Five Short Minutes Of Lovin - - -

 

After spending most of Thursday, all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday not fishing, you'd think I'd be anxious to get back on the river, and I was, until I saw the release from Cannonsville was up to 1,150cfs. That eliminated the "tinted" water in the WB. The people who commented about their BR floats also did nothing to make me risk a speeding ticket driving down. The one positive, (I'll not talk about rain until it falls), was that it was cloudy. 

Arrived at the Lordville Estate in time for lunch, and with rain at least in the forecast, I seeded and raked the area on the RR bank designated for an environmental upgrade, (better to mow grass than kill weeds), started up the mower and cut those few areas of the lawn that are still green, picked some more tomatoes, watered them for the last time, and went inside to try and figure out where to fish.

It wasn't easy, (see paragraph 1 above), but when I checked the water temp on the EB at Hancock it was starting down and had peaked at about 68. Drove upstream at about 5:30 and waded into water that would have been two feet over my head last May, (didn't come up to my knees), saw several fish rise, one for sure was a fall fish, hooked and landed a 9 inch rainbow, got not another fish to acknowledge that I even had a fly on, did not tip my hat to them, (may have even given them a single digit salute), reeled it in, and drove downstream). It was 6:30 when I left the car, saw rising fish and put them down just walking along the shore. Cast at several fish that never rose again, (and they were my very best casts). Worked my way back towards the car and when it was too dark for the fish to see me, I saw several fish rising  about two thirds of the way across the stream, waded out and hooked and landed three rainbows 15,18, and18. From I just can't do this any more, to euphoria in less than 10 minutes. Made a wrong turn in the dark on the way back to the car but made it back safely. Clock said 7:45 when I started the car.

The outlook -We are not even hoping for rain, but if by chance it should come, and the release is cut back on the WB, come, the fish are well rested and might even eat a fly with a hook in it. Do not come at present stream levels and expect to replicate my 5 short minutes of magic after 2 hours of humiliation at the hands of the trout.

Will have a short week and I will try to answer questions from home but Skookul's query brought to mind last Friday when I stopped at Shehawken and walked down to the ramp, looked upstream and saw over a hundred Kayaks, canoes and rubber rafts heading into the riff. Left and went downstream to junction pool and watched them float by. They were having a grand time, (at least 6 per raft), and the menagerie was remarkably well contained. The entire group passed by in well under 10 minutes. Please remember, everyone has a right to use the river. If the water is too low to float elsewhere they should be able to float here. If the person putting on the floats just doesn't understand how the river is used someone should talk to them about it, (FUDR???). 









  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

The closure.

 Picked one of the most beautiful November days imaginable to drive down to Lordville and shut down the estate. Bright sun, early morning fog, with flocks of geese on their way out to cut cornfields to feed. Temps varied from 45 to 35 depending on the fog density. The trees are bare, save for a few oaks  and larch with color but the hills are basically gray.  I've been busy in Lafayette. Spend an hour or two each morning and evening up in a tree hoping for a buck to come by. So far the only buck I've seen in real life has been what is now a unicorn. A week ago when he walked around not 20 yards in front of me he sported two slightly curved six inch spikes. Last night when he walked right under my other stand he was missing one of his horns.  In addition to the hunting we had loggers come and fell almost 100 dead and dying ash trees that had fallen victim to the Emerald ash borer. While they were at it they also took down a dying maple that leaned over the house and a...
Read more