Mainstem float report 9.5.2009

[dcabarle]

I haven't fished or floated in well over a month. The trip to Montana with that lame ass outfitter in Twin Bridges, kinda turned me off to the sport in general.

Now before you continue reading this, I would just like to note that there are NO trout pictures here. There are pictures of my dog's though. If you're not into dog pictures, you can skip the report (just a fair warning... I'd hate to make all of you read this crap to only find dog pictures). See, I'm a pretty reasonable guy.

Yesterday the family minus, Myself, went camping with some friends. I was going to stay home with the dogs but the wife kept asking me if I was going to go fishing. I wasn't going to fish but she kept prodding me to go (the nerve of her). I never know if I'm going fishing until I wake up on Saturday morning, so I HATE when she asks me every single day if I'm going fishing on Saturday. No matter what answer I give her, she always asks me again the following day. Don't you know by now that I don't know until the day of? Monday - "You going fishing Sat?".. Tuesday - "You going fishing Sat?"... So, I switch things up on her all the time. One day I'll tell her, "No".. the next day, "Maybe", the next day, "Yes". I'm not sure how many times I can tell her, "YES, and if anything changes between now and Saturday, I'll let you know." Nevertheless, she will ask again. Same shit with Hockey except she'll ask me 2 times a day, "Are you playing hockey tonight"... Uhhh, didn't I answer this question the first time you asked? Like a broken F'ng record. Does anyone else have this annoying problem or is it just me?

Anyway, normally I would take 1 dog with me. Since the family went camping, I had to take both. I have to say, what a pleasure. These dogs sit down, soak up the fresh air, look at you funny, and at times just take a nap. They don't bark, they don't bite, they don't talk back, they don't cast, they don't complain, they don't ask questions, they don't judge, and they don't try to tell me how to fish, even if they know I'm doing it all wrong. What more could you ask for?

I put in at Shehawken and loaded a few items onto the boat then went to get the oars. I usually double check and triple check what I've packed with me then on my way to get coffee before leaving, I always think about what I might have possibly left behind (usually I'm pretty good at not forgetting). I had the oars with me but like an a-hole, I forgot the friggen paddles. I gave COZ (Border Water Outfitters • Hancock, NY • Guided Fly Fishing on the Upper Delaware River) a call and asked him if he had an extra set of paddles laying around. He graciously loaned me a set of his! (One reason to get friendly and make some purchases from your favorite fly shops). I rigged up 2 rods. The first with a small BWO (size 20) and the other with a streamer (yellow and brown and I have no clue what it's called (nor do I care)) (See the picture below). I like fishing streamers on the stretch of faster water on the WB before it hits the main. It's really the only place I'll throw streamers on that float.

I put in around 11:30 or so and landed 1 13" fish on my yellow and brown streamer in that faster water. After that, nothing was happening all day long other than a few pods of chubs over in cemetary. I anchored up in Knights for a while and fell asleep for an hour. When I woke up there was still nothing happening. 6:30 came around and the fish started popping. I landed 4-5 12" rainbows. Some took ISO's but after a while they turned off to the ISO's. I then put my BWO back on and caught a few more.

I was so tired yesterday. I jackknifed the trailer and damaged my bumper a little, then after getting the boat out of the water and packing everything away, I drove away and realized the anchor was still dangling off the back of the boat. I'm still trying to figure out how I made it home without falling asleep. Maybe the bug that flew into my ear while I was driving kept me awake. I could feel it crawling around in my head and it fealt nasty. Maybe the CIA should use this instead of water bording? It was driving me nuts for the longest time but I think I was able to finally kill it.

So folks, no pictures of fish here but WTF... Do you really want to see another picture of a god damn trout anyway (unless of course it's the Mac Daddy trout)? Here are a few pictures of my dogs enjoying themselves in the river.





I love this... First time ever in the water for the two of them. It took them a few minutes to
figure out that they couldn't swim upstream in the current.




You can click on the photo below this text to see the larger version of my yellow and brown streamer.