How Many People Can You Fit In the Red Barn Pool?

 

When the highlight of the day is not finding your name in the obituaries, you obviously have little to talk about. Spent a good part of the day driving around looking for bug hatches, rising fish and mermaids. Found none of the above. What I did see while talking with a currently unemployed guide, were two adult eagles dive bombing and actually tangling with what appeared to be a young eagle. The adults have a nest in the area and have raised at least one young bird. Don't know if the attacked bird was an intruder on their turf or if junior got in serious trouble for not cleaning the nest. The first attack was just upstream of us, the immature eagle headed downstream after the encounter. We were watching him when a second adult eagle that was flying upstream quite high in the air, went into a dive and again struck the young eagle who seemed more than happy to get out of Dodge. 

The second noteworthy wildlife encounter was with two fawns in the middle of PA rte. 191 by Smokin' Joe's. The fawns seemed unconcerned by my approach and when I tooted the horn, only one ran off the road, the second fawn stood looking at me and then hobbled on three legs, over to the side of the road and slowly up the hill. It put no weight on the right hind leg, which had no visible sign of injury. 

Enjoyed chats with several Troutfitter regulars, (thank you Bob for the bottle of PG, my wife's favorite), saw Assoc. Ed. Denny who was in a tailout casting at a fish when I tooted. When I held up my hands he said two, but it's slowing down, (probably to keep me out of the pool). 

The fishing - Another day like today and I'm going up in the attic and get my golf clubs. Fished above and below Oquaga in places where everyone knows there are lots and lots of fish, never saw a bug or a fish in either place. Drove over to the east side and fished a pool that has had no trout since mid June, rose, (and was refused by), half a dozen yearlings and one good fish. Obviously the fish had spent the hot summer months elsewhere. Grasping at straws, (whatever that means), I was encouraged that at least some fish had closed their summer camps and moved back to their homes. Got caught in another pop up thunderstorm, the smart choice would have been to call it an a$$ kicking and head back to the estate, but no, I took another one on the chin by finishing out the day casting at the occasional subsurface feeders that delighted in ignoring my offerings. For the record, a 13 inch rainbow kept me off the bench.

The outlook - Right now, grim. If you want to throw streamers, by the weekend it'll probably be too late, if you want to fish sulfurs, (and there are some, and probably will be for a while yet), you need to get in line, (a long one), if you are willing to settle for an hour of fishing just before dark, you have a decent chance of seeing rising fish in the WB, if you want to fish water that has been too warm for the past two months, wait until the weekend when we are supposed to get some cooler weather.

To close on a positive note, I saw two flying ants on the water today and there are tricos on the lower WB, UEB and BR.

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