It's Not That I Didn't Try.

 Left the fishing camp about 11:30 when a burst of sun sent the temp up to 58 degrees. Stopped at two places on the BE, hoping to find caddis. There were none. Reversed course and drove up to Hale Eddy, where the now cloudy sky, drift boats rowing by with sports sitting down, and the 43 degree water temp said forgetaboutit. Turned around again and drove east on 17 all the way to the Willow, where again there were neither bugs nor risers. During the drive I encountered rain squalls and the temp dropped from 58 to 52. Turned back west and drove the length of the Beaverkill, stopping at all my usual "look see" spots. At 2:15 there was a good paralep (blue quill) hatch on one of the famous BK pools that I have previously spelled wrong and gotten in trouble for naming. Sat there for twenty minutes and never saw a rise. In fact I never saw a rising trout until I took a long walk into a pool on the BE where I saw the same fish rise five times in an area about 30x50 feet. Never got a look from what turned out to be the only fish I threw at all day. Continued my journey east, drove by my GHOF's car and back up to Hale Eddy, which was devoid of boats, bugs, and browns (rainbows too). Called it quits at 4:45. Stopped to tell my friend Ray I would pay him for the plastic "thing?", I ran over the last time I was there but he was snoozing on his couch. Called my GHOF on the ride home and learned that he had had, rising fish, water all the way down to his socks, a lot of wind, and hooked one, but had not landed any fish either. 

A skunking this early in the year, takes all the pressure off!   

A word (or two) about yesterdays rant. This morning after he posted the blog, David called to say, "You know, it's still April and even the DRC says the streams are un-wade-able. Just maybe, most people haven't even been fishing yet. Point taken. 

However, a writer has no way of knowing what people are thinking, and when there is no feed back I wonder if anyone other than Ed and Dennis are even reading the reports. Your comments are important to me and I'm sure to the rest of the readers. I only fish two or three places a day. Your reports pick up where I was in the wrong place and missed a great hatch. They tell me what mistakes are being made by both myself and other anglers, which gives me things to write about. And most importantly, they make us all aware that there is always a skunk looking for a pair (why are waders a pair?), of waders to jump into.

Thanks, and a tip of the hat to all who told their stories today. 

   

  

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