It's Time To Start Adding More Fly Boxes To Your Vest.

 Had the car packed last night except for the food that required refrigeration. Packed the food this morning and headed out at 8:00 for my yearly dose of liquid nitrogen at the Dermatologists. Was back on the road headed for the Lordville Estate at 8:57. When I left the house it was overcast and foggy. By the time I got out of the Doctors office it was bright sunshine and it stayed that way until I got down to about Marathon where I caught up with the clouds. We really needed the sun to warm up the water in the Deposit area if there was to be any hope of a Hendrickson hatch. Unfortunately the day was mostly cloudy with just enough periods of sunshine to get the paraleps hatching but where I was, the Hendricksons were no shows.

The Bugs - Arrived at camp at 11:15, unpacked, turned on the heat, made a sandwich and headed out. Decided to drive up the PA side to see what if anything was hatching on the Big River (Glenn it's also called the Main Stem or simply the Delaware). Never got past the Lordville Bridge. Saw fish rising in the flat below the bridge, parked and waded in. Promptly hooked and landed a 16 inch Fall Fish that was feeding on the March Browns that were hatching. 

Drove up above Hale Eddy about 2:00 where I saw a good fish rise in a tailout at least a dozen times. Parked and waded in. What was hatching? Paraleps were the most numerous, there were also olives, a few caddis and Hendrickson spinners. There were a few bugs along the far shore after five o'clock that might have been Hendricksons.

Left the upper WB at six and drove downstream hoping to find a caddis spinner fall and I did. Apple caddis (lots of them) were migrating up stream with many bouncing along the water depositing eggs.

The fishing - In an hours time on the Big River (BR) I hooked a small brown and a 15 inch rainbow. There just weren't enough March Browns hatching to get the fish up.

The place I fished above Hale Eddy had fish that were hungry and willing to, at the least, come up and look at your fly. Caught fish on paraleps, caddis , Hendrickson emergers and Hendrickson spinners, (was also refused by many fish on the same flies).  

At six o'clock I headed downstream and got into a caddis spinner-fall. The fish were up and feeding with hard splashy rises. Never saw a nose out of the water except for the fish that either ate my fly or gave it an indignant refusal. Caught fish, but clearly had no idea what they were eating.

The outlook - It's hard to tell for sure but I think the up river Hendrickson hatch will continue for a good while. The caddis will continue their march up the WB and join the Hendricksons in Deposit. The biggest surprise for me was the appearance of the March Browns at Lordville. This means that the BR and probably the EB are starting to come out of the Doldrums.

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