Posted on June 26 2026
It's nine-fifteen and I've been home for over an hour, yesterday I didn't get into the car until 9:37. What happened? Mother nature, the trout, and a guide who apparently thought dropping the anchor no more than 40 FEET below me didn't constitute "low holing". Short term anyways, I'm done praising guides, some are thoughtless, others inconsiderate, and others want to get their sport a fish to ensure a good tip.
Started the day by driving down the river from the route 8 intersection with river road to the town bridge in Deposit and it was packed with fishermen, (sorta like sardines when you peel back the lid on the can). At 1:45 every one of them was standing there waiting for it to happen, (with the cloud cover there's a chance it never did). Drove down stream to Hale Eddy, walked out on the bridge, saw a few Dorothea's in the air and decided to fish. Seldom do I get an ass kicking like I got this afternoon. There were bugs, (quite a few), and rising fish, some of which ate sulfur duns right in front of my nose. Caught an 11 inch brown right off the bat and then for an hour and a half, threw at rising fish without receiving an acknowledgement that I even had a fly on the end of my leader, (the three other anglers fishing there all suffered a similar fate.
Returned to the Lordville Estate and tied some sulfur spinners like the one that worked so well last night. At 7:45 I headed out despite the radar showing rain arriving at 8:00. Arrived streamside in a light rain that steadily increased in intensity. There were bugs on the water and a few fish started to rise. Got a refusal, then hooked a fish just as a guide boat passed behind me, they congratulated me on the hookup, then anchored half a cast away and started throwing at "my" fish. There was a flash of lightning that I might have hoped for an instant, (God forgive me), was meant for their boat. If so it missed. The rain increased in intensity and I reeled it in and headed for the car. Let me make one thing clear, no matter how thoughtless, rude and inconsiderate the guide was, it didn't in any way affect the number of fish I did or didn't catch. Mother nature and the fish shut me down all by themselves.
There were 7 drift boats anchored above the launch at Stilesville. That is problematic.
There’s always going to be good and bad guides. The main problem is there are just too many guides.
I was at Stilesville last week when the big sulfurs were popping. Everyone was pretty courteous except for one drift boat guy who thought he could pull up anchor and row upstream pretty much screwing up the wade guys.Pretty pretty rude.
Sounds like a frustrating fishing day has evolved into guide bashing
I’ve had many guides over the years, some exceptional some marginal some just OK but for the most part they weren’t thoughtless or inconsiderate. There were some I shouldn’t have been guides. Those ones that I wouldn’t hire again. On the other hand. I met some Wade fisherman who were thoughtless and inconsiderate as well
Angler 119- Wow a really tough day. Sorry . JimN- You are on your game. Congrats and good vibrations. Ed
I had a guide anchor about 80 feet away; the river was not that crowded at the time. He said I couldn’t reach the fish he was after; I started casting into his boat and asked his sports how much they were paying him to ruin my fishing. He called me an a-hole and left in a huff.
Mark C
I guess you should have gone to the Beach with your boys…
Sounds like a very frustrating day. Hope things get better today.