It wasn't as bad as they said it was, but it probably will be.

Drove out to Dayton Ohio to watch our granddaughter play three volleyball games against teams from different conferences. There are about 30 division one conferences and there is a pecking order among them. All three opponents were in conferences higher in the food chain. How do I know? By the height of the hitters and middle blockers. Our granddaughters team sends three six footers out on the court. Two of the teams had at least two players between 6' 4" and 6' 6". They played well and won a five set match and lost two matches that went four sets. Jack, there were maybe 900 (no comma and two missing zeros short of Nebraska's crowd) in attendance. Spending time with our daughter, her husband and our granddaughter was priceless. The drive out and back totaled a little under 1,200 miles. Arrived at the Lordville Estate Saturday night about ten and we were making peach jam (21 jars) by 1:30 Sunday. Then to prove we weren't quitters (or maybe how stupid we are) we canned 24 jars of peaches. It was after the cleanup that we realized that, just maybe, we aren't as young as we used to be (you never are).

Awoke this morning early, carried the jam and peaches down to the basement, paid the bills, packed the car and headed down to the Lordville Estate  Left at 8:00 hoping to beat the Labor Day traffic and I did. With bright sun and a predicted high near ninety I decided to mow the lawn and take care of  camp chores before going fishing.

The fishing - Not having fished since last Tuesday and only once in the last nine days, I had no idea what (if anything) was happening or where to go. With the thermometer on the porch at 90, I decided, reluctantly, to head up to Deposit. Ran into three of the "Sulfur Zone" regulars and and an unemployed guide, all said I hadn't missed a thing. Drove up to Stilesville and there wasn't a single angler from the Stilesville bridge to the sewage treatment plant below Deposit. There were two boats and two waders from there to the bend below the Men's Club. At 6:00 I was heading for the lower WB when I stopped at a pool and saw some fish rising. Put on the waders and fished to rising fish from 6:00 'til 8:00 in a hatch that intensified as the time went by.

The water is silt laden and the wads of algae are worse than ever. Neither seems to affect the fish. They still eat bugs and refuse flies with hooks in them. However, the fishing was far better than I expected. In two hours of fishing I hooked eleven fish and landed seven (the total includes a 5" fingerling brown and a 9 inch rainbow) but I did land three fourteen inch browns and a twelve inch rainbow. Lost four fish and three flies. One fly on a spin out and two that broke due to the algae. 

With the hot sunny weather that is predicted for the next few days the prospects do not look good. The water levels are fine but the freestone will probably all top70 degrees tomorrow and each day thereafter until the weather breaks. Stay home, I'll do the heavy lifting and let you know when things are looking up.