Wind Knots & Tailing Loops

It's Sunday morning. Watched Syracuse's win over Purdue last night so I didn't get started on answering your questions until this morning.

Black Boat had me going again with his Casey Kasmiri, thought he was equating me with a famous Indian fly fishing savant that I'd never heard of. Casey Kasem I remember well. 

Dennis asked about white flies and Hebe's. White flies (Ephorons ) are a very prolific warm water fly that hatches in late summer and early fall. They hatch, molt, mate and die all within a couple hours around sunset. The spinner falls can be spectacular. Because of the cold release water the best hatches on the Delaware occur below Hankins. Hebe's are a small, big winged lemon/olive fly that hatches in the fall usually after the daily iso hatch is over. They don't taste good and I've never caught a fish on one.

Darryl Bogart asked about the "Pay Side" which for me, is a fictional side of the A-119 fishing reports where paying customers get exclusive inside information.

Chris asked which river is best in the fall. Of course, it depends. The freestones seem to have the best iso hatches. The mainstay of the fall fishing (October and beyond) is the pseudo which appears everywhere usually during the warmest part of the day (think Hendrickson hatch time). Because they are small, fish are reluctant to expend energy feeding on them in high water. Look for rising fish in slow water pool tailouts especially when the flow is low.

Chris Z. and D. Martin both asked if I thought rainbows had expanded their range. Ed S. caught a nice 'bow yesterday but didn't say if it was in the Willow or the BK. I've never caught one in the Willow but my experience there is limited. In the 35 years I've fished the BK the rainbows have clearly increased their numbers significantly. The UEB puzzles me. It is predominately a brown trout stream but over the last half a dozen years I have caught yearling rainbows up as far as Shinhoppel. The lower reaches of the UEB are often used as a thermal refuge for 'bows from both the BK and BE, during the hot summer months.

Fall rainbow fishing can be excellent if you get into a good iso hatch. At this time of year the big browns are beginning to have other things on their mind and during the fall pseudo hatch most of the browns up and feeding will be one and two year olds (9/14 inches).

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