A Peaceful Easy Feeling

 

Spent the day catching up on work around the fishing camp and yard. Found time to reorganize my spinner box, tossed a couple dozen flies that were either beyond repair or poorly tied to begin with and then sat down and tied a dozen new ones. Went through my fishing vest, removing the small Hendricksons, grannoms, gray foxes and green drakes which gave me room to add my sulfurs.

Fished from 10:30 until dark Monday and found I was in no hurry to get to the river today. At about five o'clock I got in the car and drove up as far as Hale Eddy. The upper WB is still in the post Hendrickson doldrums, yes there are some olives and sulfurs but the drift boats tell the story. By the time I got down to Monument (WBA) I had caught up with the Armada which was mounting a sustained offensive from there all the way to Buckingham. This is the transitional period, post big bugs and pre sulfur zone. There are bugs and rising fish but both the size and number of the fish feeding on top during the day is noticeably smaller. The big fish don't come to the table until the hour before dark.

The fishing - Finally got to it around 6:30 on a freestone away from the boats. Found a mix of spinners (isos, march browns and gray foxes, a few stenos and caddis). If you saw a fish rise and made a good cast you usually got a look. Had zero hookups casting upstream over their backs but ended up hooking eight rainbows, landing five of them all of which were between fourteen and fifteen inches.

Had an eagle watching me from a leafless Sycamore tree the entire evening. He was joined by his mate sometime when I wasn't looking as the two birds were silhouetted (even spell check couldn't figure out what I was trying to spell - thanks Merriam-Webster) against the western sky as I slowly walked back to the car.

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