If You're Coming, Better Bring A Second Shirt.

 

It was an olive kinda day to be sure. Overcast with an on again, off again, all day drizzle. The sulfurs didn't like it, yes there were a few around, but not nearly enough to get the fish up and gulping. The olives? Were late to the party. Some pseudos were around during the afternoon but it wasn't until the front started pushing through with winds around fifteen that they hatched enough to get fish up.

 Arrived in Deposit about 12:45 and departed at 2:00 having seen but one sulfur and one fish rise, (not for the sulfur I saw). Drove east all the way to the Willow, which was at a perfect level and clear as a bell. Never saw a bug or rising fish there, so I turned the car around and headed back. The BK was up to about 600cfs but was quite clear down to Horton. From Horton down to Jaws it was quite "stained" as some like to say. The UEB was still muddy at the Sunoco station  and the EB below Jaws got muddier the farther down you went. The BR was brownish orange and high. The high muddy water is from the downpour that hit yesterday afternoon between Hancock and Roscoe. The water is already dropping and should clear the system tomorrow. Never saw a rising fish from the time I left Deposit until my return at 4:00.

The fishing - Drove up route 8 and came down River road. Saw a few sulfurs and rising fish above and below the Stilesville parking area. There were but two fishermen in that area and one lonesome angler in the red barn pool. No mystery how everyone did this past weekend. Suited up and walked upstream from the Stilesville lot. In an hour and a half I hooked three fish, landing two 13 inch browns. A merganser dove and chased the second fish all over the river. I thought he had the fish in his mouth but the fish was unmarked when I landed it. By 5:30 the wind had picked up and the hatch had petered out. Drove downstream and found an empty pool in the lower part of the river. For two hours the wind blew olives past me at a good fifteen mph, while the fish fed on those unable to get airborne. Hooked and landed a long, thin 20 inch brown right off the bat, and then caught mostly yearlings. Wind gusts did not help my presentation. Lost a nice rainbow of about 17 inches and did land a 14 inch brown just before I quit.  

The week is shaping up to be quite chilly with a mix of clouds and sun. The entire river system should be in play by Wednesday and there should be olives in the mid to late afternoons.

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