Posted on May 13 2023
After eight days at the fishing camp, I'm ready to head home. I'll need a fork lift to get the laundry bag into the car, I'm a wee bit tired and I miss Jean.
The week has been a bit disappointing because of the high water which limited wade fishing opportunities but the float trips with Mark during which he was introduced to the Delaware's big fish made it special.
Wasn't even going to fish today but went out at six and found an empty pool in the lower WB that I felt would have feeding fish. It did, however, the fish were not eating Hendrickson and caddis spinners like I expected (there weren't any). The rises (and there were a lot of them) were the subsurface boils of fish feeding on something in the water column.
The fishing - There was no wind and lots of feeding fish. Had no luck getting the fish to look up at Hendricksons or spinners. It wasn't until I saw the much smaller paraleps on the water that things turned around. Fish started sipping on the surface and a good many of the sips were for my smallest paraleps. The browns were no trouble (2/3) but the rainbows had my number (3/10). As usual when I'm into a bunch of rising fish, I wanted to catch them all. Made good casts with a fly the fish were willing to eat and they did. But you just can't rush a rainbow. The tiny flies, their delicate mouths, fast runs and twisting jumps, made my futile efforts to rush them into the net yet another lesson on the virtue of patience.
Saw my first fox coming home on 97 by the Cow Lick. He was running along the edge of the road on what appeared to be four good legs.
Thanks for the invaluable reminder about the delicate mouths of rainbows, which made me feel much better about my poor hook-to-land ratio.
But I’m also going to start carrying a wider, deeper net I’ve haven’t used for many moons, since my current one is proving too narrow and shallow for scooping and holding rainbows full of piss and vinegar. Tight Lines!