Posted on October 01 2022
Usually I'm careful about not naming specific pools where I fish. Wednesday I fished three pools on the Willow and BK. Let me be clear, the pools are not a secret. What was unusual was that the puddles in the Hazel Bridge parking lot were gin clear, there were no cars or fishermen at Cairn's pool (thanks Chris Z.), and but one angler at Cemetery. So I screwed up and named the pools. Thursday with a 10/15 mph north wind blowing, I opted to forgo the BR and try to find a protected pool somewhere along the BK. Exited 17 at Cook's Falls and drove up to Cemetery and there was hardly room to turn around in the parking lot. Not saying it had anything to do with the days blog post but I turned around and did a pool hop down the river. In the five pools I stopped at I saw a total of one other angler. The number of fish feeding (there was a fair hatch of the usual fall bugs) in the pools I stopped at were : 0, 1, 1, 0 and several. Spent quite a bit of time in the last pool after hooking and losing a nice rainbow, only to find that many of the "several" risers were fall fish (caught two of them).
Today with the wind laid down I was back on the BR in a pool farther downstream than the one I fished earlier in the week. Fished 2:00 until 6:00. There were pseudos hatching on arrival and the rest of the fall bugs thereafter. Had hooked 8 fish before I saw the first rise to something besides my fly. After that about half the fish I hooked were ones I saw rise. This time there were some browns in the mix, all two or three year olds. The bows were mostly all three year olds now about 17 inches. Lost a third of the fish hooked and didn't once utter the universal frustrated fisherman's cry of frustration, "excrement."
The outlook - Trying to be real here. If you are new to the BR and are new to blind casting, you will not hook a bunch of fish. But if you go back to the no kill, you won't either. The BR is easily wadeable at current levels and Dennis has been good enough to point out in one of his more recent comments, several places where you can access it. It's a beautiful river, the water is, despite the current conditions in the WB, quite clear and if you ever happen to have a BR 'bow eat your fly, you'll be hooked.
The BK has lots of pullouts where it is obvious you can fish, whether you know the names of the pools or not. (or you can find maps with pools named). I am less interested in where you fished yesterday than in finding alternative spots to enter the BR and WB other than the obvious and usually crowded spots. When you said you fished below Buckingham the other day, unless you went to the bridge at Lordville, how did you get legal access? Did you simply enter at Buckingham and walk/wade down or what? I like to avoid crowds, but I do not want to get in a confrontation with a landowner, even if one doesn’t show up I would spend too much time looking over my shoulder and that would take much of the enjoyment out.
Angler119 Don’t be to hard on yourself for naming the pools you fished the other day. These pools have been well known since at least the 1940’s. Maybe your blog drew people to them ,maybe not. Hope they had success. I’ve been fishing the BK and Willow for 50+ years and there is plenty of good water to seek out if one spot or two is crowded. Sometimes people pull in to a parking area just because they see another car and think it must be a good spot. To all good luck ,The Fall fishing can be very good and the scenery is gorgeous
Dear sir,
Thank you for pointing out your lapse in judgement. I had plans to fish last Tuesday with a friend that has a house on the BK, at the last minute I canceled because of the weather forecast, I have been fishing the hot spot you ID’d in your commentary a few times recently and had had some good fishing and the water to myself, I had mentioned that even though I would not be coming up that she should hit the spot. She ended up on the BR Tuesday, when I saw your post I passed it along with a “see I told you so” anyway, on Wednesday, she passed by and the lot was full before noon.
I enjoy reading your blog, its informative and certianly the best river update I am aware of. Beyond the fishing it keeps readers up to date on the latest reason for significant changes in water flows, things like the 1750 flow reg. Its also interesting to hear about the canning, the peach trees, your barn improvements/painting, Jean and your local fox.
I hope if/when I reach 79 to still be pursuing trout with your passion and enthusiasum! Thank you for keeping all of your readers plugged in.
With all of that said and especially because you yourself drive miles to seek out water that is not being fished, I continue to look forward to reading your blog but don’t burn the spot. Leave it to the reader to figure out for themselves which pool, riffle or run to fish. And yes, its more than likely the cars were there because of your post.
Tight lines and straight arrows.
Dave
Chris is a faster typist than I am.
A little education on blind casting would be appreciated!
Thanks for your continued great reports this late in season! Any tips for blind casting the BR? I always thought that was a hopeless approach on Upper D except for the occasional blond ISO in riffles so am surprised to read you have very good success with this method. Do you blind cast large flies only or also blind casting the smaller stuff? Does this approach work for you in slower pools or just riffles?