The Last Good Bye.

 

It's July, the hottest month for river temps, and a day of sunshine sent the BK to 76, the BR to 75, and the EB 72. The fish have had several warnings and most have no doubt made there way to thermal refuges. With even hotter temps expected tomorrow, a surge is on its way down to Lordville to keep the temp at 75 or below. It has been a good run but the freestones are done 'til fall. 

The disturbing thing to me is that the WB is acting more like a freestone than a tailwater.  What fishing there has been is concentrated in the last hour of daylight. With the imminent demise of the freestone fishing, I have searched in vain for good daytime fishing and found next to none. There are fishermen to be sure, but most of the ones I saw were standing with the rod over their shoulder looking for a rise. Never saw an angler with a fish on. Never even saw a fish rise.  

The fishing - Said good bye to the EB this morning. The water temp got down to 64 last night so I was on the river before eight and fished 'til eleven. There were no bugs, and saw but one rise that wasn't to my fly. In three hours I rose seven fish. Hooked five, landed three and was refused by two. Got my waders wet this afternoon but in a half hours fishing I never even saw a rise. This evening I fished the WB water in the BR before it mixes with the EB water. Great idea, never saw a bug hatch, got five refusals to blind casts and was in the car at 8:30 wondering where to go, drove up to the WB and waded into a run at 8:40, it was too early, but at least I didn't have to wait long. Put on an Invaria so I could see it and was promptly refused by two fish. Changed to a Dorthea and hooked a 13 inch rainbow that took backing off the reel. Got refused by two more fish (I think), reeled it in and headed for the car.

If your schedule is flexible, wait. If you are already here or scheduled to arrive, know that the river is full of fish - - - and that not many of them are being caught. 

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