The WBD has been an even tougher fishery these past few weeks w/ irregular air temps, windy days, rain and dropping water. Inconsistent hatches and marginal surface feeding proved to be the case in both trips. On Sunday, we arrived at Stilesville, just in time for Deposit’s Annual Raft Race Day. Emergency crew in their air boat raced up and down the river, escorting 50 enterprising rafters. Although this was a fun local spectacle to watch, it did little to help fishing conditions. The afternoon sulpher hatch was slow w/ no good trout snouts visible. Late afternoon we fished a riffle below Hancock and I managed to lose 5 decent fish. All taken on tiny sulpher/brassie style nymphs on 6x and I put a clinic on how to lose fish. Sunday’s evening hatch never materialized and we left the water close to 9:30. We did manage to see two eagles, a coyote, deer, a turkey and a host of other birds. However, no decent trout brought to net and no sustained surface feeding.
On Wednesday we experienced a better sulpher hatch from 11 am to 2, but w/ very few decent fish feeding on the surface. Plenty of 4″ to 8″ feeding in pods, but no big snouts. Now that we are in summer mode, these larger fish are less likely to feed on the surface and prefer the nymphs/cripples/emergers that lie 2-6″ under the surface. I fished a 16′ leader w/ 6x, double flies and had very few shots @ decent fish. Several times I spooked larger browns handing tight against grassy points, never showing themselves w/ feeding or breaking the surface. All the while, the 6″ smaller yearling browns are feeding all over the place. It is nice to see a healthy population of young fish in the system. There wasn’t enough bug mass on the water to get the larger boys interested. Late afternoon we nymphed two riffles (including Balls Eddy) and only managed several small rainbows/browns. To end the night, we fished the Lower Gamelands and again, the hatch/spinner fall never materialized. The WBD is an awesome fishery, but it sure was stingy w/ us these two recent trips.
