You're Too Late, Baby.

 

With the Hancock temperature at 47 degrees this morning there was no hurry to get on the river for the trico spinner fall. Had a leisurely breakfast, read the paper and at 9:30 set out for the UEB. Car thermometer had the temperature still in the 50's until Fish's Eddy and it never got over 61 on my drive up to Shinhoppel and back. Back? Yep, every spot where you can park to fish the trico hatch had at least one car in it. By the thermometer I was early, but the parking spots filled with cars silently said you're too late. 

Headed back to the Lordville Estate, did the breakfast dishes and decided to go out in the riff and give it a try. Now days you seldom get a chance to fish a spot before anyone else, (every boat covers miles of "spots" each day). Waded in and saw some small caddis hatching, also saw an iso, never saw a rise until I was crossing back to the NY side, and not one, but two fish rose just upstream from me. Tried both the caddis and the iso, got nary a sniff. What I did do is find a small pocket in the riff where a precocious yearling and two stunted two year olds were hanging out. Hooked and landed a rainbow just short of  13 inches, lost one of similar size, and hooked and landed a 9 incher. Clearly the big fish moved out of the riff during the summer and have not yet returned.

Rested on my laurels, (don't try it, both the small of your back and knees will stiffen up and you will find it hard to even walk), until a little after 5:00pm, when I headed out to try to find the evening hatch.  Was torn between two places, one above the Sherman Creek Bridge and one below it. Was not more than three minutes from the place above the bridge and at least fifteen minutes from the place below it. However, the bridge is being rebuilt and it seems the road has been closed since before I was eligible  for social security. So, to fish the place not three minutes away, you have to make an illegal left hand turn on 17, drive to Deposit, then go almost all the way back down to the Hale Eddy bridge. Turns out I was glad I did.

The fishing - Right now you need a rasp, file, sandpaper and an emery board to hone your skills fine enough to catch the WB trout. Found several trout dimpling in a slow water pool, put them down with what I thought were good casts, got out the sandpaper, and fished to a couple of fish sipping smut off the surface, got ignored, out came the emery board and a size twenty two olive, hooked and landed a 17 inch rainbow and a 12 inch brown. Heading back downstream towards the car, a small olive spinner fooled two fifteen inchers one a brown, the other a bow. Didn't mind the climb back up to the car one bit. 

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