Posted on July 18 2025
It's been three weeks since the groin pull and last night was the first full night's sleep that I've had. It felt great. After yesterdays yard work blitz I decided to concentrate on the back porch. Vacuumed up dead bugs, filled the wood pile and prepared things for the "Home Defense" spry I'll do tomorrow. One spray in the fall and another mid-summer keeps the porch spider free, reduces the spiders inside and keeps the carpenter ants under control.
The bugs - I've mentioned before that I usually turn on the three spotlights that light up the back yard when I get home from fishing. If I don't, the bugs find a way to get onto the porch and are attracted to the slider because of the lights in the kitchen. Sometimes I leave them on all night to see what bugs are hatching on the BR. Except for possibly some tricos, the only bugs to be seen anywhere on the system during daylight hours are the sulfurs and olives in the zone. Last night, within 30 seconds of turning on the lights there were hundreds, if not thousands of bugs swarming around the lights. Left the lights on all night and in the morning the screens were covered with flies. A couple dozen Cahill's, two isos, a Dobson fly, several stone flies, at least half a dozen different kinds of caddis, and dozens of other bugs, some big, most very small that I just couldn't identify. I wonder when the BR fish are feeding.
Made good on my promise not to take the drive up to Deposit. Tied a few flies using models I picked off the screen this morning. Did a difficult LA times crossword puzzle and at three thirty laid down on the bed and fell asleep, woke up at 6:00. Hopefully I'm now caught up on sleep. Decided to have dinner before fishing, ate, did the dishes, and set out to fish at 7:15, knowing full well that I was over an hour too early.
The fishing - First stop found three cars parked where none have been for the past two weeks, drove on. Second stop was at a bridge where there were no cars, no fishermen, seemingly no bugs and one rising trout. Waded out, waited for him to rise, he was eating size 22 olives, and on the third cast of my smallest olive, a nice 15/16 inch brown ate, was hooked, jumped, ran upstream, caught the leader, (still 7x) on some underwater object, and was gone. Time elapsed from take until freedom not more than five seconds, but it was exciting. Pulled hard on the line expecting to break the 7x but I got my fly back with a badly frayed piece of seven x.
Left the bridge and arrived at a spot I haven't fished since high water a month ago. It was 8:15, still too early. Fished my little olive, (now on 6x), for 15/20 minutes, cast to two rises and got no response. Gave both fish a one digit salute that let them know what I thought of them, and moved up into a flat water pool.
It's now time. Saw a few fish rising and put two of them down before getting into casting range, (the water was about 8 inches deep). Moved more slowly, and was able to cast at a rising fish within 30 feet of me, it was a hard fighting 17 inch rainbow. Moved to a group of three risers and hooked the downstream fish, (I'm working upstream), it was a 16 inch brown. The two other fish continued to rise but both ignored my offerings.
On the way back to shore I threw over the backs of three more rising fish. Even in the dark I got two refusals, the 9 incher ate.
Fished the WB Monday through Thursday. Sulphurs and Olives were the only bugs. Chased out of Stilesville by storms on Monday. Not a good day. Floated Tuesday and Wednesday. Tough fishing but we got some really nice fish out of some obscure spots and some popular spots. Our offerings were often ignored but occasionally we’d get one to eat a small sulphur or olive pattern. Yesterday the wind won. I don’t have the casting skills to throw 12’ feet of leader with a size 20 sulphur in wind like that. I learned that I hate fishing in fog. I was reminded how WB trout can be found in a lot of places you would never expect to find a trout hanging out. The trout ignore far more sulphurs than they eat. I was really surprised at the absence of caddis.
Deep in the throes of COVID, waded the lower WB, stayed out until dark. hardly any bugs, maybe a handful of sulphurs, some psuedos. A feew splashy rises, some fish coming completely out of the water. Every fish coming up seemed to be 10" or less. It reminds me of when the 12U teams are slotted on the ice after the AAA practice at 9:00PM.
2 splashy takes, nothing there when I set the hook, probably due to the fish being too small to eat the fly. It’s that time of year!
We are down for the weekend. Fished yesterday afternoon around the gentlemen’s club. We had a good hatch from 1-3 with fish up consistently. I was able to fool a nice 19” fish and came unstuck on another. We had set back out around 7 just downstream, the wind made it difficult but when it laid down, there were bugs and fish taking them. It was happening by 7:30 on the upper WB