Posted on May 28 2025
It was an eventful day, Mark departed for Greensboro at 7:30 this morning. I devoted the day to catching up on yard work. Since the rains came, I have mowed three times and done nothing else. Pruned around the trees and bushes, dug up a deceased apricot tree, turned over the garden and planted the tomato plants, pulled Creeping Charlie out of the Flowering Quince, filled the bird feeders, sprayed weed killer on the new grass I planted on the railroad bank, made a dump run, and fell asleep in the recliner.
Awoke about 3:30 and took a drive, stopped to see Dave at the Troutfitter in Deposit, who said people did well up there over the weekend. Saw a few rises, relatively few fishermen, and almost no boats. Headed east and found the wade fishermen. Every parking spot along the BE and the BK had multiple cars. Drove all the way to Roscoe without finding an empty pool to fish.
The fishing - Fished a run on the lower part of the BE that had a heavy Invaria hatch and rising fish everywhere, just a week ago. Tonight there were green drake husks in the water and some blue sedge egg layers in the air. There were no March Browns, Gray foxes or sulfurs. Thought there would be a good spinner fall, (no wind and warm), there wasn't. What there was, however, were hungry fish willing to at least take a look at anything that floated by them. Had lots of refusals, hooked five or six fish that came undone, several of which might well have been hooked briefly in the body when lingering too long after refusing the fly. I ended up landing eight fish including a 20.5 inch brown that gave me a seemingly endless fight. Did a face-plant walking back to the car in waist high grass that was bare ground the last time I fished there.
Where it's at -The invaria, at least on the freestones have seemingly peaked. Yesterday the guides were fishing mostly between Barking Dog on the WB and Buckingham on the BR. With the flow on the UEB coming down most responsible drifters will leave it to the waders. Saw a lot of Green Drake nymph husks on the BR below Buckingham yesterday and a few husks on the BE down near Hancock today, (today's husks looked like they floated a long way). Green Drake spinners usually return two days after they hatch, (I've yet to see a coffin fly).
Also fished the Willow in the morning and the evening. Nothing doing. Wierd
Angler119- Fished the UWB yesterday . Stopped in to see Dave who said there were still some Hendricksons around. Started at the red barn ( wet, rainy afternoon)and there was a decent hatch of Hendricksons, In varia sulphers and some baetis mixed in Landed 5 browns (3-13”/14”and 2 10”ers) lost 2 fish and missed 4. Met up with Dennis and his friends who were fishing upriver and they had a very good day also. Great fun. Ed
Did ok on the BK and Willow yesterday afternoon. Sporadic March Browns and Sulfurs. Got a nice wild now on the BK, missed a bunch and dropped 2. Stepped in the Willow at the end of the day slotted between two guys who were whipping the water with no success, immediately saw a small splash, and landed an 18” brown on a #14 march brown that I think the fish took for a sulfur. That was pretty sweet!
Angler119’- Sounds like you had a wonderful time fishing with Mark and a 20.5 brown in the net yesterday. Fantastic. I’m also going to give it a try today. Dennis, Hopefully we can link up for a while. Good luck to all. Ed
A119 sounds like a good day on the water. I’ll be heading out today to try my luck. It seems the hatches are starting later but still not lasting very long. I’ll report back tomorrow