Upper West Branch brown
Had a great day on the West Branch, and Main Stem, before the heat wave hit and while there's still cool water in the Upper Delaware. I left my house in NJ around 5am and got to the Circle E Diner in Hancock for breakfast around 830. I took a bacon and egg to go and drove to West Branch Anglers to get some flies. I decided to fish one of my favorite although heavily traveled beats, the Deposit Sewer Treatment pool, well the riffs right above. I ran through twice fishing for about 2 hours and brought one to hand and lost another.
Lower Gamelands
I then moved down and parked in the Lower Gamelands parking area and walked down to the river which I shared with one other angler. I moved slowly along the bank and found 2 fish, one 18 and the other slightly bigger, in the shallow water below the tree cover. I could understand why, it was almost 90 degrees. Well I worked that fish for over two hours, threw the box at him. Sulfurs-not, March Browns- not, Olives-not, Grey Fox-not, and I threw nymphs, emergers and dries of each. I made some cool pictures there breaking out my macro set up to get some good bug pics. Well, as luck would have it, my book caught my camera strap and swung it around into the water. As it traveled in the air I kicked it with my other foot shattering the filter and drenching the grip anyway. Very bad.
Very bad, camera and water doesn't mix
I was sick as packed up my camera gear. I tried to unscrew the filter, no go. I shook the water out and when I installed the battery and turned it on it just beeped and hummed. But I still had my old reliable G12. That camera I take on rivers and jetties, in sun and rain- salt and fresh air- takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. So I decided to fish Bard Parker (Junction Pool) and started out in the Second Heaven riffles where I missed one nice rainbow stripping downstream. I fished through, then repeated it, but this time, I FELL IN, and socked my Canon G12- retail $499.00. I went in up to my head in three feet of water. I was sick again. But I decided to stay. I emptied what water I could from my camera and hip pack and fly boxes and went at it in the large pool. Guys were set up across the river and large fish started to rise along the center in the faster current. Right before 9 pm the guy across the river must have hooked a 15 pound fish. I couldn't see but the reel screamed back and forth for about 20 minutes.
I made some really nice images that I have to do post work on but will post them on my main web site in the next few days.
