Posted on May 18 2019
Most years in May there is consistently good fishing, with lots of bugs and big fish up feeding on them. This year I'm having trouble putting two good days together.
Thursday, much to my surprise, was a good day, Friday was not. It's often the little things that turn a good day into a poor one. If you read Thursdays report you know about the good one. Friday was poor by comparison. Why? Far too many things lined up in the fishes favor. It rained early which resulted in fog on the water. The fog quelled the caddis hatch and pushed back the Hendricksons 'til 3:00. It being Friday there were more fishermen on the river, boats were anchored up in every soft water spot. Wade anglers crowded the few places you could get into the water. Just before the spinners were scheduled to make their appearance a front blew in. The rising barometer, cooling air temp and stiff breeze combined to end things early.
The continued combination of heavy boat pressure and limited wade fishing opportunities, due to the high water, have led to difficult fishing conditions throughout the river system. There are still Hendricksons and apple caddis on both branches. There are march browns on the BR, BE and BK. That said, most of the fish I've gotten to throw at are eating caddis pupa (not what a dry fly guy wants to see).
The outlook for the next two or three weeks is, at present, not great. There will be an increase in the numbers and variety of big bugs for sure, march browns, gray foxes, green drakes, brown drakes, isonychia, golden stones and cornutus will all soon be on the menu. But we need the water levels to drop significantly to enable wade fishermen to access more of the river. Hopefully, with the onset of system wide hatches the boats will be distributed throughout the system thus easing the pressure on the UE, WB and BK which are usually the areas with the greatest concentration of wade fisherman.
But first it has to stop raining!!!
Thursday, much to my surprise, was a good day, Friday was not. It's often the little things that turn a good day into a poor one. If you read Thursdays report you know about the good one. Friday was poor by comparison. Why? Far too many things lined up in the fishes favor. It rained early which resulted in fog on the water. The fog quelled the caddis hatch and pushed back the Hendricksons 'til 3:00. It being Friday there were more fishermen on the river, boats were anchored up in every soft water spot. Wade anglers crowded the few places you could get into the water. Just before the spinners were scheduled to make their appearance a front blew in. The rising barometer, cooling air temp and stiff breeze combined to end things early.
The continued combination of heavy boat pressure and limited wade fishing opportunities, due to the high water, have led to difficult fishing conditions throughout the river system. There are still Hendricksons and apple caddis on both branches. There are march browns on the BR, BE and BK. That said, most of the fish I've gotten to throw at are eating caddis pupa (not what a dry fly guy wants to see).
The outlook for the next two or three weeks is, at present, not great. There will be an increase in the numbers and variety of big bugs for sure, march browns, gray foxes, green drakes, brown drakes, isonychia, golden stones and cornutus will all soon be on the menu. But we need the water levels to drop significantly to enable wade fishermen to access more of the river. Hopefully, with the onset of system wide hatches the boats will be distributed throughout the system thus easing the pressure on the UE, WB and BK which are usually the areas with the greatest concentration of wade fisherman.
But first it has to stop raining!!!
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