Difficult Wading And The Hatch From Hell.

 

Got a late start this morning but it didn't hurt my fishing one bit. There were olive spinners over the riff and fish rising everywhere when I arrived at 10:30. An hour later when both the spinner fall and the rising were over, I had landed one 11 inch rainbow. The fish touched neither the spinners nor my offerings during their feeding frenzy.  Kept fishing and when I saw a rise and made a good cast, the fish came to the fly. Some said no thanks, but enough 'bows ate the fly, to make it by far, my best morning this year, (which ended at 1:30).

It being a bright sunshiny weekend day, I was in no hurry to get back in action. Left the Lordville Estate at 5:30 and drove east on old 17 hoping to find a pool with fish and no fishermen. It wasn't really crowded but there was at least one car at every pull off downstream from the Cooks Falls/Horton exit on 17. Turned around and headed back downstream, stopping at a place with no cars that I last fished at least twenty years ago. Within five minutes of leaving the car I knew why I hadn't fished there in twenty years. If the beaver hadn't left me a model perfect wading staff, I would have joined Ed Smith in a baptismal dunking. I've waded a lot of miserable,bastardly stretches of river in my day,  but this was quite possibly the worst. 

The fishing - All was quiet until a bit after the sun went behind the trees. The first fish I saw rise ate my cahill, jumped three times and gave me back the fly. It was a big heavy brown. A surprising (to me) number of fish started to rise. Landed two twelve inchers amid several refusals and then everything went to hell. There were fish rising everywhere, gulping non stop with never an acknowledgement that I even had a fly in the game. Tried everything, couldn't even get a look. Turned on my flashlight to try to get back to the side of the river where the car was and there were so many flies attracted to the light that I couldn't even see the river bottom. Tiny little black caddis. With the fish still feeding, I tied on an Iso, ( which was previously ignored), and threw at fish gulping not fifteen feet from me. Made no more than five casts in the dark and hooked three hot rainbows, lost one and landed the other two. Reeled it in and inched my way to the bank and up to the car.

What to do if you're here - Drakes and spinners on UEB below Shehawken, Invaria moving up the WB, (upper middle and lower upper sections would be the best bets), a mix of bugs on the freestones, don't even be thinking of  fishing mid day there, go early morning and 8:00pm until dark). Got to the car along with thousands of the tiny black caddis at 9:28 tonight.   

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