Posted on June 14 2019
Fourth straight day with high winds. When the wind blows like it did today, morning spinner falls are taken off the menu. Any meaningful dry fly fishing during the mid afternoon period has to be done in places protected by windward hills or steep banks. Even then gusts blow both up and down the river seemingly at the same time. It has only been in the last hour or two of daylight that the wind has "laid down" and allowed anglers to cast with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Fortunately the last couple of hours of daylight has had bug hatches, spinner falls and feeding fish.
It was calm this morning when I headed out back to again try to catch my first fish this season in the Lordville riff. By the time I got in the water the "breeze" had picked up and within 15 minutes it was blowing a good twenty. I did, however, catch my first Lordville riff fish (a 9 inch rainbow) before heading back to camp.
Drove to the UE for the afternoon fishing in hopes of finding both shelter from the wind and a sulfur hatch. There was no shelter from the wind but there were invaria hatching and fish rising. Unfortunately they were eating emerging black caddis. I hate caddis but yesterday, with black caddis all over my screens (and one on the butter dish) I decided to tie up a few. They worked, sorta. Given the wind and a parade of 11 kayakers (God love em they all tried to stay out of the way), there were lots of refusals, a broken off fish and maybe just one or two harsh words, but I caught a few fish under something less than ideal circumstances.
About 7:45 the wind did as it was told and died down, the spinners appeared (both caddis and mayflies) and as if by magic, the fish fed. Unfortunately, not on spinners. After a frustrating hour, I abandoned both caddis and mayfly spinners and put on a small emerger - which worked.
The daily catch rate this week did not compare with that of memorial day week but the hourly catch rate was stupendous. When everything is condensed into a couple of hours of fishing all kinds of unexpected things happen. Thank God no one is there to film the debacle. Stopped at the drug store for a tube of Neosporin for the cuts incurred taking hooks out of trout mouths without using the disgorger. Stopped at the Troutfitter in Deposit to buy more of the Cortland Ultra Premium fluorocarbon tippet (it is expensive but it's simply the best I've ever used). Need to replace the lithium battery in my flashlight. Need to patch a hole in my waders and need to tie a dozen and a half new flies.
It was calm this morning when I headed out back to again try to catch my first fish this season in the Lordville riff. By the time I got in the water the "breeze" had picked up and within 15 minutes it was blowing a good twenty. I did, however, catch my first Lordville riff fish (a 9 inch rainbow) before heading back to camp.
Drove to the UE for the afternoon fishing in hopes of finding both shelter from the wind and a sulfur hatch. There was no shelter from the wind but there were invaria hatching and fish rising. Unfortunately they were eating emerging black caddis. I hate caddis but yesterday, with black caddis all over my screens (and one on the butter dish) I decided to tie up a few. They worked, sorta. Given the wind and a parade of 11 kayakers (God love em they all tried to stay out of the way), there were lots of refusals, a broken off fish and maybe just one or two harsh words, but I caught a few fish under something less than ideal circumstances.
About 7:45 the wind did as it was told and died down, the spinners appeared (both caddis and mayflies) and as if by magic, the fish fed. Unfortunately, not on spinners. After a frustrating hour, I abandoned both caddis and mayfly spinners and put on a small emerger - which worked.
The daily catch rate this week did not compare with that of memorial day week but the hourly catch rate was stupendous. When everything is condensed into a couple of hours of fishing all kinds of unexpected things happen. Thank God no one is there to film the debacle. Stopped at the drug store for a tube of Neosporin for the cuts incurred taking hooks out of trout mouths without using the disgorger. Stopped at the Troutfitter in Deposit to buy more of the Cortland Ultra Premium fluorocarbon tippet (it is expensive but it's simply the best I've ever used). Need to replace the lithium battery in my flashlight. Need to patch a hole in my waders and need to tie a dozen and a half new flies.
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