Every team needs a closer.

 Woke this morning to find the porch screens covered with isos for the second straight day. Obviously the "Fall" isos have begun to hatch but with the BR flow at 3,500 cfs and rain predicted for tomorrow there is little I can do about it.

The prediction was for sunshine today so I went to the tying bench right after breakfast and tied todays supply of sulfurs along with a couple isos and some spinners, while waiting for the grass to dry. Got on the mower at 11:00 and finished up at 12:15. Had lunch and set out for Deposit. Last night after fishing I drove up to the Red Barn. The pool was empty and there were bugs and rising fish. There was one car parked at the barn with a guy suiting up. I thought about it and said "tomorrow" and drove home leaving the pool to the solitary angler. Drove straight up to the Red Barn at 1:30 today only to find six cars in the lot and thirteen anglers in the water. Could see an unbroken line of fisherman up in the pool by the Stilesville parking area, did a U-turn and headed for someplace where there was less chance of injuring someone on a backcast.

The sulfurs - The bugs were going before I arrived. It's complicated, clouds keep the water cold and the hatch is usually later in the day. Sunshine warms the water and the hatch is earlier. Rainwater from the tribs is warmer than release water from the reservoir and should get the bugs hatching earlier still, but downstream from Oquaga which was still pouring about 200cfs of warm rainwater into the WB, there were no bugs or risers. Shrugged my shoulders and drove upstream, parked and took a walk up to a "C" rated run only to confirm the rating.

The fishing - Saw four rises in the run as I walked up. Turned and fished down to two of the risers. Got a refusal and an ignore for my troubles. Ended up at the scene of yesterday' fish hooking bonanza. The hatch was probably on the wane but there were rising fish. With two weeks of good hatches I have gotten better at not casting at the yearlings. Rose at least a dozen good fish that refused to eat the fly. Hooked eight fish, landed four (2 were 11.5 inch hatcheries). I had gone a good hour with no action  when I made a cast into a seam along the edge of some slack water. A huge head came up and attempted to engulf the fly. The fish was rushed to the emergency room where he is undergoing treatment for a severe case of whiplash. Adrenalin is not the friend of dry fly fishermen. 

At 7:15 I left Lordville and drove up to a place on the WB that fishes well at 1,100 cfs. I was in the water by 8:00 and was a good half an hour early. When the first fish began to rise it was dark enough that you had to either put on a Cahill and fish the black water or put on an olive and fish the silver water. Chose the olive and hooked and landed five fish none of which was the least bit fussy about what they ate. Another big difference from "Sulfur Zone" fish was their energy level. All of them tore around the pool like it was the first week of the season. Made for a nice ending to a day that didn't quite go according to plan.   

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

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN!

 It's Wednesday night, a fire is going in the fire place, an empty Perfect Manhattan glass is washed and back up on the shelf, 30 shrimp netted from Zane Gray Creek ((did you know that Zane Gray (famous fly fisherman and writer of westerns) was a dentist and that his office is now a museum that you can visit on the Delaware River?)), have been consumed by Jean and me, prior to the three pieces of venison backstrap that traveled from home to Florida and back, an early spring snowstorm is raging outside and most importantly, we're glad to be back home again! With that season opening sentence, Mrs. Haskins has no doubt thrown in the towel and disavowed all responsibility for my literary malfunctions. Run on sentences she could handle, but my never before attempted "double aside" was apparently beyond the pall. I sent her a "Go Duke" banner with apologies and hopefully she will cool off before the fishing heats up. Our trip back home was uneventful. Started at 2
Read more