong place in all four places that I fished. Why? Because I didn't realize that when they cut back the release the resulting three degree rise in the water temp would shut off the bugs. What I can tell you is that if you go to the same place every time you fish you will be in the wrong place almost all of the time.

Knowing your opponent - This is the most important one. No trout will graduate from Harvard or Yale either for that matter, but mother nature has equipped them with enough reasoning power, memory and instinct for survival that they are more than a match for the average fishermen. Know that they see your fly and if they don't eat your fly it's because they know something is wrong with it. Standing there repeatedly throwing a fly at a fish that refused it (even if he is still rising ) is a waste of your time and an insult to the fishes intelligence.  Once you have the basic casting skills to present a fly, being able to understand what fish are telling you and learning from it is perhaps the most important factor in being a successful angler.

That and of course,  having a supple wrist. 

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

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN!

 It's Wednesday night, a fire is going in the fire place, an empty Perfect Manhattan glass is washed and back up on the shelf, 30 shrimp netted from Zane Gray Creek ((did you know that Zane Gray (famous fly fisherman and writer of westerns) was a dentist and that his office is now a museum that you can visit on the Delaware River?)), have been consumed by Jean and me, prior to the three pieces of venison backstrap that traveled from home to Florida and back, an early spring snowstorm is raging outside and most importantly, we're glad to be back home again! With that season opening sentence, Mrs. Haskins has no doubt thrown in the towel and disavowed all responsibility for my literary malfunctions. Run on sentences she could handle, but my never before attempted "double aside" was apparently beyond the pall. I sent her a "Go Duke" banner with apologies and hopefully she will cool off before the fishing heats up. Our trip back home was uneventful. Started at 2
Read more