Time for a break before the sulfurs.

 

Well, the week is over and I'm glad. I'm going into quarantine just in case my week of losing fish is contagious. For the record, I landed 41% of the fish I hooked this week. Today I lost four of the five large fish I hooked (landed the three two year old's (10, 11, and 12 inches) with no problem.

 Why did I lose so many fish? Believe it or not, I do give things like that some thought. For sure I lost five big fish this week because of errors I made, but it seems to me that a greater percentage of losses occur when fish have been heavily fished. The fish right now have been badly beaten up throughout the entire system. When they are tired from being caught numerous times, they often get downstream from you and just roll and spin which often results in the hook ripping out. The second reason for losing fish that have been caught numerous times is the manner in which they take the fly. Early in the year I have a lot of three knuckle deep hook removals. Right now the fish are much more careful about what they eat and most hooks are lodged in the very edges of the fishes mouths making it easier for them to come unstuck during jumps, quick turns and sudden bursts. 

The outlook - We need rain to freshen the rivers and spread the fish out. We need sunshine to warm up the water up in the "Sulfur Zone" so that the bugs hatch. Rain is predicted every day for the next week, hopefully it will help with water levels. Sunshine? Who knows. Many of the guides have left or are leaving for rivers out west where the snow melt is just starting to subside. The difficult fishing has no doubt reduced the numbers of anglers. Of course when the sulfurs get going everyone will be crowded into the "Zone" but at least we'll have lots of rising fish to throw at.

The fishing - It's tough right now. If you happen to be where the Invaria are hatching it can be good, but for the most part the only sure thing is from 8:30 until 9:15 at night, when everyone is out of their waders and opening up a cold one. The Dorothea's usually are hatching with regularity up in Deposit by the end of the first week of July. 

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

Don't let that that rain come down.

 My South Holston river friend, (one of only two people who will fish with me), (the other is currently on injured reserve), is up for a visit (he brought his boat) and today we floated. There might have been some question about where we chose to float (no one else launched where we did), but we enjoyed the fact that we never saw another fisherman, let alone another boat, on the river all day. The weatherman might well have gilded the lily a bit when he predicted a chance of showers and a high temp of sixty degrees. It rained all day, and the temperature peaked at fifty three degrees. When I read the forecast for the rest of Mark's stay (rain for the next four days) I was thankful that we got in the day that we did today.  How was our day? We sucked it up, paid an extra $5.00 to launch (didn't have the proper change), parked in the wrong place (got a note from the owner where we put in), never made it to the predetermined takeout place, and had a delightful day counting bugs (...
Read more