dcabarle
Administrator
Fished the mainstem today (yesterday) thinking the conditions would be perfect. I put in at Shehawken and floated down to Buckingham.
Not much action for most of the day. I ran into a few risers here and there but very sporadic. (I put in around 11am). The wind was brutal until about 8:30pm.
I picked up 2 nice brown chubs in the lake. One of them was nice enough to jump out of the water for me. Who would have thought? I blew through most of the water thinking I'd pick something up at the head of Stockport but not a thing was happening down there.
I figured I'd see something happening over in Cemetery. Approaching the pool, there was a drift boat with 3 people in in. I don't think it was a guide (I hope it wasn't a guide!). I rowed past him a little bit and was going to anchor down in cemetery for a while. On one of the seams, I saw a rainbow working very aggressively but hesitated to cast. I figured if the guys in the drift boat saw the fish before me, I'd let them get the first shot and I'd wait until they left. If they decided to anchor up, I would have moved down. Needless to say, the person rowing the boat after bumping into every rock sticking 4 1/2 feet out the river, he started slapping his oars right over the fish (unintentional I'm sure), while the other two people were casting. I figured I'd wait it out for a while and the fish would come back up. Never happened. This pool has been somewhat of an omen to me the past few times fishing it. I'll save that story for another day.
I blew down stream and sat in Knights for a while but nothing was happening there either. Further on down stream, I sat back and waited for the sun to go behind the clouds and figured some heads would start looking up. Around 8:30, Sulphurs where everywhere, as were coffin flies, brown drakes and what I though were Isonychias... Whuddo I know. I've spent countless hours taking photo's of these things and watching them in a fish tank, and of course video taping them turning from nymph into adults.
I was using a Sulphur for a while but then switched over to the ISO emerger. I landed a nice brown and stung a few others. The ISO pattern stopped working so I switched to a Coffin fly (Millions of them in the air). I managed 5 nice 16-17" trout in this pool, stung a good handfull, and of course missed quite a few.
I heard a familiar voice shout out something, "Collins". It was Macawful. He and his entourage were making their way into the pool I was fishing (no harm, plenty of room for everyone; and plenty of fish. Nobody was in anyones way.) I mentioned to him that there were quite a few ISO's in the air and he mentioned that he hadn't seen any ISO's, he only saw brown drakes. Gilbo seemed a bit aggravated that I wasn't up to my game and he made it pretty clear that there were no ISO's in the air. Mike was right, there were also many Brown drakes flying around which I failed to see through the numerous other bugs. Ok... ok... I'm simply lacking in the drake dept. Yes, the blotchy wings and the 3 tails should have been a dead giveaway but honestly... I forgot about the brown drakes and really wouldn't have known they were brown drakes unless I scooped one up and brought it home with me, but it really wasn't that important.
I ran into an issue around 9:30 while sitting in that pool. My flyline somehow got pretty mangled up. I couldn't even reel it in. I got caught on something and while trying to untangle it from one spot, it managed to get tangled in another spot. My line has never been tangled so bad before, what a friggen mess that was. Took me well over an hour to undo this birds nest.
So here I am around 11 pm and just finishing up removing my knots and realized that everyone left without saying FU. Ok... well, now that I think about it, I think I did get that FU after all. See... the way I look at it is that when you see someone having an obvious problem late at night in the pitch dark in a river with no possible way for that person to communicate with anyone other than yourself due to being in such a remote location, one would normally say, "Hey... everything ok?" At which time I would reply with, "yes, I'll be just fine, thanks for asking."
Anyhow, I'm only happy my ship wasn't sinking, I could see you offering me your anchor and telling me to just tie the rope around me feet and you'll tow me in! (just being funny here)
Not much action for most of the day. I ran into a few risers here and there but very sporadic. (I put in around 11am). The wind was brutal until about 8:30pm.
I picked up 2 nice brown chubs in the lake. One of them was nice enough to jump out of the water for me. Who would have thought? I blew through most of the water thinking I'd pick something up at the head of Stockport but not a thing was happening down there.
I figured I'd see something happening over in Cemetery. Approaching the pool, there was a drift boat with 3 people in in. I don't think it was a guide (I hope it wasn't a guide!). I rowed past him a little bit and was going to anchor down in cemetery for a while. On one of the seams, I saw a rainbow working very aggressively but hesitated to cast. I figured if the guys in the drift boat saw the fish before me, I'd let them get the first shot and I'd wait until they left. If they decided to anchor up, I would have moved down. Needless to say, the person rowing the boat after bumping into every rock sticking 4 1/2 feet out the river, he started slapping his oars right over the fish (unintentional I'm sure), while the other two people were casting. I figured I'd wait it out for a while and the fish would come back up. Never happened. This pool has been somewhat of an omen to me the past few times fishing it. I'll save that story for another day.
I blew down stream and sat in Knights for a while but nothing was happening there either. Further on down stream, I sat back and waited for the sun to go behind the clouds and figured some heads would start looking up. Around 8:30, Sulphurs where everywhere, as were coffin flies, brown drakes and what I though were Isonychias... Whuddo I know. I've spent countless hours taking photo's of these things and watching them in a fish tank, and of course video taping them turning from nymph into adults.
I was using a Sulphur for a while but then switched over to the ISO emerger. I landed a nice brown and stung a few others. The ISO pattern stopped working so I switched to a Coffin fly (Millions of them in the air). I managed 5 nice 16-17" trout in this pool, stung a good handfull, and of course missed quite a few.
I heard a familiar voice shout out something, "Collins". It was Macawful. He and his entourage were making their way into the pool I was fishing (no harm, plenty of room for everyone; and plenty of fish. Nobody was in anyones way.) I mentioned to him that there were quite a few ISO's in the air and he mentioned that he hadn't seen any ISO's, he only saw brown drakes. Gilbo seemed a bit aggravated that I wasn't up to my game and he made it pretty clear that there were no ISO's in the air. Mike was right, there were also many Brown drakes flying around which I failed to see through the numerous other bugs. Ok... ok... I'm simply lacking in the drake dept. Yes, the blotchy wings and the 3 tails should have been a dead giveaway but honestly... I forgot about the brown drakes and really wouldn't have known they were brown drakes unless I scooped one up and brought it home with me, but it really wasn't that important.
I ran into an issue around 9:30 while sitting in that pool. My flyline somehow got pretty mangled up. I couldn't even reel it in. I got caught on something and while trying to untangle it from one spot, it managed to get tangled in another spot. My line has never been tangled so bad before, what a friggen mess that was. Took me well over an hour to undo this birds nest.
So here I am around 11 pm and just finishing up removing my knots and realized that everyone left without saying FU. Ok... well, now that I think about it, I think I did get that FU after all. See... the way I look at it is that when you see someone having an obvious problem late at night in the pitch dark in a river with no possible way for that person to communicate with anyone other than yourself due to being in such a remote location, one would normally say, "Hey... everything ok?" At which time I would reply with, "yes, I'll be just fine, thanks for asking."
Anyhow, I'm only happy my ship wasn't sinking, I could see you offering me your anchor and telling me to just tie the rope around me feet and you'll tow me in! (just being funny here)
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