This, That, And The Other Thing.

Said good-by to Mark this morning, spent an hour or so lending order to the Lordville Estate, packed the dirty clothes and two bags of trash in the car and headed for home. It was a good, but not great, week of fishing. Long time readers know I try to find rising fish away from the armada of drift boats that congregate where the bug hatch is at its peak. This year I've struggled a bit finding good hatches on the BK for sure, and to some extent the BR  and EB. Some of the problem has been high water that made wade fishing the BR and EB impossible until the last ten days. My inability to find good hatches this year on the BK is concerning.

Whenever I've found a good hatch of flies, there have been large fish up eating them. There seems to be a disproportionately small number of two year old browns, so the average fish size is bigger than normal. Either it takes me longer to land the bigger fish or the hatches are of short duration, because they seem to be over almost before I've had a chance to even get warmed up.

Looked back through the last couple weeks of comments and found some questions that I'll try to answer here.

Harry L. - Notes that I seem to pass by pools where there are no rising fish and wants to know if you can catch fish blind casting in those pools. I'm passing by pools with no rising fish because at this time of year there are almost always bugs hatching and fish rising somewhere and I'm trying to find them. Fish live by eating and avoiding predators. A well presented fly is almost always given a look.

Dennis - Asked about cold weather affecting fishing, when evening fishing starts, and what a blue sedge is. Cold weather early in the year slows nymph maturation, and on a day to day basis will delay a hatch if that particular bug's hatching hatching temp is not reached. Evening fishing can happen any time when the air temp is high enough for the bugs to fly. Many nights this spring the temp has dropped to levels too low for their motors to operate, (had frost this morning at Lordville). The blue sedge, (called a black caddis by many) is a large black caddis that usually hatches a few days before the green drakes. It can often be seen just above the water line on your waders when hatching, and in the air flying upstream to mate and die.

Jim N. - Asked for tips on fishing in the dark.  It's interesting to note his priorities, Jim was able to produce for a fellow commentor, the formula of A-119's Perfect Manhattan which was posted several years ago, yet seems to have no recall of the article on fishing in the dark. On that subject three things are worthy of note - First, when casting into what appears to be black water, (away from the western sky), I tie on a yellow fly, (sulfur, Cahill or even a green drake). Second, when fishing into the silver, mirror like water, (facing the western sky), I use either a large olive or an Iso. Third, when you are able to fish upstream into the western sky, (think the WB and BR), you can often see rises. Cast the fly upstream right through the middle of the rise ring and let the fly drift back down to the fish. Anyone who does #3 and catches a fish, please let me know, (it really works).

Brian - You said the DRC pool is the "Home Pool", help me out, every one has a "home pool" mine is in Lordville, do you live or work at the DRC? How is it "the home pool"?

Steve - Last year two rattlers were run over in downtown Lordville in May. Usually I don't see them until July. With the cold weather we've had, I'll bet it'll be July before I see any this year.