Posted on July 08 2021
After a night of heavy thunderstorms that blew out everything but the upper reaches of the two branches, there wasn't much question as to where both the wade fishermen and the drifters would go. What driftboats there were, put in at barking dog and drifted downstream throwing streamers. The waders headed up above Oquaga where the water level and clarity were fine for wade fishing. Hopefully, tomorrow morning, DRC's blog will show a bunch of pictures of big fish that ate streamers. The waders above Oquaga, at least while I was there, had water too cold to entice a sulfur hatch.
About 3:30 I got out of the river and into my car. Drove down to Hale Eddy where I saw more sulfurs hatch in five minutes than I saw in an hour up in Deposit. Did I fish? No, never saw a rise, the water was high and as bloggers like to say "stained". Drove back up stream and picked a spot below Oquaga where I knew I could wade, and fished. There were a few sulfurs hatching, not nearly enough for the fish to get going good but there were occasional risers and they were hungry and (unlike most days) willing to eat what was put before them. For a couple of hours I was a happy hooker, I will not, however, discuss my fish landed percentage with anyone. Lets just say that I would have to be the slickest fielding shortstop in the league to stay on the field if it was my batting average.
About 6:15 things went quiet, reeled it in and drove around a bit with the heater on. With no sun, the cold water sucks the warmth right out of you. Kinda knew where I was going to make "The Last Stand" but went through the motions of stopping at several lookout places where it was too foggy to see much of anything. It was 8:00 when I parked, put my vest and raincoat back on and went fishing. Waded out into the river and, nothing was happening, no bugs or risers. By about 8:15 there were sulfurs hatching and I started to see rises. From then until 9:20, I had rising fish, lots of them. Got some refusals (actually quite a few) but as the fog thickened and the light faded, fish ate my fly, one after another.
Check the flows before you go tomorrow as it's still raining and the water may be a rising. For the waders, your best hope is for the rain to stop and for sunshine to warm the water so sulfurs will hatch above Oquaga.
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