Posted on July 19 2024
Have gotten into the habit of checking the wind direction by looking at the windmills on the hills NW of Deposit. After facing us the first three days this week, (SW wind), they turned their backs to us today, ( NW wind). It also is helpful to check the smokestack that is always belching out white smoke near the Deposit exit , to get an idea of how hard the wind is blowing. Today it was in the 10mph range with gusts a bit higher, manageable, but annoying. With the wind direction and velocity established, the next thing to know is what the barometer is doing. This one is easy, when a low is pushed out by a high pressure area, the barometer rises and, (at least today), neither the fish rise nor the bugs hatch.
This morning I had to mow the lawn, which included driving the mower at the deer to get them out of the way under the cling peach tree. Hundreds of peach pits are on the ground along with branches the SOB's have jumped up and pulled down, and enough deer "droppings" to ensure green grass and big peaches for years to come.
The fishing - Was tough, the wind didn't make it easy, and the lack of bugs, (surprising after the monster hatch just two days ago), didn't help, but it's well known that the first day of high pressure is better spent crossing off items on the honey do list. Today was no exception. Trout just don't like to rise when the first day of high pressure rolls in. Hopefully, tomorrow things will return to normal, bugs will hatch and fish will rise, but understand, the fish are getting harder to fool every day.
Note - Yesterday, I called out a guide for his behavior. Fifteen years ago it was the norm. Today, it's the exception. Guides consistently go out of their way not to interfere with your fishing. A tip of the cap to all the considerate ones who are rowing the extra mile so as not to interfere with anyone's fishing.
Thanks for the updates and critical info on everything
A119 – thank you for the important reminder of high-pressure impact upon Trout [and all fish for that matter]. Apparently the volume of gas in swim bladders can cause fish to become less active. I have ignored this many times and deservedly come up empty on hook ups in spite of the fact that the day before may have been very productive.
I’ll have to remember not to fish the day after a cold front goes through. Too much wind where I was and very few fish feeding on top even though there were plenty of sulphurs for a time. The flies were being blown all over the water.
Landed one dink, broke one off and stung another one and that was it for the afternoon. Because of the wind I decided not to hang around for the evening. I only saw one other small fish caught where I was.
Crazy day. Hatch yesterday on upper WB on schedule at noon. Could not catch a fish! Noted that the “false charges, bumps, “take and spit outs” were only a few versus last week when I had easily more than a dozen. Major hatch over by 1:30PM with dibbles of flies still floating down with the occasional random rise till 5PM. A fellow who is local whom I know did catch a nice 17 incher and another small one but otherwise none for us. -Had to check out his tied sulphur. Very different from any I have ever seen.
After sandwich and a nap, hit the river at 6PM. The hatch was beginning. (BTW, besides my friend earlier in the day, the river had no one else in sight on it!) Walked up stream to the faster part of the run and saw what would best be described as a pod of large fish feeding aggressively in the faster water. Within three casts with my sulphurs, (I always use two of different sizes), I was fighting a large rainbow that jumped three times, fought for few minutes and then got off. Two casts later a large trout jumped on my fly, (an aggressive take), and within a split second raced for the far shore and he and my 5X parted company. It felt like I had hooked a brick before he was gone. Decided to add an Iso as a “dropper” to my sulphur and within a few casts landed a 15 inch brown. Couple dozen casts later a 14 inch rainbow-and then the action stopped even though the hatch was building.
Walked down stream to the main run where the hatch was in full bloom. Landed a few small trout on the Sulphur. Had a bunch of hits on the Iso but no connects. Fished till 8 PM. Hard to leave as the number of fish and size feeding was impressive.