Deposit sinkhole

[Future Fanatic]

I heard a rumor that a jersey fisherman stood a little too long in one spot...

I'm a dry fly purist on the upper D. The river is all the way up to the top and ripping, but is clearing. Visibility now at about 2' whereas yesterday it was Yoohoo chocolate. Hard to say how far it will drop and clear between now and Friday when I am floating with bracycentrus and another buddy of mine.

http://www.wicz.com/story/35630742/breaking-sink-hole-causes-state-of-emergency-in-deposit

No injuries reported...?
Stay safe Rusty and watch where you walk.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

As of yesterday, I have spent 8 nights in cabins on the WBD between May and June without casting a single fly in that river. At least I got to float the EB with a very good coffin fly spinner fall on Friday night. Had to wade the Beaverkill Saturday and the Willow yesterday, catching stockies instead of my beloved wild WB fish. Headed up after this heat wave breaks for a day trip to the West...

 

[Future Fanatic]

As of yesterday, I have spent 8 nights in cabins on the WBD between May and June without casting a single fly in that river. At least I got to float the EB with a very good coffin fly spinner fall on Friday night. Had to wade the Beaverkill Saturday and the Willow yesterday, catching stockies instead of my beloved wild WB fish. Headed up after this heat wave breaks for a day trip to the West...

You didn't float the West Branch?!
I read somewhere that they were both FLOATABLE.
Cannonsville's still spilling, but I guess not for long. I guess we'll see what the release will be when we see what the release will be.

BUT, how DID you do when you floated the East Branch?

 

[Rusty Spinner]

You didn't float the West Branch?!
I read somewhere that they were both FLOATABLE.
Cannonsville's still spilling, but I guess not for long. I guess we'll see what the release will be when we see what the release will be.

BUT, how DID you do when you floated the East Branch?

I don't own a boat. That's right, I'm the one angler that fishes the upper D that does not own his own drift boat or stinktoon. Was planning to rent one to float the West, but flows were over 2,000 and they won't rent them over that level (or under 500 cfs). Thought about hooking up JC's drift boat as it wasn't being used, but no trailer hitch. :crap:

The upper East was decent early, followed by a 5 hour lull, but ended with a bang when the coffin fly spinner fall came down. We caught most of our fish late on coffin flies. It was typical bug week. I saw MBs and Gray Fox, Potomanthus, black caddis, tan caddis, Isos, a few BWOs, green drakes, sulfurs (invaria and dorothea), and various spinners other than the green drake spinners. But no big hatches of any one bug and not enough heads poking through. Still, any float on the upper East is a good day.

 

[mudbug201]

I don't own a boat. That's right, I'm the one angler that fishes the upper D that does not own his own drift boat or stinktoon. Was planning to rent one to float the West, but flows were over 2,000 and they won't rent them over that level (or under 500 cfs). Thought about hooking up JC's drift boat as it wasn't being used, but no trailer hitch. :crap:

The upper East was decent early, followed by a 5 hour lull, but ended with a bang when the coffin fly spinner fall came down. We caught most of our fish late on coffin flies. It was typical bug week. I saw MBs and Gray Fox, Potomanthus, black caddis, tan caddis, Isos, a few BWOs, green drakes, sulfurs (invaria and dorothea), and various spinners other than the green drake spinners. But no big hatches of any one bug and not enough heads poking through. Still, any float on the upper East is a good day.

We floated the lower east and upper main over the weekend, and waded a bit on Sunday as the water had dropped quite a bit by then. Both rivers fished well, considering it was hot and sunny. Tons of boats on the main stem, but everybody was in a good mood and gave each other plenty of space.

Hatches were sporadic and rising fish were only to be found along the shady banks until the sun went behind the mountains for good. But when the hatches were happening, it was all at once - bug soup. Some early Isos and sulfurs, which surprised me, but it makes sense - the rivers are warming up in spite of the high flows. We netted a few good rainbows on dries and a decent brown on a streamer - a buddy throwing a light spinning rod from the back of the boat added a couple of smallies and a nice shad.

Only annoying part of the weekend was getting totally stonewalled by two pods of very large fish taking caddis and sulfur emergers in the big glassy pools. We camped out for over an hour in one spot, surrounded by smutting browns of the xxl variety, trying literally everything in our bag of tricks. A few heart-pounding refusals to show for it, and that's it. Rare for me to just give up on a bunch of rising fish and move on, but that's what we eventually did. Luckily, we had lots of beer on the boat.

If anybody knows of some ninja fly fishing technique to catch those guys, I'd like to hear it. We tried caddis emergers dead drifted in the film on greased leaders or dropped off elk hair dries and various duns. We tried swinging caddis pupa. We tried going big and flashy. We tried small and discrete. No dice. Sometimes the fish just win.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

If anybody knows of some ninja fly fishing technique to catch those guys, I'd like to hear it. We tried caddis emergers dead drifted in the film on greased leaders or dropped off elk hair dries and various duns. We tried swinging caddis pupa. We tried going big and flashy. We tried small and discrete. No dice. Sometimes the fish just win.

If they got selective to the black caddis as often happens during bug week, it can be game over. I would try a black or dark gray sparkle pupa just under the film in those situations and try not to break my rod over my knee with all the refusals. I also like to toss a rusty spinner over their heads because they are flush in the film and sometimes get a take even if that's not what they are focused on. Otherwise, I strongly suggest a case of hand grenades for times like that. We got a bit luckier with the coffin flies as the fish were hammering them.