A Split Day With A Retro Evening.

 

With temps twenty degrees above normal and the freestones looking like they would be over 70 degrees by midafternoon, I decided to do a split day. Walked in to a hard to reach place on the BR where you are almost certain to see eagles and deer, with bears and rattlesnakes a distinct possibility. Saw none of the above. Water level was ideal but the bugs were nowhere to be seen and rising trout were outnumbered by lamprey eels. Ended up landing two sixteen inch rainbows who were clearly not on a weight watchers program. Was soaking wet (not from rain) when I got back to the car at noon.

Drove up to Deposit about two and saw a few caddis and Hendricksons with more than enough boats and fishermen. The few fish that were up feeding were surrounded by anglers. I returned to the Lordville Estate tied a few flies and read a book until almost seven.

With the freestones all now over 70 degrees,  fishing them should not be an option. At 70 degrees the water does not hold enough oxygen for trout to exert themselves in what to trout is a life and death struggle, (there were several boats and numerous wade fishermen disregarding both the high water temps and the threat to the fish). 

At seven I drove up towards Deposit, stopping first at the Hale Eddy bridge and then at every lookout place along the way. Saw no bugs or risers and very few fishermen. Was sitting at one of the pools above the No Kill section with my mind made up to call it a day, when the lone angler in the pool waved at me to come join him. Didn't recognize him but he was quite insistent so I put on my waders and walked down, half expecting him to say "Oh, I though you were someone else." Turned out he did know who I was, we had shared the pool earlier this year and have often talked on the banks of both the Delaware and Missouri Rivers. I digress. There were subtle sippers that were hard to see in the glare (they were easier to hear than see). When the breeze picked up they quit. About 8:00 the breeze died down, the caddis came and there were rising fish everywhere, for about ten minutes and then the wind began to blow as the edge of the thunderstorm which was lighting up the sky to the south of us passed by. We each hooked a few fish, talked about a mutual friend and shared a pool the way fishermen use to when things weren't quite so crowded and hectic.