A Perfect Manhattan Does Not Make The Fog Go Away.

 I'm sitting on the back porch with my Perfect Manhattan and a bowl of kettle corn listening to the rain pound down on the roof. The mini spike and his sister with her fawn are bedded down on my neighbors lawn, (the grass is longer and perhaps softer). The deer have had a hard time keeping up with the apples, but by morning the day's drops are usually gone. There are two apples just out in front of the porch that haven't been touched. Noticed them Tuesday and they are still there tonight. If the deer take a bite out of an apple and leave it, the bees descend on the part where the skin has been removed. The uneaten two apples have neither bite marks nor bees. Don't have a clue why they remain uneaten.

With a 100% chance of rain today, I was hopeful of a good olive hatch. Set out at 1:30 and gave the Lordville riff a try. It was bugless, riseless and within half an hour, fishermanless. (Left the porch lights on last night, the screens had about a dozen Pumpkin caddis on them and nothing else). Second stop was on the bottom section of the WB, where there were a few olives hatching. The fish were interested but the bugs were so far apart that the fish were moving around and getting a cast over a fish was nearly impossible. Final stop was up in the middle section of the WB where there were olives, ants, and fog on the water. There was plenty of food for the fish to eat but most of the risers I saw were content to rise only once every two or three minutes. Talked with another angler who said the fish really got going the previous night around six, (it was 5:30 and the western sky was blue/black). At 6:00 I was driving through Hancock on my way back to the Lordville Estate in a rainstorm, with my raincoat, waders, and fishing vest still on, (it was raining too hard to even think about getting out of my gear in the parking lot). 

The olives now seem to be hatching daily at least on both tailwaters. When they hatch, is weather related. Sunny days mean an evening hatch. On cloudy, rainy days, be on the river by early afternoon. I'm not a wuss, SU plays Pitt with kickoff in eight minutes. Hope the angler that said they went at six last night and the guy walking down the trail in the pouring rain got tired arms catching fish.