Caddis Chronicles

As promised, here's a report from the wilds of the Poconos.

Bruce and I arrived late Saturday afternoon and some of the usual suspects were already at the lodge. They had just returned from the river and had mixed success with nymphs, but nothing on dry flies. The river was somewhat high, but clear - as clear as a tannic stained river can be - and in beautiful shape.

We headed up river to fish, while the others decided to hang back for dinner instead of taking advantage of the best time to be on the water. We split up and I slid into a nice long pool. No flies were on the water, but that didn't stop me from fishing a small parachute hopper. My first cast with it resulted in a nice wild brookie taking the fly after a short drift. I continued to fish the dry with no success, so I switched to nymphs. Over the next two hours I took a number of brookies and lost a few others.

It started to sprinkle, so I took a short walk up to where Bruce was to see how he was doing and shortly after I reached him the skies opened up. It began to pour like I've never seen it. We hightailed it back to the car and by the time we got there, we were soaked to the bone. Before the run in the rain though, I did take this pic of a huge hemlock that succumbed to hemlock wooley adelgid .

Saturday night we just hung out at the lodge, listened to the rain, drank some beverages, and tied flies. As usual, we stayed up very late and laughed till we hurt and then slept like babies.

Sunday morning came with bright sun and warm, humid air. After breakfast we headed downstream and found nothing in the air and no fish rising. I took a trio of fish -a rainbow, a brook, and a brown - all on a beadhead Bird's Nest nymph. This one:

The day was perfect, although the fishing wasn't, but all was not lost. We fished until about 5:00, and during that time I caught another fish - yep, one more. And spent some time exploring and watching the hummingbirds work their way among the wild flowers that lined the river.

And finally, a photo from just below a small waterfall looking upstream.