C&R
trutta febris
Waded the WB with sstasiak yesterday 11am-730pm. First time for both of us.
Short version of this report:
We didn't catch anything. I had a few nice strikes in the Gamelands riff using a hare's ear with a pseudo emerger on a dropper (both of which I tied, so it felt kinda good). Not sure if Steve had any strikes b/c we weren't always within sight of each other.
Longer version:
After a 2h15min drive, and a stop in Al's shop for some info, we started out at the upper access area of the PA gamelands. Quite a hike to get to the river but we managed. Only one guy was fishing Oil Derrick pool (why is it called that?). Saw a few risers but were too far away to get a good cast to. Wind was a major factor. It was pretty gusty and it came and went periodically. I had to resort to nymphs because my presentation was just lousy with the wind and the current in the pool. No lookers on dries. We walked upstream to the Gamelands riff (nice area, especially the far bank at this flow). This was where I had my hits. Couldn't tell which fly the strikes were on (my nymph or emerger). After a while (1pm or so) we started to walk back to the pool where we started at and noticed about 10 or so fishermen. At this point fish were really rising, but it was too crowded for us to get in there. Pseudos (20-22) were sparsely in the air and I saw an Iso (12-14) here and there.
We decided to go to the lower gamelands access area at this point. We fished this area until about 3pm with no risers seen and no luck in the riffs. So we decided to go downstream to Ball's Eddy access. No one there. Water was still as a pond. We looked up and downstream and decided it was too far to hike in either direction. So we headed to our next stop, Shehawken. Worked upstream in the riffs a few hundred yards. Again no action. Started seeing more and more Isos. Decided to try the Stockport access. We had heard about the guy that owns that surrounding property, and to be quite honest, felt very uneasy walking down river road to the access area. Private property signs every two feet. We saw that the water looked just like it did at Shehawken, so we decided that our best bet was to hit a big pool for the late evening activity. As we were leaving a pickup truck pulled in. It must have been the owner b/c he pulled into the driveway of the house. Didn't even look at us as he passed us by. After leaving there, we tried to find Junction Pool on the PA side, but then realized that there probably was no public access. Now that I think about it, we had already passed it up at that point.
So...we headed over to the NY side. We passed up Bard Parker Rd (we recognized the name though) and a few miles up the road realized that that was probably the access to Junction Pool. Turned around and found it. Got there a little after 5pm. Saw that the junction of the WB/EB was taken by pontoon boats, a drift boat, and a wader, so we decided to walk downstream. The glare on the water from the sun setting was unbearable. Just as I was about to call it quits at 7pm, Steve found a riffle that had fish rising like crazy. There was even a big one making huge splashes. We tied on everything we had. No takers. Called it quits at 7:30 and headed home. Back in my driveway before 10pm in my bug splattered SUV.
All in all, it was a good day (except for the wind) to be out. We had fun. Would have been nice to at least hookup with at least one fish. We weren't discouraged and will definitely go back soon. Hopefully drift w/ someone. In fact I'd probably only want to drift b/c so much of the river is publicly unaccessable by wading. The only consolation that we had was that not one person hooked a fish the whole day either. I guess this is what they mean when they say "the WB is fishing good."
Short version of this report:
We didn't catch anything. I had a few nice strikes in the Gamelands riff using a hare's ear with a pseudo emerger on a dropper (both of which I tied, so it felt kinda good). Not sure if Steve had any strikes b/c we weren't always within sight of each other.
Longer version:
After a 2h15min drive, and a stop in Al's shop for some info, we started out at the upper access area of the PA gamelands. Quite a hike to get to the river but we managed. Only one guy was fishing Oil Derrick pool (why is it called that?). Saw a few risers but were too far away to get a good cast to. Wind was a major factor. It was pretty gusty and it came and went periodically. I had to resort to nymphs because my presentation was just lousy with the wind and the current in the pool. No lookers on dries. We walked upstream to the Gamelands riff (nice area, especially the far bank at this flow). This was where I had my hits. Couldn't tell which fly the strikes were on (my nymph or emerger). After a while (1pm or so) we started to walk back to the pool where we started at and noticed about 10 or so fishermen. At this point fish were really rising, but it was too crowded for us to get in there. Pseudos (20-22) were sparsely in the air and I saw an Iso (12-14) here and there.
We decided to go to the lower gamelands access area at this point. We fished this area until about 3pm with no risers seen and no luck in the riffs. So we decided to go downstream to Ball's Eddy access. No one there. Water was still as a pond. We looked up and downstream and decided it was too far to hike in either direction. So we headed to our next stop, Shehawken. Worked upstream in the riffs a few hundred yards. Again no action. Started seeing more and more Isos. Decided to try the Stockport access. We had heard about the guy that owns that surrounding property, and to be quite honest, felt very uneasy walking down river road to the access area. Private property signs every two feet. We saw that the water looked just like it did at Shehawken, so we decided that our best bet was to hit a big pool for the late evening activity. As we were leaving a pickup truck pulled in. It must have been the owner b/c he pulled into the driveway of the house. Didn't even look at us as he passed us by. After leaving there, we tried to find Junction Pool on the PA side, but then realized that there probably was no public access. Now that I think about it, we had already passed it up at that point.
So...we headed over to the NY side. We passed up Bard Parker Rd (we recognized the name though) and a few miles up the road realized that that was probably the access to Junction Pool. Turned around and found it. Got there a little after 5pm. Saw that the junction of the WB/EB was taken by pontoon boats, a drift boat, and a wader, so we decided to walk downstream. The glare on the water from the sun setting was unbearable. Just as I was about to call it quits at 7pm, Steve found a riffle that had fish rising like crazy. There was even a big one making huge splashes. We tied on everything we had. No takers. Called it quits at 7:30 and headed home. Back in my driveway before 10pm in my bug splattered SUV.
All in all, it was a good day (except for the wind) to be out. We had fun. Would have been nice to at least hookup with at least one fish. We weren't discouraged and will definitely go back soon. Hopefully drift w/ someone. In fact I'd probably only want to drift b/c so much of the river is publicly unaccessable by wading. The only consolation that we had was that not one person hooked a fish the whole day either. I guess this is what they mean when they say "the WB is fishing good."
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