Posted on August 19 2020
It's not official yet, what with the forecast for the next several days back up in the high eighties but today I took the first step. Quit cold turkey, never set foot in the sulfur zone. Fished four different places in three different rivers and found fish at all but one stop (the Beaverkill). There were not a lot of bugs and very few risers. I didn't catch a lot of fish but the ones I caught were nice sized and full of fight. Would have been a better day by far if the two biggest fish I hooked hadn't come unstuck but they were both sure exciting for a while.
Left camp about 8:30 with a plan to fish tricos. It was still to cold for the spinner fall so I stopped a couple places and cast attractor flies. Caught three nice fish and hooked a very large, very hot fish. When he came unstuck he had jumped 7 times and had taken 50 feet of backing off the reel while I was running (sorta) downstream after him - just wow. Tried a spot on the BK that's easy to get to, easy to fish and easy to tell if there are any fish in it - there weren't.
With the air temp up to 65, it was now time to look for tricos. The prime spot had three cars and there was a car at each of two other spots. Settled on a pool that always had good tricos until last year when it had none. This year there were some, not enough to get the waxwings feeding but there were trout looking up and feeding. Unfortunately all the feeding fish I saw were yearlings and they has already seen tricos with hooks in them. (It was my first time out for tricos but they have been hatching for over a month. Got refused by some and some ate. The spinner fall was brief and the fish small. Quit in time for lunch and spent the early afternoon putting the second coat of paint on the facia boards on the east side of the house ( around the phone wire and 220 line).
Don't know what happened between 3:00 and 5:00 but got off the couch and headed out at 5:30 only to find multiple cars and fishermen in the first four places I stopped. The fifth place was a charm. No one there. Found a few fish rising occasionally to God only knows what but several took the time to let me know that my little olive wasn't up to snuff. Three that were hungrier than the rest ate it. Two were nice quality fish the third was just a slob. He rose, I hooked and I spent the next five minutes doing whatever he wanted me to do. Never had control, he went were he wanted whenever he wanted. Finally on one of his downstream runs the hook just came unstuck.
Didn't see a lot of bugs or a lot of risers, didn't catch a lot of fish but the fish I did hook were quality fish that fought like fish should fight.
As a retired dentist I was impressed with your Monday schedule! Extraction 14 and implant in am followed by two hour drive and dry fly in pm! Most people would be on lazy boy rest of day! Must be the rye whisky!! Any tricos at head of Buckhorn on UE??
Can you please give me a little more info on tricos. I am really not familiar with them. Do they hatch in the evening as well as the morning. What kind of caddis hatch can we expect in the fall.
Thanks for all the great info.
As promised the following is the good ,the bad ,and the ugly from yestetday’s fishing . The good- great weather and fished with some nice guys. The bad – went to the sulpher zone and “the zone “kicked my butt. Light to moderate hatch only a few fish rising sporadically at the Red Barn and only saw one fish landed. The ugly-trying to cast a 16 foot leader with a decent downstream wind.Oh well ,it maybe time to give “the zone” a rest. Sounds like Angler 199 did well you hooked into some great fish . Congratulations.