You Don't Know What You Got 'Til It's Gone

 

With the rainy weather and air temp hovering between 49 and 51, there was no need to leave the fishing camp early. At 3:00pm water temps in what is now, (for a week or two), the "Hendrickson zone", was well below the Hendrickson hatching threshold of 48 degrees. Drove from Stilesville down along the river to Hale Eddy without seeing a bug or a rise. There were quite a few boats, all with anglers sitting, hunched down in their wet weather gear, waiting for it to happen.

At the game lands around 3:30pm, there were bugs, lots of them. Paraleps (they just love cold water) and big, size 16, olives, (perhaps Cornutas?). There were also lots of wade fishermen and boats, (11 cars at the upper game lands lot). Saw one riser in my allotted space. It was a big fish gulping olives. Moved into casting range, threw long, threw short, and finally put one on the money and he ate. He  took all but a couple of turns of fly line off the reel, then came back to about twenty feet from me, opened his mouth and gave me back my fly.

There are two maxims on the Delaware. "Don't leave rising fish", and, "If you hit'em today, go somewhere else tomorrow". Maybe a third should be, "Don't leave hatching bugs". Left the game lands and drove all over the place without seeing any more bugs or rising fish. Landed one nice 18 inch rainbow and two, two year olds, in about two hours of fishing.

Without the sun, there were no caddis. With the low water temps, there were no March Browns or Gray Foxes. The bugs if any, came late. Hope someone, somewhere was in the right place at the right time, I sure wasn't. 

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