Afternoon and evening sulfurs on the WB, someone please tell the fish.

 

Unless you want to hear about my struggles trying to keep the deer from eating my tomato plants and peaches or how nice the yard looks after todays mowing, I'll keep todays report on fishing? Why? Because today there was something to talk about.

First of all its, been since fourth of July that DRC has been able to adorn their daily report with a trout and they don't require the fish to meet a minimum size for the photo. I mention this, as I do most every year, not to embarrass the DRC or their guides who as good as any, but rather to show how difficult the fishing has been. On a personal note, I play a best of five match with the trout each week. If I catch ten fish I win the day, if not the trout win. Today was my first win in July! The fishing has been a real challenge since the middle of June.

The afternoon fishing - Left the Lordville Estate at 1:30, in time to see a few sulfurs and no risers at (you guessed it), the Hale Eddy Bridge. Drove up the PA side seeing neither bugs, nor risers. At Barking Dog launch site, I saw my first sulfurs of the day. Went back up to the Men's Club where there was a combo of bugs, anglers and rising fish (saw five risers and seven anglers). Did not venture up river from Deposit as there were no fish rising in the big pool below the Town bridge. Found an unoccupied riff/run where there were sulfurs and went fishing. Did not see half-a-dozen rises except to my fly. Fished with an iso, steno, caddis, olive and sulfur and rose fish on all but the caddis. Hooked eight, landed six and was refused by at least 8/10 more.

The evening fishing - Left camp (after a short nap), at 6:45 and drove the same route as I did in the afternoon. Saw a few sulfurs, lots more fishermen and no rising trout. Ended up retreating to the middle section of the WB where at 7:45 I saw a couple of sulfurs. By 8:15 with the sun off the water, I saw my first rise. Fifteen minutes later I had fish to throw at and they were good ones, and some weren't very fussy. Ended the night landing five very nice fish. Two 19 inchers, one in the afternoon and one in the evening tied for fish of the day.

Just so you know. The fishing is still not great, but it seems to be getting better day by day. Where I've been the last two days there have been modest hatches of bugs in the afternoon but very few fish up feeding on them. Without the wind today I was able to make far better casts and the fish cooperated. The last hour of light (was back to the car at 9:29) is the best fishing. The big fish are up feeding on top and you have a realistic chance of hooking up. To do so you need to get away from other fishermen and fish to relaxed fish. The fish I have caught since my return to the WB bear little resemblance to the fish I was catching in the freestones. The WB fish are beat up and tired, but they are a life time trophy for many a fisherman. 

Several of todays big fish seemed to be in fine fettle with good firm, filled out, bellies, just say 'in.

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