Great Days Seldom Come Two In A Row.

 

Had no trouble sleeping last night after the morning, afternoon , and evening fishing sessions. Didn't get out of bed until 7:45, and with the prediction of bright sunshine, decided to do a split day. Walked out in the yard after breakfast to pick some peaches and my neighbor asked me when we were going to do the fence repair job he had volunteered to help on. I said how about today, and the morning fishing was cancelled. Been making excuses for not doing the job all summer and now I wonder why. It took less than two hours, spent time with a nice young man, and I think we both walked away feeling like we had accomplished something.

I never mind driving along the river looking for rising fish, but when I left the fishing camp at 2:30 in the bright afternoon sun, I didn't really expect to see any, and I didn't. Stopped at the Troutfitter and chatted with David, Anthony and a Troutfitter regular who told to us about his most recent Atlantic Salmon fishing trip up in Canada. He is also a mushroom hunter and left the shop to wander around the yard and see what mushrooms David had mowed down since his last visit.  

The fishing - Flyfishing is what it is. I always hesitate to give come or don't come recommendations. Yesterdays clouds let some olives hatch in the afternoon and I had the good fortune to find fish looking for them. In the evening I was in the right place at the right time, (even if I made a mess of it), and had a really good day. Today, the fence got repaired, and I saw no feeding fish in the the bright sun this afternoon. About 5:30 I decided to drive east on route 17, and try a place on the EB. Since my last visit in June, things had changed. Did a Fred Astaire worthy dance coming down a steep mud coated bank, (remember the flood just a few days ago), in my felt bottomed wading booties, and waded out into a riff that I had never seen before. The flood waters had moved tons of gravel and rocks to form new bars and channels. With no bugs, I was blind casting, and the old spots held no fish, but the new ones did. It wasn't sensational but it was good. There were fish looking for something to eat and they weren't fussy, until I got within casting distance of the far bank and four fish in a row refused my fly. Why? Someone had recently fished it. Got looks, but not "tooks" from fish I presume had been recently hooked by another angler. Caught four good solid 15 inchers and lost two of the same ilk in what was a pleasant two hours of fishing. 

Note - To Dennis and others, check real time water temps before you go, (DRC and WBA have links to the relevant sites and you should have them in a folder on your PC, iPad or phone. Bring a thermometer with you. If the water temp is under 70, it's OK to fish. With high water and no rocks showing the streams don't heat up fast. When the stream levels drop and the sun hits the rocks, temps can zoom up. In the bright sunshine today the BK shot up 8 degrees. The sun is lower in the sky now and the nights are longer, but it's still August. Early in the morning the temps are lowest, just before dark, the fishing is best. The fish have started to return to their home pools but it will be a while before the fish are all where they were last May. Don't be in too much of a rush, the best olive hatches are in the cold WB water, you just have to be there when they happen.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Had To Get Out The Neosporin For The Tooth Cuts On My Index Finger.

  To say the Delaware  is a hard river to figure is an understatement. Yesterday was an overcast day that had fishermen thinking olives. Turned out the water was probably too warm for olives and too cold for sulfurs, in short, a dud. Today the air temp was a little cooler, (I think), with a mix of sun and clouds and the sulfurs, (both yesterdays and todays), hatched. The fish? At least where I was, went nuts, threw caution to the wind, and ate everything that came down their feeding lane, both with and without hooks. Heard from two sources that the sulfur hatch at the red barn was also very good today. If my last report on the red barn sulfurs was erroneous, blame it on Ed who has been in Hawaii for the last two weeks, (hence no reliable red barn reports). The fishing mid-day was so good, and the number of fishermen in the "Zone", (it's Friday afternoon), so high, that I decided to fish down river during the evening hours. Fished a pool in the middle section from 6:30 unt
Read more

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

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