Love Fishing For Side Channel Browns.

 

Spent Tuesday crossing long neglected items off the to-do list, cleaned the camp, made a trip to the dump, (a cathartic experience), and drove home in time to pick up Jean at the airport. Her plane arrived at 5:30 so we stopped on the way home for what turned out to be a nice dinner at the Dark Horse in Dewitt. 

This morning we laid out our plans for the day. We have one lawn mower and two mowing jobs which  had to be coordinated, as did shopping lists. If I got everything on my list done by 4:00 this afternoon it was understood that I was returning to the Lordville Estate, Jean had commitments with our daughter on Thursday and her sister on Friday. A four o'clock departure would give me time to drop off food and clothing at Lordville and be on the stream by seven. All tasks were completed by both Jean and me, (I forgot to get my car washed), by 3:30, spent half an hour congratulating each other on our achievements and I was off.

What' the happs?  - With almost no help from anyone except Ed, who keeps us informed on the BK and the Willow, and Dennis who covers the WB above Deposit, you are relying on a reclusive old fisherman who considers the day a success if he doesn't see a boat or another angler. Never mind what you caught, who fished the drake hatch, when and where. Did anyone find Cornutas? Was anyone run over by a drift boat? Did anyone hook a Mermaid? C'on spill the beans.

Talked with a BK guide three nights ago who said he was killing them on Green Drakes in the BR, I thought that was over about May 28th, then I saw trailers and fishermen at Lordville on Monday? Left Lordville at about 6:15 today and drove up the PA side. There were three cars at Buckingham, at least one of which had a trailer, (saw the boat at Kight's). Stockport had four trailers and about a dozen vehicles. Shehawken looked like the parking lot at the Miami boat show. Drove upstream on route 17 to Hale Eddy, where the NYS DEC is upgrading the parking area (no drift boat access), there was one car in the lot, with an angler in the water downstream with his rod over his shoulder.   

Hale Eddy was clearly the upper limits for boats and wade fishermen at 7:00pm. Drove upstream, got in the water and never saw a boat or fishermen. What did I see? A few Invaris, a few stenos, a few spinners and a few hungry fish willing to look at anything that floated by. I fished both sides of a small island. One side had bugs and some rising fish, the other had nary a bug or rising fish to be seen. 

The fishing - Browns love side channels with deep cut banks, modest flows and overhanging vegetation. The one I fished had all four, and I had it all to my self. Treated the fish I caught with respect, removed the hooks from their mouths with care and sent them on their way. It was a very nice ending to a productive day. Can't understand why no one else was there. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Had To Get Out The Neosporin For The Tooth Cuts On My Index Finger.

  To say the Delaware  is a hard river to figure is an understatement. Yesterday was an overcast day that had fishermen thinking olives. Turned out the water was probably too warm for olives and too cold for sulfurs, in short, a dud. Today the air temp was a little cooler, (I think), with a mix of sun and clouds and the sulfurs, (both yesterdays and todays), hatched. The fish? At least where I was, went nuts, threw caution to the wind, and ate everything that came down their feeding lane, both with and without hooks. Heard from two sources that the sulfur hatch at the red barn was also very good today. If my last report on the red barn sulfurs was erroneous, blame it on Ed who has been in Hawaii for the last two weeks, (hence no reliable red barn reports). The fishing mid-day was so good, and the number of fishermen in the "Zone", (it's Friday afternoon), so high, that I decided to fish down river during the evening hours. Fished a pool in the middle section from 6:30 unt
Read more

Fishing A Cold Blow From Out Of The North.

  Jean came down and we spent the weekend watching wildlife in the backyard, driving around the area and enjoying two "nights out", one with David and Maryann, (the apprentice Troutfitter Inn cleaning lady). A shout out of thanks to her for spending four hours on the road to have dinner with us. Not sure the company or the meal was worth the drive. We drove up to Stilesville to witness the hordes of anglers, and then along the reservoir all the way up to Walton, where we usually stop and go in some of the shops. It was threatening to rain so we elected to keep going. It was raining on top of the mountains but we took route 206?? to Downsville anyway. We hit the rain part way up the mountain and then drove down the other side to Downsville in a torrential down pour. Came out of the rain at Downsville and drove down route 30 with the intention of checking  out the trout in some of the BK's thermal refuges, saw the muddy water at "Jaws" and drove back to the Lordvi
Read more

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN!

 It's Wednesday night, a fire is going in the fire place, an empty Perfect Manhattan glass is washed and back up on the shelf, 30 shrimp netted from Zane Gray Creek ((did you know that Zane Gray (famous fly fisherman and writer of westerns) was a dentist and that his office is now a museum that you can visit on the Delaware River?)), have been consumed by Jean and me, prior to the three pieces of venison backstrap that traveled from home to Florida and back, an early spring snowstorm is raging outside and most importantly, we're glad to be back home again! With that season opening sentence, Mrs. Haskins has no doubt thrown in the towel and disavowed all responsibility for my literary malfunctions. Run on sentences she could handle, but my never before attempted "double aside" was apparently beyond the pall. I sent her a "Go Duke" banner with apologies and hopefully she will cool off before the fishing heats up. Our trip back home was uneventful. Started at 2
Read more