If you want to catch fish, you have to learn to be better at the game than they are!

 Woke this morning to temps in the 60's, inside the fishing camp. Out on the porch it was 46. It got the BR down in the low 60's and I decided to give it a try. There were two guys fishing the Lordville riff when I drove over the bridge at 9:30 and they were still there when I returned at noon. Fished between junction pool and Stockport. In two hours of fishing I never saw anything but yearlings and they refused my offerings. It was a beautiful morning to be on the river, hope the two boats that went by did better with their bobber rigs than I did with dries.

Rested up and was ready to go about three, saw neither bugs nor risers on my tour of the WB from Hale Eddy up. Picked an empty pool and in three hours of fishing, hooked eight fish, landed six and lost two. There were some bugs on the water which led to sporadic rises, which resulted in multiple refusals and the occasional take. It was both a challenging and enjoyable afternoon.

At six thirty, I moved downstream and found an unoccupied tail-out. The sulfurs came, but they were all on one side of the river as they were last night. Not surprisingly, the rising fish were on the side with the bugs and they were much easier to fool than those I fished to last night. If the cast was on the money and the fly floated wings up, the fish ate. If the fly wasn't upright it got either refused or ignored. Everything, (both bugs and risers), shut down early and I was back at the car at eight-forty.

Weekend outlook - There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow which should help the daytime fishing. There was an assortment of bugs in the afternoon, (think olives, sulfurs, caddis, Cahill's, and isos), The fish see everything that floats over them. If they don't eat the first cast, change flies before going back to the fish. It helps your chances if you can fish to two or three different risers, waiting until each fish begins rising again before throwing your fly. Bottom line - most of the fish are better at this game than most of the anglers, give them credit for what they have learned and try to out smart them. Their brain is actually quite a bit smaller than ours you know.    

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