Glad I'm Still And Able To Do This.

 

After yesterdays fiasco I was in no hurry to get to the river. The meeting with the assoc. editors was scheduled for 4:00 and I saw no reason to fish before the meeting. Planned on doing a little yard work, and then shooting my bow. Finished up tying a few olives and isos by 10:30, walked out on the porch to get my bow and it was raining. Went back inside, did a hard sudoku, filled in a substantial part of a NYT Friday crossword, looked outside ,and the sun was shining. Took a shower and headed for the porch only to find the water was pouring off the roof again. It was after 1:00 when I said to hell with it, and went fishing.

Drove up to Deposit where David was happy to tell me that there had been a sulfur/olive, combo hatch at barking dog last night and every fish in the river was up. There is a possibility he was pulling my chain. Walked out on the town bridge at about 2:00 and saw enough risers to merit suiting up. Glad I did.

The fishing - Was very good. In the roughly two hours I fished, (I was a tad late to the meeting), it only rained twice, got under a Norway Spruce in time to put the vest under the raincoat. Meanwhile the fish were going nuts, reentered the fray and found fish more than willing to eat my olives. Dennis who was fishing downstream from me, drove over the bridge while I was trying to get my backing back on the reel from a rainbow who had designs on Delaware Bay. Thought Dennis was quitting because of a little rain, landed the fish and two out of the next three before I thought of checking my phone, it was 4:07. Reeled it in and hustled to the meeting.

The meeting - I don't think about some things much, but I've been doing the reports quite a while now, I've met many of those making comments and many who just read the reports and you are all a large part of why I keep writing. You have become river friends, sharing the love of both trout fishing and the environs where trout are found. Everyone at the meeting brought their sulfurs, Jim gave us some of his flies, and  politely declined to take the live flies I brought for him to use as models as his wife does not allow bugs in the house. Ed put all his cards on the table and gave each of us one of his still born sulfurs along with several of his other flies. Greg, who is new to the group showed us his slim bodied sulfurs patterns . Dennis, whose flies I have often ridiculed, not only brought delicious chocolate cookies, (thank you Mrs. Dennis), but also landed five fish on his sulfurs before coming to the meeting.

Shorty after 5:00 we all headed out hoping to find the super olive hatch I've seen the last two nights. I'm sure someone will have found the olives, but I sure didn't. With several possible stops occupied, I ended up down on the BR, where I talked with a fisherman who was pulling his boat, caught a couple on nymphs, no bugs, no risers, several rain events and gusty wind, still better than a day at work, he said. Undaunted, with the car showing 58 degrees, I put on a fourth shirt, my rain coat over my vest, and waded in. In about two hours of fishing, saw no bugs, two rises, (hooked them both), and had a total of six fish eat my fly. Landed three, with a 19 inch rainbow leading me on a merry chase downstream, (along the shore), before letting me take the hook out and send him on his way.   

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

Don't let that that rain come down.

 My South Holston river friend, (one of only two people who will fish with me), (the other is currently on injured reserve), is up for a visit (he brought his boat) and today we floated. There might have been some question about where we chose to float (no one else launched where we did), but we enjoyed the fact that we never saw another fisherman, let alone another boat, on the river all day. The weatherman might well have gilded the lily a bit when he predicted a chance of showers and a high temp of sixty degrees. It rained all day, and the temperature peaked at fifty three degrees. When I read the forecast for the rest of Mark's stay (rain for the next four days) I was thankful that we got in the day that we did today.  How was our day? We sucked it up, paid an extra $5.00 to launch (didn't have the proper change), parked in the wrong place (got a note from the owner where we put in), never made it to the predetermined takeout place, and had a delightful day counting bugs (...
Read more