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It's Got To Be The Going, Not The Getting There That'Good.

 After spending Sunday cutting up and removing three dead Ash trees that had fallen last winter and were either on mowed areas or were blocking access roads, I spent Monday dealing with car salesmen. Love my wife and enjoy spending time with her, but boy, was I glad to get out of town. Got to the Lordville Estate shortly before eleven, unpacked the car, stowed the food and clothes, did a little yard work, came in, ate lunch, turned on the lap top and fell asleep in the recliner. Awoke at 2:20 and hit the road. My drive-by of the Red Barn showed only three anglers, with a big gap between angler two and three in which I saw fish rising. Had three 20s and two ones in my wallet. Drove to the Troutfitter and arranged a loan of five dollars from Dave. Found $15 dollars in the little tin box, left one of my 20s and took the change. Remarkably there were still only three people in the pool and rising fish. The fishing - Was really good. Took my Hendrickson box out of my vest last week and ...
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This, That, And The Other Thing.

 Said good-by to Mark this morning, spent an hour or so lending order to the Lordville Estate, packed the dirty clothes and two bags of trash in the car and headed for home. It was a good, but not great, week of fishing. Long time readers know I try to find rising fish away from the armada of drift boats that congregate where the bug hatch is at its peak. This year I've struggled a bit finding good hatches on the BK for sure, and to some extent the BR  and EB. Some of the problem has been high water that made wade fishing the BR and EB impossible until the last ten days. My inability to find good hatches this year on the BK is concerning. Whenever I've found a good hatch of flies, there have been large fish up eating them. There seems to be a disproportionately small number of two year old browns, so the average fish size is bigger than normal. Either it takes me longer to land the bigger fish or the hatches are of short duration, because they seem to be over almost before I...
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You Earn Every Fish You Catch On The Delaware.

 With a cold north wind predicted to blow in the twenties, my first priority as guide/host was to get us out of the wind. In this endeavor I did fairly well. Started out on the BK, (which was crowded with weekend warriors), at a place that had two pools, about a quarter mile apart, that were somewhat sheltered from the wind and had no other anglers in attendance.  There was a prolific hatch of miniscule mayflies that had a dozen or more large fish, (maybe trout, maybe fallfish), feeding just off the current on the far side of a deep run with an upstream "draft". We got several refusals but never actually hooked any of them. We did hook two trout midstream, landing one rainbow. Tucked into a spot on the UEB that was out of the wind, but after clambering down a steep slope we saw two anglers were already in the pool we wanted to fish and we retreated. Spent an hour or so buying mayonnaise, filling the tank, (with gas, not mayo), and checking out places to make the "last st...
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boom, Boom, BOOM !!!

 Resolved to stop driving up the price of gas by spending several hours each day going from stream to stream just to look at water with neither bugs, nor rising fish. Did take a short trip up to East Branch to see if there was anything happening in 200cfs of water in the UEB, (there wasn't). Also took a drive over to Deposit to buy floatant and line cleaners, (I get 5% off at the Troutfitter). At 3:15, sensing the angst in my guest, (created at least in part by my refusal to stop at rest rooms), I pulled over at one of my secret spots and we fished. There were a plethora of bugs, (caddis, olives, and Invaria), with quite a few fish rising. We quickly chalked up enough refusals to give Denny a run for his money, landed a few small fish, and when the boats started to arrive, we reeled it in and left. Moved to a place that was above the boat traffic but lacked both good bug activity and rising fish, we managed to land a couple more fish. At 6:30 it was time to fish or cut bait. We fis...
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Fizz, boom, BAH.

 Left the Lordville Estate before11:00, hoping to find bugs and rising fish. Fished the EB, BK, EB, (again), and  the WB, without seeing  bugs or risers. Used the last of our timeouts to stop the clock and eat our sandwiches, during our lunch break, was reminded by the windshield wipers that one of the fishermen in the group forgot his raincoat, and returned to the fishing camp for it.  The trailers - During the never ending search for rising trout one of the copilot's jobs is to keep track of the number of trailers at the various takeouts. The trick in a crowded parking area is to count one side of the lot on the way in and the other side on the way out, our trailer counting procedure still needs work. Suffice to say Buckingham's trailer total was down about 20% from yesterday, Stockport was up 11%, and Shehawken appeared to be unchanged. The bugs - Were nowhere to be seen until about 4:00 when the March Browns made a wind swept entry and exit on the lower WB. About...
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It's A Slow Fuse.

 Launched Mark's boat early enough to lead the parade down river from Buckingham where there were wade fishermen casting at rising trout. We saw almost no flies hatching or spinners on the water but there were fish rising. Hooked a nice rainbow and several fall fish in the slow water pools. There were trout willing to eat a fly along Frisbee Island until about 12:45 when the bright sun shut things down. Rowed down to Lordville and took out there a little after 3:00. Spent the afternoon doing yardwork, tying flies, and maybe closed my eyes for a minute or two while doing a crossword.  About 6:30 we set out, this time in the car, to again look for a good fly hatch and rising fish. In that endeavor we failed miserably. Checked the BR, finding the Buckingham lot filled with trailers, but neither fish rising nor bugs hatching out from the launch. Stockport roadside parking was also filled with both trailers and cars. At Shehawken there was not a bug to be seen on the water. Didn't ...
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The Fuse Is Lit.

 The river system is a time bomb, I just don't know when its going to explode.  Left the fishing camp about 12:00 and drove up the PA side hoping to find bugs and rising fish. There were March Browns hatching and fish rising at Buckingham but the boats already launched and several wade fishermen had them well covered. The WB at Shehawken had nary a bug to be seen. Drove along the river below Deposit and saw neither bugs nor risers from the town bridge to the Men's Club. Picked up my new fly line from Dave at the Troutfitter who said there have been risers below the town bridge in the morning, (Hendrickson spinners?), he also mentioned that there were still Hendrickson hatching in the Deposit area. Mark is back, has never fished the Red Barn and I said he should give it a try. Dennis plays golf on Tuesday so I fished his spot. Mark hooked three and landed two, (both 19 inchers), and was quite pleased with himself. Made sure he didn't get overconfident by placing him in spots...
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