Sunshine On The Water Looks So Lovely - - -

With the smoke again blocking the sun and turning the Catskills into the "Blue" Ridge Mountains, there was no need to hurry to Deposit. Without the sun's rays, the water took much longer to heat up and there was little to no bug activity before 1:30. Spent a pleasant hour streamside talking with a local guide and three other senior citizen fishermen. By a little after 2:00 both the bugs and fish were going and I left to try and catch one.

There were lots of bugs on the water and lots of fish all eating sulfur nymphs subsurface. I hooked but one fish during the apex of the hatch, as most of my casts were totally ignored. It wasn't until the hatch had slowed down that some fish started to look up. When they did I could suddenly fish again. Cast at five fish I saw feeding on the surface, hooked four and was refused by the fifth.

After the hatch I circled back up to the Red Barn, three fishermen in the water, with a few Dorotheas in the air, didn't see a rise. At Stilesville there were but two fishermen, the last of the Invarias and I did see one fish rise. By next week the Dorotheas will probably have the fish up feeding all the way to Cold Springs Brook and the circus will be on again. Drove back to Lordville to rest up before the evening hatch/spinner fall.

Departed the fishing camp promptly at seven without a clue where I would fish. The smoke has complicated matters by preventing the sun from warming the water like it normally does. The hatch was about two hours late this afternoon. Would there be a hatch tonight, if so, how far down river would it be? The answer turned out to be easy. No hatch at least from Stilesville to the Men's Club. Perhaps someone floating, say to Dream Catcher's, might have had some rising fish, but I sure didn't. Made for an early quit.