So How Did You Spend Day Two Of The Heat Wave?

 

It's seven-thirty, and I'm back at the Lordville Estate dutifully rehydrating after spending five hours on the stream. Actually I was a bit chilly for a while when a popup shower passed just south of where I was fishing and the clouds and cold moist air over the river brought the temp down. Started at 1:00 and did a walk away Joe at 6:00. Why? Well I didn't plan on staying that long, brought no water with me, and I had caught enough fish.

Everyone knew that today was going to be hot and despite the couple of hours of cloud cover, it was. When I drove through Hancock both on my way fishing and on my return, no one was there, the streets had almost no cars parked along the curbs, there were no moms out pushing baby carriages, and almost no traffic on the roads, (including route 17), it brought the covid year to mind.

Yesterday there were fishermen and drift boats everywhere, as one sport said as the guide rowed by me, "It  was a s--t show, up river". Today, I had a pool to myself except for about a half an hour when Mike the cop and I pretended we heard what we were saying to each other. In five hours of fishing, three boats came by me, two local guides and one fisherman alone in his boat who arrived as I was leaving.

So how was the fishing - Not bad. The hatch went on the entire time I was there, but it never was heavy enough to get the fish up and gulping like yesterday. There were bugs and risers, and if you saw a riser and got a fly to him he came up for a look. A good number must have liked how the fly looked 'cause they ate. Started out in a hole as I lost three straight good fish, (a nice fish is one that eats the fly, a good fish is over 15 inches). With no one else in the pool, I was free to move around and fish to any fish I saw rise. There were lots of yearlings, (I do try to avoid casting to them), and enough two and three year old's, and adult fish to keep most anyone happy. A 17inch brown tied a 17inch rainbow for fish of the day.

If you find an empty pool anywhere above Hale Eddy during the hot summer months, jump in, (with or without your waders on). 

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