Wednesday Morning, You Gave Me No Warning Of What Was To Be - - -

 Today was to be cloudy, (it was), and rainy, (it wasn't). I was hopeful of seeing a few bugs and rising fish before the last hour or two of daylight, and I did. 

Here's the story. Had a date with Vicky at her unisex salon in Deposit at 12:30. Arrived five minutes early and got the seat with the scissors, no waiting. Finished up by 12:45, (the top takes almost no time at all), and stopped to chat with David at the Troutfitter. The motel business has been good but the fishermen have abandoned the tailwaters in favor of the freestones and the shop business has slowed as a result.

Drove down to the Men's Club seeing but one boat anchored at the sewage treatment plant and not a single wade fisherman. It was dead at the Hale Eddy bridge and there was nary a boat or wade fisherman to be seen on my drive down 17 all the way to Hancock. At four o'clock I decided it was time to fish or cut bait. Waded out into the Lordville riff knowing that isos have been hatching there for about a week. Saw a fish boil and made several cast to him with no response. Another fish gave me a hard refusal, then a nice rainbow ate my iso, jumped once and came right at me. Never was able to set the hook before he was gone. Probably saw no more than half a dozen isos hatch but did see two more "iso takes", both fish chose to ignore my fly. Moved to a place further upstream, saw but one iso on the water and two non-iso rises, one of which gave my iso a big boil refusal. Reeled it in and headed for the lower WB only to find the PA shockers were doing their thing. Went up route 191, over the WB bridge and headed up the EB to a place that was full of fish last spring. Never saw a bug on the water or a rising fish. Stopped at Junction Pool on the way back to Lordville and had a nice chat with Dennis G another Octogenarian who loves to fish wet flies and has been doing about the same as I have. A boat on the far side hooked a fish in the WB water while we talked, there wasn't a single rise on the EB side.

It was a skunking, no excuses and long overdue. 

Just hope the guys that are on there way here hoping to catch monster browns and hot rainbows take in the beautiful scenery and realize that every river has its ups and downs, and are fortunate enough to luck into a trophy fish, after all the fish are somewhere between the banks and you never know.  

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