And In February You Think The Snow Will Never Melt.

 

Couldn't get out of my own way this morning. Tied three caddis flies, did no yard work, solved two easy crosswords and one sudoku, made two sandwiches, (which eliminated 50 miles of driving), and at 11:30 left for the sulfur zone. The windmills up past Deposit were pointed SW and were really humming.

There were a few bugs hatching when I got there, and the fish, perhaps knowing what was coming, were all up and feeding. The hatch quickly built into one of the heaviest I've ever seen. There were so many sulfurs on the water you had almost no chance of the fish eating your fly. Add the wind which blew at gale force all afternoon and there was no wonder there was no one else on the water when I reeled it in at 3:30. 

Spent from 3:30 until 6:30 driving along the sulfur zone, (saw bugs all the way up to Cold Springs Brook). The wind diabolically followed the river and gave no one relief. A few anglers were still fishing up in Stilesville but it couldn't have been much fun.

By 6:30 there were a few bugs starting to hatch again, and some fish started to rise. The wind had  mercifully abated somewhat and by 8:00 you could actually make casts that landed where you wanted them to. Make no mistake, the fish all know the game, and do not suffer fools or poor casters. They can sometimes be fooled by an accurate cast of a fly that closely imitates the real thing, but not always. The number of bugs hatching and the high winds made catching a fish an accomplishment today.

Whoever is in charge of regulating the releases from Cannonsville to keep the water temp at Lordville under 75 degrees needs to find a new job. At least five times so far this season, the temp of the water has exceeded the 75 degree mark. Today the release was clearly too small and the water temp hit 77. Don't know what the problem is but it needs to be straightened out.      

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