Got Back To The Fishing Camp, Turned On The Yard Light, And Midges Swarmed Around It.

 

Back at the Lordville Estate after a little longer break than usual. Had an MRI scheduled for 3:15 this afternoon. If they were behind schedule there was no way I would have driven down. Was in the machine listening to Little Eva do the locomotion, (not in time with the banging of the machine), along with several other songs of the sixties. Was in the car at 3:45, home before 4:15, and unloading the car in Lordville at 6:15. Talked with David on the way down and he said there were heavy hatches of those pesky little olives both days this weekend. Said there were fish up everywhere. I asked if the fishermen caught any, and he said, "Enough to make them happy, some even stayed an extra day". The conversation ended abruptly when I drove through a cut in the rocks on the way to Castle Creek.

Left the camp at about 6:30 and headed up the PA side, it was breezy and I wrote off Buckingham when I drove down to the ramp and saw the waves. Stopped at Shehawken and watched a guy clean a fish, "The rivers full of fish", he said, I thought, "One less than there used to be". The water there was still high, it's narrow and I think it fishes best in low water. Picked a wider spot up river where the sun was behind some dark clouds. Was treated to a beautiful unbroken half circle rainbow. Never gave a thought about taking my camera/phone out. 

The bugs - There were a few of the little olives hatching, saw some of the bigger 18 olives with the upright black wings and nothing else until some of the little olive spinners started to float by.

The fishing -  There were no rising fish when I got there, finally spotted a half dozen fish sipping along the far shore, the wind had layed down and my fly line, (which I reversed over the weekend), was not only floating again but the cracks in the coating were no longer chinking, (if that's a word), through the guides. The new leader also layed out like it was supposed to. Made what I thought was a good cast to a rising fish that let it go by, but the fish 8 feet down stream ate the fly with relish. (Note to newbies - the key here is to act like that was the fish you were casting to all along, never act surprised, just a smug "got'em", will impress everyone in sight.) Back to the fish that ate- he jumped three times right in the middle of the rising fish, (they didn't rise again), and then went on a couple of good runs. When he started to tire, I reached for my net, (which I had left in the car when I brought my vest into the house to sort through flies this weekend), it was of course, still in the car. Immediately made and signed an executive order, "If I touch the fish, it counts as a caught fish". Played the fish carefully and slid him across the water to me. Picked him up easier than getting him out of the net. A seventeen inch brown.

Then all went quiet, the fish that were rising were quelled. I finally turned to head back to the car  and there were fish rising everywhere. Groups of three and four fish no more than 15 feet away from me. Couldn't put them down, couldn't get them to even look at my littlest flies. Turned on my flashlight, and yes there were spinners on the water, but the tiny little things that swarmed around the light were midges, the dread of all Delaware dry fly fishermen. Said screw it, put on a yellow drake, hooked three fish, actually hand landed an 18 inch rainbow, and a 16 inch rainbow,  lost the last fish, a smaller rainbow after two good runs.