Posted on May 22 2024
The trip home for my physical took most of the day. Five hours on the road, an hour and a half at the doctors office, lunch with an old friend at Ruston's Diner, (cholesterol capital of the world), and the fixing of a loose wire in the outlet that was powering our internet, TV, and phones.
Arrived back (in Deposit) at 4:00pm. A drive up and down the river told me that whatever had been happening was no longer happening. Decided to save my energy for what is now the apex of the fishing day, (7:00pm until you just can't see a dam thing), (which is now a little after nine).
Made another tactical error, second in two days, if anyone is keeping track. Selected a pool that is just full of fish, (trust me I know), however, the sun sets on this pool much like it does just above the upper game lands, (never), there are hills and valleys along the Delaware and I'm sure anyone who has fished the upper game lands knows the sun sets this time of year in the exact bottom of a V shaped valley. Same where I wanted to fish tonight. At 8:00pm it was still shining on the water, with nary a bug hatching nor rising fish to be seen.
I contemplated heading for one of the places I knew would have been in the shade by 6:30, but it was a long day and I was just plain tired, so I waited, the bugs came, LOTS of them, the fish went nuts, LOTS of them, and I threw at them, Lots of times. (Mrs. Haskins, forgive me for that one). Hooked four fish, landed three and lost one, while a couple of dozen fish paid absolutely no attention to the flies I threw.
The toads were singing their hearts out, the moon was beautiful, and I was happily walking out the dirt road to my car when a car sped down the road, stopped with the window rolled down and a guy told me it was a private road, (the same road he told me to go to three years ago in lieu of the steep bank I was descending), I had set off alarms, fishermen didn't fish after dark, I could have drowned or been eaten by a bear, did I have a cell phone to call someone if I was hurt, and would I like a ride to my car? It was Steve, who built stairs for me to get down the steep bank where I fish, and who worries (for a gruff NJ guy in the construction business), far too much, but cares about everyone, (I suspect his wife knows this). Thanks Steve for being you.
Angler119-Great ending to your day. Congrats. Fished the BK/Willow . Hot and Slooow to dead till about 8:15. Then lots of bugs for 15-20minutes. My friend Jim G landed 3 browns 15” /17” on a March brown emerger. I had a 12”er take pity on me and save me from the “ the bench”There were MB,s spinners, rusty spinners, yellow stonefliesandblack or gray caddis. Pretty cool. Ed
Full disclosure – I did miss a small portion of the mtg and was a bit confused at times by what was being said so if anyone else got something different out of it please clarify.
No fish report but did listen to the FUDR mtg with NYDEP yesterday. Confusing info as always but what I took from it was that the 1500cfs drawdown to start June 1st will be done through diversion and not through release….so flows should not be affected and still be following the FFMP. That’s great news for waders like me who thought wade fishing the WB would be finished on 6/1 with 1500 releases until Oct. It also confused a lot of outfitters at the meeting who thought the same thing for the past year. DEP also said that all plans could still change depending on drought and/or flooding conditions so they actually have no idea what the flows will be from now until the work starts in October! But there is hope flows should at least be good for foreseeable future.