Listen To The Rhythm Of The Rain.

 

Woke to the sound of the phone ringing. An early morning emergency? No. It was eight o'clock, two full hours after my normal wake up time, and Jean was making her regular morning call. I've been fishing 'til about 9:30 most nights and by the time I drive home, have dinner, and write the fishing report it's midnight. It caught up with me and I just needed a good night's sleep.

Took things easy today, did a little house cleaning, (Jean's coming down for the weekend), and continued work on the sulfur box. Went through the Invaria's, some were ready for retirement and were sent to assisted living, others are in rehab, hoping for a possible reentry into the sulfur box. Those deemed presentable, were reinserted into the box and are deemed "ready to go". If nothing more important arises, I'll tackle the Dorothea's tomorrow.

The fishing - Didn't put on the waders 'til 4:00, (knowing full well that the hatch was over two days ago by 5;00). Saw bugs and rising fish in a place I hadn't fished since Lee Conklin and I fished it over twenty years ago, so I decided to give it a try. The magic wand must have been turned to full power 'cause every time I saw a rise and put the fly in the area, the fish rose, and most of them ate. They weren't big, (mostly two year old's), but it was an hour's worth of good fun, and then, it just stopped. There were still enough bugs for the fish to rise and some did, but they wouldn't give my fly even a sniff. Then I heard the first rumble of thunder, and I, sporting my new Panama Jack fedora, and no raincoat, headed for the car. Drove downstream and saw Dennis, (sans raincoat heading for his car), gave him a lift to the car where he and his friend decided to get a bite to eat before fishing the evening sulfur hatch.

The summer sulfurs are here, two weeks ahead of last year. The afternoon hatches, where I've been, are nothing to write home about, but the evening hatches are B+'s.   Rain showers were predicted for 7:00 tonight and they couldn't have come at a better time. The sulfurs were a little tardy, but olives filled the void and when the sulfurs did come, the fish, in a light to medium rain, ate on top. As is often the case when fishing during a hatch, while it is raining, you magically become a much better angler. I think the fish's vision is impaired by the rain hitting the water, every fish is feeding, and seldom is there a refusal. 

It ended up being my best day so far, this year. I think I'll sleep 'til 8:00am again tomorrow.

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