So far I can drink my PM at the Lordville Estate.

For those of you that are just looking for a new blog post to read with your morning Joe, or worse yet, those of you that are still fishing, I'd say it's time to get out the honey-do list and start crossing items off. Never, in the thirty-two years that I have owned the fishing camp have I seen really good fishing turn to excrement as fast as it has the last ten days.

Why? I've touched on most of it.  Too many fishermen in too little river, irregular flows, an endless string of sunny days with above average temps, no rain and fish that know the game and have taken their ball and gone home.

The outlook - If the weatherman can't get tomorrow's prediction right, how do you expect me to give you a meaningful outlook? We are sliding down the mandated release scale due to the date (it's September 1st) and because of the dry conditions. Without major rain events there will be significant reductions in the releases, starting today with another decrease October 1st and a winter release level we haven't seen in years. BUT, if the River Master has to meet minimum flow at Montague with Cannonsville water (and he currently does) there will be the probability of larger releases from Cannonsville during the coming weeks. If that make sense to you, you're not drinking coffee.

The fishing? It just isn't worth coming right now. The only fishable water is the WB and the BR down to Stockport, the fish have been pounded and are next to impossible to fool. The olive hatch which created a feeding frenzy just ten days ago has declined to a point where I could count the rising trout I saw during the peak of today's hatch on one hand. Rose four fish and all refused my fly. If you just want to be out on the water and don't care if you are likely to catch fish, come. If you need to have fish eat your fly to enjoy the trip see paragraph one above.

Know this, as quickly as things went to hell, it can do a u-turn and become fabulous again. When it does I'll do my best to let you know.

 Don't want to wish a hurricane on anyone, maybe just a tropical depression that ends up coming our way.

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