Posted on August 15 2024
When the highlight of the day is not finding your name in the obituaries, you obviously have little to talk about. Spent a good part of the day driving around looking for bug hatches, rising fish and mermaids. Found none of the above. What I did see while talking with a currently unemployed guide, were two adult eagles dive bombing and actually tangling with what appeared to be a young eagle. The adults have a nest in the area and have raised at least one young bird. Don't know if the attacked bird was an intruder on their turf or if junior got in serious trouble for not cleaning the nest. The first attack was just upstream of us, the immature eagle headed downstream after the encounter. We were watching him when a second adult eagle that was flying upstream quite high in the air, went into a dive and again struck the young eagle who seemed more than happy to get out of Dodge.
The second noteworthy wildlife encounter was with two fawns in the middle of PA rte. 191 by Smokin' Joe's. The fawns seemed unconcerned by my approach and when I tooted the horn, only one ran off the road, the second fawn stood looking at me and then hobbled on three legs, over to the side of the road and slowly up the hill. It put no weight on the right hind leg, which had no visible sign of injury.
Enjoyed chats with several Troutfitter regulars, (thank you Bob for the bottle of PG, my wife's favorite), saw Assoc. Ed. Denny who was in a tailout casting at a fish when I tooted. When I held up my hands he said two, but it's slowing down, (probably to keep my out of the pool).
The fishing - Another day like today and I'm going up in the attic and get my golf clubs. Fished above and below Oquaga in places where everyone knows there are lots and lots of fish, never saw a bug or a fish in either place. Drove over to the east side and fished a pool that has had no trout since mid June, rose, (and was refused by), half a dozen yearlings and one good fish. Obviously the fish had spent the hot summer months elsewhere. Grasping at straws, (whatever that means), I was encouraged that at least some fish had closed their summer camps and moved back to their homes. Got caught in another pop up thunderstorm, the smart choice would have been to call it an a$$ kicking and head back to the estate, but no, I took another one on the chin by finishing out the day casting at the occasional subsurface feeders that delighted in ignoring my offerings. For the record, a 13 inch rainbow kept me off the bench.
The outlook - Right now, grim. If you want to throw streamers, by the weekend it'll probably be too late, if you want to fish sulfurs, (and there are some, and probably will be for a while yet), you need to get in line, (a long one), if you are willing to settle for an hour of fishing just before dark, you have a decent chance of seeing rising fish in the WB, if you want to fish water that has been too warm for the past two months, wait until the weekend when we are supposed to get some cooler weather.
To close on a positive note, I saw two flying ants on the water today and there are tricos on the lower WB, UEB and BR.
A119
So what is the maximum number of people that should fit in the Red Barn Pool?
Angler119- Thanks for your report on the fishing( or lack of thereof)and your wildlife encounters. Boy the fishing has gotten really, really difficult. Chris-Congrats on your big brown. Very cool. Dennis- the assoc. eds will help you broaden your sulphur collection. It doesn’t necessarily lead to more fish being caught. But does give you a few more flies to try. Ed
Stopped in for a few hours yesterday. Started below Oquaga after lunch. 30 minutes went by, no rises. Decided to head to the red barn and join the fiesta. I found an unoccupied spot in between the aforementioned Orvis class and string of downstream anglers. As the afternoon progressed, the crowd waned. Got one fish to take on a sulfur and quickly donated my fly to its mouth. After another hour or so I got a boiling fish to show some mercy on an oversized sulfur (desperate times call for desperate measures). At 18" I figured its probably not going to get better than this, might as well get home for dinner. Can’t wait until the temps drop.
I fished the red barn yesterday and had some rising fish. I walked down stream away from the crowd and lost a nice rainbow in the first 20 minutes on the water. I moved around and ended up with 2 browns landed Both 14-16 inch range. I fished from 1:30 till5:15.i did not see many BWO on the water. My fish were caught on sulfurs from my woeful collection of flies!!
Going to try to fish over the weekend
I believe ORVIS is hosting a fly fishing class at The West Branch Angler. Pretty sure that’s why the crowds were so thick.
Fished WB yesterday….what a circus! Have never seen that many anglers lined up from stilesville to deposit! I hit game lands 8am – dead. Gentlemen’s 10am nothing going on so cheated and nymphed….when you drive 2.5 hrs you do what you gotta do! Caught biggest brown in my 25yrs fishing up there…and I’ve caught many 20 inches this one dwarfed them all (thank you to the fisherman that came down and took a pic…my dad would have never believed me otherwise)! At Noon moved just below Oquaga and had decent sulfurs and rising fish. Caught a few before an unbelievably rude fisherman crossed stream began casting upstream to my fish (literally crossing my line) and putting fish down! Reeled in and drove around to see above mentioned circus! Tried lower west but dead. Good day with the beaver sized brown and a few on top but I do not recommend fishing upper WB right now it’s a zoo!