It's Better To Have Hooked And Lost - - - -

 

Back on the river with pearly white teeth after driving home for my annual dentist appointment. Had a nice dinner out with Jean Sunday night, washed both the car and my clothes and was on my way back down by 9:00AM this morning.

It's Mark's final day before heading back to North Carolina. He teamed up with my GHOF yesterday and had his best day of the trip hooking seven and landing six. This morning we found bugs (caddis and Hendricksons), but the fish have had so much to eat they seemed indifferent to the smorgasbord Mother Nature was providing.

Went up above "Barking Dog" launch on the WB and had a brief flurry of action on Hendricksons about 3:00. It was over by 3:30. We had heard good things about paralep and Hendrickson hatches on the UEB, so we drove over. To put it kindly, the hatch at about 4:00 was sparse and rising fish were hard to find.

Drove back to where we first encountered bugs sans fish and more or less saved the day. There were fish going when we got there and we each hooked a couple of nice rainbows, then the sun (which had been hiding behind a cloud bank) came out and the fished stopped feeding. When the sun finally went behind the hill in the last hour of daylight the water was covered with Apple Caddis spinners, Hendrickson duns and spinners and an assortment of other bugs too numerous to count. How'd we do? Not very well. The fish were slow to get going and when they did you had no idea which fly was yours. But, Mark got to see what I've been blathering to him about for years. There were big fish everywhere. We did OK in the hooking department (13), but we left a lot to be desired in the landing (6).

It's a big river system. The bugs are hatching, no question about it. But being in the right place at the right time is another matter. Come try it. If you are in the right place at the right time - you'll be hooked.          

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