Maybe It's The Summer Sulfur Season When I Only Have To Write Three Paragraphs.

 Nobody ever accused me of being smart, but today for sure, I was smarter than yesterday. A front blew through two days ago while we were fishing, dropped the temp from 78 to 63, but it stayed in the 60's all night. Never gave the water temp a thought in the morning. Went out, sat streamside on AN OVERCAST, CLOUDY, (I'm being redundant to make a point), day and never saw a bug hatch or a fish rise. Why? 'Cause the air temp doesn't mean manure when it comes to raising water temps, it's the SUNSHINE that counts. The water yesterday, where I was, never got above 46. Today, I woke to bright sunshine and 35 degrees, watched the gauges like a hawk and when a place I wanted to fish got to 48 by 12:30, I left camp, sure there would be fish feeding on the paraleps and Hendricksons.

The bugs - Arrived at 1:45 and there were a few apple caddis popping, but nary a fish stirred, (they knew what was coming), by 2:15 the paralep scouts were on the water, by 2:30 the entire army arrived. They were followed around three, (was too busy to check my phone for the exact time), by what could only be described as a massive Hendrickson hatch. I've fly fished for longer than most of you have been born, I've seen heavier Ephron hatches, ()Rick at the Syracuse Troutfitter was with me for one), but when the clouds came the water was covered with bugs, when the sun came out, you needed to close your mouth, they were under my glasses, in my ears, up my nose, and down my shirt. 

The fishing? Lets be real here. What chance does one fly have of being eaten if there are thousands upon thousands of flies on the water to choose from and the one you want eaten has a hook sticking out of its keister, and the wind is never blowing less that 15, and often 20? Actually, reasonably good. Your fly, no matter how exquisitely tied, (sorry Jim N.) is different from the real things, and unless it's tail is caught under the bend in the hook, being different attracts attention and attention often mean success, (just ask Madonna). 

How'd I do? At 2:30, I hadn't even made a cast. At 4:30 I was back in the car, (a 20 minute walk for an old person), after first watching unsuccessfully for at least 15 minutes for the next fish to rise. During the hot period, I hooked 12 and landed 9. Almost half were two year olds, (11 to 13 inches), with the biggest landed being a 17 incher.

Just to prove that I'm not as smart as I thought I was at say 3:45, I spent the rest of the day driving around, looking for the 10th fish, even though the air temp had dropped into the low fifties, not a spinners was over the water and the guides had all rowed their sports to the takeouts. 

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