They are still taking me to school.

[tomfly]

I played hooky from work today. Need a day off. I have been working a lot of hours lately. I fished Resica falls today. There were a good amount of Caddis, Olives and midges coming off all day. Nothing was on them. Literally did not see a fish rise all day. You could walk across the bugs on the water. I was baffled why they were not taking them. Naturally I fished a pupa and RS2 and a small midge pupa changing back and forth. I tried different colors sizes of olive and gray RS2 same with the pupas. Nada for hours. I was thinking these fish are not feeding. That other voice in my head was telling me. They have to feed or they die. I was getting low in my bag of tricks. All the available information was telling me I was using the right flies. I just need to find the right combination split shot weight or no weight and size and color. More hours wasted. I gave up with that. I tried a hares ear nymph, Present tail nymph small large size 12 16 18 10. They wanted nothing to do with them. This time of the year any one of them should have generated at least one take. I started casting Dries at them, and that too was futile. My time was winding down to my last hour before I had to go home. I was getting ready to admit defeat and tie on a streamer. Something I never do. I was looking through on of my boxes and I saw a prince. I tied it on I was not confident in it. Second cast boom. 4th cast, 6[SUP]th[/SUP] cast ……. I landed 10 and dropped 2 in an hour. I still do not get it. You would think with all the caddis and BWOs popping up. Why did they want that? You think you can predict what they should be doing. Then they make you do a double take. Sorry I had no time to take pics.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Yup, that's fishing!

I had one of my best guide trips late last May when the first half day we couldn't catch a fish with a hand grenade. After lunch, I put on an egg pattern even though there are certainly no eggs in the river in late May and my client began pounding fish after fish on the egg, and each fish bigger than the last. Go figure. He was happy and that was all that mattered. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

Yesterday we had a smattering of small tan caddis so I tried small LaFontaines in tan, gray and green. My client caught two on the gray caddis until it shut down. So I tied on a rainbow warrior and we had to chase fish off his fly. That imitates exactly nothing, so sometimes they junk feed and sometimes they key in on naturals. That's why I often start with two nymphs with one imitating something natural that's hatching (or should be) and one piece of "candy" if I can't figure it out right away. And by right away, I mean if I get to the water and don't see any feeding activity at any level in the water. If I'm not seeing suspended or rising trout, I know it's time to drag the bottom.

 

[sunsignarcher]

I had a similar day in the neversink gorge Sat. Late in the game I put on an experimental hares ear with a very, very bushy peacock wing case over the the thorax. They clobbered that thing. I only had 4 and I caught steady on them till the rocks claimed the last one. We did have good action on top in the last hour though.

Same thing happened on the SR tribs a few weeks ago. I threw on a prince and caught 5 fish in 1 hour outta the same hole.

I swear I'm gonna start throwin peacock on everything....

 

[sunsignarcher]

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look in their mouths

 

[sunsignarcher]

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peacocked another one, see how it does in a couple hours.

 

[CTobias]

I played hooky from work today. Need a day off. I have been working a lot of hours lately. I fished Resica falls today. There were a good amount of Caddis, Olives and midges coming off all day. Nothing was on them. Literally did not see a fish rise all day. You could walk across the bugs on the water. I was baffled why they were not taking them. Naturally I fished a pupa and RS2 and a small midge pupa changing back and forth. I tried different colors sizes of olive and gray RS2 same with the pupas. Nada for hours. I was thinking these fish are not feeding. That other voice in my head was telling me. They have to feed or they die. I was getting low in my bag of tricks. All the available information was telling me I was using the right flies. I just need to find the right combination split shot weight or no weight and size and color. More hours wasted. I gave up with that. I tried a hares ear nymph, Present tail nymph small large size 12 16 18 10. They wanted nothing to do with them. This time of the year any one of them should have generated at least one take. I started casting Dries at them, and that too was futile. My time was winding down to my last hour before I had to go home. I was getting ready to admit defeat and tie on a streamer. Something I never do. I was looking through on of my boxes and I saw a prince. I tied it on I was not confident in it. Second cast boom. 4th cast, 6[SUP]th[/SUP] cast ……. I landed 10 and dropped 2 in an hour. I still do not get it. You would think with all the caddis and BWOs popping up. Why did they want that? You think you can predict what they should be doing. Then they make you do a double take. Sorry I had no time to take pics.

Should have just brought worms. Less guessing involved.

 

[jack1266]

I was on the Ramapo last week. Water was high and off color. Nothing hatching, no rises. Was trying hares ears, PT, bead head, no bead head. Was about to call it a night and take my skunking. I thought back to when I first started fly fishing and grabbed a Zug bug from the box. Boom. First drift a rainbow nailed it. Second drift a chub grabbed it. Lost another a few casts later and went home. Peacock power !!

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Peacock power !!

My wife's uncle, a retired Rutgers professor living in Vermont these days only ties and fishes with nymphs made principally of peacock herl. And he catches tons of trout.

 

[flyI4]

Yup, that's fishing!

I had one of my best guide trips late last May when the first half day we couldn't catch a fish with a hand grenade. After lunch, I put on an egg pattern even though there are certainly no eggs in the river in late May and my client began pounding fish after fish on the egg, and each fish bigger than the last. Go figure. He was happy and that was all that mattered. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

Yesterday we had a smattering of small tan caddis so I tried small LaFontaines in tan, gray and green. My client caught two on the gray caddis until it shut down. So I tied on a rainbow warrior and we had to chase fish off his fly. That imitates exactly nothing, so sometimes they junk feed and sometimes they key in on naturals. That's why I often start with two nymphs with one imitating something natural that's hatching (or should be) and one piece of "candy" if I can't figure it out right away. And by right away, I mean if I get to the water and don't see any feeding activity at any level in the water. If I'm not seeing suspended or rising trout, I know it's time to drag the bottom.

Those are the best kind of days. Seeing a fish rise on the first cast- seeing a second fish rise and getting him on the first cast- will make u feel like its too easy and that the truck just dropped those fish off. Having a tough day and turning it around with a switch in approach makes u walk off feeling like u figured it out. Plus- that place is one of the nicest looking sections of rivers out.