Love Fishing For Side Channel Browns.

 

Spent Tuesday crossing long neglected items off the to-do list, cleaned the camp, made a trip to the dump, (a cathartic experience), and drove home in time to pick up Jean at the airport. Her plane arrived at 5:30 so we stopped on the way home for what turned out to be a nice dinner at the Dark Horse in Dewitt. 

This morning we laid out our plans for the day. We have one lawn mower and two mowing jobs which  had to be coordinated, as did shopping lists. If I got everything on my list done by 4:00 this afternoon it was understood that I was returning to the Lordville Estate, Jean had commitments with our daughter on Thursday and her sister on Friday. A four o'clock departure would give me time to drop off food and clothing at Lordville and be on the stream by seven. All tasks were completed by both Jean and me, (I forgot to get my car washed), by 3:30, spent half an hour congratulating each other on our achievements and I was off.

What' the happs?  - With almost no help from anyone except Ed, who keeps us informed on the BK and the Willow, and Dennis who covers the WB above Deposit, you are relying on a reclusive old fisherman who considers the day a success if he doesn't see a boat or another angler. Never mind what you caught, who fished the drake hatch, when and where. Did anyone find Cornutas? Was anyone run over by a drift boat? Did anyone hook a Mermaid? C'on spill the beans.

Talked with a BK guide three nights ago who said he was killing them on Green Drakes in the BR, I thought that was over about May 28th, then I saw trailers and fishermen at Lordville on Monday? Left Lordville at about 6:15 today and drove up the PA side. There were three cars at Buckingham, at least one of which had a trailer, (saw the boat at Kight's). Stockport had four trailers and about a dozen vehicles. Shehawken looked like the parking lot at the Miami boat show. Drove upstream on route 17 to Hale Eddy, where the NYS DEC is upgrading the parking area (no drift boat access), there was one car in the lot, with an angler in the water downstream with his rod over his shoulder.   

Hale Eddy was clearly the upper limits for boats and wade fishermen at 7:00pm. Drove upstream, got in the water and never saw a boat or fishermen. What did I see? A few Invaris, a few stenos, a few spinners and a few hungry fish willing to look at anything that floated by. I fished both sides of a small island. One side had bugs and some rising fish, the other had nary a bug or rising fish to be seen. 

The fishing - Browns love side channels with deep cut banks, modest flows and overhanging vegetation. The one I fished had all four, and I had it all to my self. Treated the fish I caught with respect, removed the hooks from their mouths with care and sent them on their way. It was a very nice ending to a productive day. Can't understand why no one else was there. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN!

 It's Wednesday night, a fire is going in the fire place, an empty Perfect Manhattan glass is washed and back up on the shelf, 30 shrimp netted from Zane Gray Creek ((did you know that Zane Gray (famous fly fisherman and writer of westerns) was a dentist and that his office is now a museum that you can visit on the Delaware River?)), have been consumed by Jean and me, prior to the three pieces of venison backstrap that traveled from home to Florida and back, an early spring snowstorm is raging outside and most importantly, we're glad to be back home again! With that season opening sentence, Mrs. Haskins has no doubt thrown in the towel and disavowed all responsibility for my literary malfunctions. Run on sentences she could handle, but my never before attempted "double aside" was apparently beyond the pall. I sent her a "Go Duke" banner with apologies and hopefully she will cool off before the fishing heats up. Our trip back home was uneventful. Started at 2
Read more

All my life's a circle.

  Headed down to the Lordville Estate about nine this morning after watching a nice buck decide  not to tend the scrape I was perched above. Drove through Deposit where the Troutfitter Shop was dark and closed for the season. My fishing equipment did not make the trip. Had far too many things to do in the few hours of daylight we are currently being allotted. The doe with two fawns was in the backyard when I arrived and was joined by the orphaned button buck who spends his time either bedded down in my flower garden or walking around under the peach trees looking for the peaches he grew so fond of in September. Arrived with a trailer full of wood hitched to Jean's car (it has the trailer hitch) and spent the first hour replenishing the wood I burned this season. As if by magic both wood piles topped out just below the garage windows. Was interrupted by the button buck who walked up between the house and the garage and stood watching the wood stacking operation. A river friend and f
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 (t
Read more