Sunday, April 13, 2014

Yin and Yang

As I write this, I have all the windows open to the warmth of the evening, and the frogs in the pond are chirping loudly.  It's hard to believe that a month or so ago we had temperatures in the teens at night and plenty of snow still blanketed the ground.  Now, in early April, the daffodils are in full bloom on the hillsides and the forsythia is just about ready to blossom into bright yellow and signal the coming of the first major mayfly hatch, the Hendrickson.


After taking care of a million things unrelated to fishing today, I finally headed out to the South Branch about mid-afternoon to wet a line.  The air temperature was in the upper 70's, high thin clouds muted the sun, and a pretty brisk breeze blew intermittently and seemingly only when I was in the middle of good drift with my nymph.  The water was 58 degrees, clear, and at a perfect early season level.  It was a beautiful day to be on the river, and I was hoping this might be the first day this year I would get to fish dries and take some trout on the top. 

Nature had other ideas, as is sometimes the case when the weather turns quickly, literally overnight, from cool to quite warm.  There were no insects hatching, I could see trout holding on the bottom in some runs, but they tended to hold steady.  Rarely did I see a fish move sideways or turn as they do when taking drifting insects from the water column.  I fished a brown and yellow LaFontaine caddis pupa deep, and in two hours caught two fish and moved two others.  It was wonderful to be out on the water -it would have been great if only the fish took thought it was wonderful, too.  That's fishing -  great weather, poor fishing.  No complaints.

And now for another Henley update.  The little man is doing great, as are his mom and dad.  He starting to smile and roll over....it's only a matter of time before that rattle will be the cork handle of a fly rod.

    
  Sharpen your hooks!         

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matt,

I was also in Ken Lockwood Sunday afternoon- at the very lower end. We had a ton of caddis in the air & on the water-but no rising fish.

Peter Wilner

Mr.Q said...

I haven't seen a fish all year!!!!
:(

Matt Grobert said...

Hi Pete, I was above the gorge later in the afternoon and there were no insects......wrong time, right place? How did you do? Matt

Anonymous said...

we fished for 2 hrs and saw and caught nothing. Lots of fishermen, but only one caught anything. we saw him have a LDR on a 14-15" brown.

Peter