Not Every Fishing Report Is Lucky Enough To Have It's Own Joe Btfsplk.

Was taken by surprise when I looked at the stream flows this morning, either the weatherman forgot to mention that the river system would get an inch of rain yesterday, or, I forgot to look at the forecast. At any rate, the only part of the system that could be comfortably waded this morning was the UEB, yes you could get in the Willow and Neversink, but neither fishes well a todays levels.

So, I decided to take a tour. People are so obsessed with the Delaware and it's trib's that lots of little streams get ignored. Drove east, either caught up with yesterday's rain, or found some that the weatherman wasn't talking about. Saw a lot of little brook trout streams, half a dozen waterfalls, several lakes/reservoirs with tiny camps side by side million dollar second homes, and two buck deer standing beside the road with horns just starting to grow. Never saw a fisherman, a rise, or for that matter, even a bug hatch. Crossed the Neversink, Willow, BK, BE without seeing more than a dozen fishermen, mostly all on the bank. And then - - - , (did this to keep the paragraph from being too long).

Drove back 17 all the way to Deposit, (stopping only for gas), where I found at 5:30, (long past Hendrickson time), no fishermen, no boats, no bugs, and no rising fish. Went down the PA side and there was one car in the upper gamelands lot, 0 cars in the lower gamelands lot, 25 trailers at Balls Eddy, 6 trailers, (some had taken out and left), at Shehawken, 2 trailers at Stockport, 5 trailers at Buckingham. and neither a trailer or car at Lordville.

The bugs/fishing - First rise I saw all day was at the DRC pool, (saw two), next rises were at Buckingham, where three fishermen were trying to reach rising fish from shore, (at 4500/5000cfs you can't even set foot in the stream there. Drove down to Lordville, walked up on the bridge, and saw some rises that I was sure were fall fish. Drove down under the bridge, crossed, (had my waders on since I left the estate), Humphrey's Brook, made two casts, hooked two rainbows, (13 and 15), and for once, knew when to quit. 

The outlook - Wait for the water to get to a comfortable level for wading, then get here. The Hendricksons will be arriving in Deposit as soon as the water temps get above 50, and the freestones are coming out of the doldrums. If only it would stop raining.

Ed J. - Welcome back! With just one fact laden paragraph, you single handedly righted a ship that was  listing badly to port from too many commenters leaning over the gunwale, (or gunnel if you prefer), trying to reach the fish on the left bank.

 I personally agree with your thoughts on the DRC's excessive use of a pictorial display of two and three year old fish, (a blatant attempt to fill both motel rooms and drift boat seats). That said, however, no matter how long the arms of the successful anglers were, there are two or three pictures of really large fish that show up in their photo gallery almost every day.

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