At Least The Fish There Were Willing To Eat My Flies.

 After yesterday's lackluster, rain shortened effort, I resolved to do better today. Got to Deposit at 1:30 and drove up to the Red Barn where two cars and two fisherman told the story. Stilesville had five cars and unless I missed someone, an equal number of fishermen. Glassed the water in both places and yes there were sulfurs, but not many, didn't see a single rise. The cedar wax wings, (about a dozen of them), were picking off every sulfur that got airborne. Saw Troutfitter regulars, JF, Mike the Cop, and The Tenant all driving around looking for a reason to fish. I went back to the Lordville Estate and pulled up crabgrass in the backyard.

The good - With the recent high water event, and the relatively normal August temps there may well have been movement of fish from their thermal refuge haunts back to their home pools. Most water temps have peaked at about 70 degrees for the last couple of weeks and that for only an hour or two a day. 

The bad - With over seven inches of rain in July and another three inches already in August the streams are running high. While it helps keep them cool, it makes finding fish, with almost no bugs hatching, a grim task. 

The outlook - While the sulfurs seem to be waning, (it may be a temporary thing due to the warmer rain water), the olives are due to start in numbers sufficient to get the fish up and feeding. Usually the Iso fall hatch cranks up the second half of August and runs through October, but this springs hatch was a bust so I don't know what to think.

The fishing - I'm no quitter. Checked flows and water temps and decided to give the UEB a try. At Harvard it was running at about 300cfs with the temp at 62. Left the fishing camp at 6:00 and drove over only to find the river from East Branch up to Harvard chocolate milk. Above Harvard the water cleared, drove up to Shinhopple without seeing a fish rise, a fisherman, or even a car parked riverside. With time running out I picked a run just above Harvard and waded in. There was what I would usually call a very modest hatch of small olives. Compared to what I've seen downriver on the WB it was spectacular. The UEB is a prolific trout producer, (alas almost all those little trout you see at Long Flat are in big trout bellies before next season). This time of year the youngsters are eight to ten inches long and they were rising everywhere. Also rising were some decent fish and because I had remembered to put my hearing aids in, some that made that glup sound that gets your heart beating a little faster. Caught a nice 17 inch rainbow right off the bat then caught half a dozen fish ranging in size from 8 to 12 inches. It was dark when I heard him, stood still and he rose again this time producing nothing but a little dimple, cast the 15 feet to where he rose and got another little dimple, hooked and the rod bent and nothing moved. He ended up being a fat 19 inch brown that didn't run far but stayed out of the net for what seemed like forever.