No Fish There (Again)

Well, the last week of August is winding down, and my last fishing day for the week has been concluded. I felt the air change more than an hour before the thunderstorm came knocking and was snug with my gear stowed and driving toward home when the first drops were falling. There was some good news all around today.

I started late, heading out after nine after publishing the chronicle of my day on the Neversink, so it was a leisurely summer morning for me. I made the long walk along the river, watching the remnant of the mist come alive in the warming air, rousting some deer on the shoreline. One of them sounded like it was touching close when it bounded out of it’s fully greenery screened bed after ignoring it’s companions’ alarm snorts. That one got my heart pumping!

As soon as I stopped to get ready to fish the now famous tree where there are never any trout around, I heard a rise upstream. Watching for a few moments, I saw a rise just above me near the far bank. I tossed my Grizzly Beetle his way several times, but he paid no heed, so I went to work fishing to my fishless spot.

I admit, I was nearly convinced that there wasn’t another big brownie tucked into that cover. But I drifted that fly over every inch of that lie and, sure enough, the Grizzly Beetle was irresistible, conjuring a trout where none really are! The twenty-one incher gave me a good ride particularly when I tried to shoot the proof that he was really there.

Another warm, sunny day, and I had arrived just in time to fish the remaining shade on that tree. The air was very calm, the pool glassy, so I cast that beetle out to any signs of subsurface movement. Once I got a hard grab as I started to retrieve for another cast, making me wonder if another aggressive rainbow was out there, but all of my spot casts amounted to two young brown trout, each some six or seven inches long.

Those two little fish amounted to good news though too. As the river, and that favorite pool as a nursery looks to be in very good shape. Walking down, and feeling the air pressure continue to slowly drop, I thought about the fishing might be three or four years hence. I hope to be there to cast a fly and find out!