West Branch Report 8/22-8/25

[flyman23]

Hit the West Branch this past weekend. It was some tough fishing. Everyone I spoke to was having a slow time of it. Fished hard the whole weekend, had some hits, missed a few and landed 2 small rainbows. Monday morning before we left I went out and finally managed a nice 17" brown. Some bugs and only saw a few sporatic risers. The highlight of the trip was that my wife, who just stated flyfishing, landed a nice West Branch rainbow.

On a down side, I went to hit a spot I know where I never see to many people and usually manage to get into some fish. When we pulled up, in the parking area was a beat up old suv and an old short school bus converted into some kind of half assed RV. There were 6 guys fishing salmon eggs and worms and told us that they have been coming there every weekend. I might add that they were keeping what they caught. Now at the risk of sounding like an elitist flyfisher, I really belive that the Delaware system should be artifictial lure, single hook, catch and release. I mean in this area of the country, where there are not many places that you can catch a wild fish, much less a trout of the size and strength of these, I think it could be managed better. Water flows included. I have no problem with someone keeping fish but there are hundreds of places you can go and catch stocked fish that are put there for that purpose. Oh well, enough of my rant.

On a more interesting note, for the first time we saw 3 bald eagles. That was a thrill. Coming back form fishing the gamelands the one evening, a large black bear crossed the path about 25 yards in front of us. Well, I know the theory on what to do when encountering a bear and all went well, however, I must say we were glad to get back to the truck.

Know I'm going to concentrate on tying up some salmon flies.