I just got home from fishing the South Branch tonight and thought I would share how tonight's experience differed from last night on the same river. Last night when we got to the river, there were already sulphurs on the water and a few fish rising. That was around 6:30 PM, and by 7:30, there were large and small sulphurs hatching, cinnamon caddis, and a few sulphur spinners. Fish were rising steadily throughout the pool. A well placed sulphur imitation took fish , although with the low water, getting a drag-free drift was a challenge and I had plenty of refusals in between hook-ups. By 8:00 PM last night, it was bedlam, with trout rising everywhere and sulphur duns and spinners in the air and on the water in huge numbers. The water was literally boiling with rising fish; it was hard to know where to cast and we caught plenty of fish.
Fast forward to tonight. I met a few friends on the river about 7:00 PM, and the only bugs we saw were midges and small caddis. About 7:30 I looked up and just off the new, green tree canopy I could see quite a few rusty spinners, some with egg sacs and some without. Fish rose occasionally but nothing steady. I took a couple of those fish on sulphur soft hackle emegers fished in the film, but it was slim pickings. As 8:00 rolled around a few sulphur duns were in the air and very few on the water. The spinners were now flying low just over the water. As dusk neared those spinners began to fall on the water and fish rose, but nothing like the night before....until it got dark. Then fish rose everywhere and of course, I could not see a thing and called it a day. I did mange to catch a few more fish on rusty spinners before it got dark, but it was nothing like last night. I guess that's what keeps us coming back.
Both nights were fun, the weather could not have been better, and it was great to be on the water with friends.
Sharpen your hooks.
2 comments:
I fished in the gorge on Sunday night...there were a few sulphurs, not a ton. I caught a couple fish on sulphur emergers and then the fish started rising consistently and taking something else....the three of us couldn't figure it out and neither could anyone else I spoke with.....looking back, I should have putt on a zebra midge and fished it just under the surface, as the rises were very as they were taking things just under the surface......midges were in the air as well as caddis and few sulphurs..caddis emergers were ignored also..
Did you try a sulphur or rusty spinner when the emergers stopped working? I was above the gorge on river road up toward Califon, and the fish switched over to spinners around 8:00 or so. When the emergers stopped working, did the rise forms change?
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