They don't come easy.


With the heat wave broken and my Dr.s appointment on Friday rather than Tuesday it was a sure bet I would head back down today. The volleyball granddaughter is on a ten day tour of Europe with her North Dakota State team and there was a game scheduled today at 11:00 e.s.t. Someone is recording the games and sending them back across the pond via facebook, except todays match never appeared. Watched grandson #4's (by age) team advance to the semifinals in the state high school lacrosse tournament on Saturday, took care of chores and got a hug and a kiss from Jean and departed for the Lordville Estate around 1:00 today.

At 80, the slower life of downtown Lordville suits me just fine (we do have a stop sign at "the" intersection, which both the deer and second homers ignore). Unpacked, watered the orchids and my fenced in garden (one rhubarb plant, four pepper plants, and three tomato plants), put away the food Jean prepared, swore when I realized there were two (so far) items that I forgot to put on the buy list and consequently won't have, and went fishing.

The fishing - Neither fish nor bugs like hot water. When water temps are above 65 the bugs hatch at night. When the water temps are above 70 the fish can't get enough oxygen to do much of anything. The cold front and clouds that moved in today brought temps back to more seasonal levels and both the fish and bugs responded. Went out early (about 6:15) and found both bugs hatching and fish feeding. It's not that I didn't have fish to throw at, and it's not that fish didn't come to the fly, but in two and a half hours with almost every cast directed towards a rising fish , I got it handed to me. "Hooked" nine fish, caught one shad, four rainbows (two nice ones) foul hooked one, (possibly two) and lost the other three. There was no wind, made a lot of what I thought were good casts and got mostly ignored. But, there were enough refusals (some indignant) to let me know they all saw my fly. 

The fish in the Delaware River System suffer no fools. If you are hear or planning to come, know that you will see both bugs and rising fish.  Any fish you get to eat your fly is a noteworthy achievement, but know this, if you can consistently catch fish on a dry fly here, you can catch fish anywhere.    

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