Good day out there. A day of literally 1,000 casts. Beautiful late morning with N-NW winds, but with the tide flip the wind did also going S. It was like glass there for a while, and no one around, just me and my ladder and an occasional hungry fish. I pushed the ladder to the top step which at times can
be dicey if you start a lean on a cast, you can go sideways or over the top. That will be another post one day when I take a header. I tried the yak fly I tied last night but switched to a Beast Fly that was a tad easier to cast.
It came in around 9 inches and swam nicer than it does when it dry. It sucks that I suck at tying them, they do really work if you can cast them, and not just 30 feet, but really long distance. Luckily it got swiped at, which was several cool visuals, talked slapped, and eaten.
For me , the ladder is a game changer, especially in bays and rivers. It gets me out further, which makes my cast easier, and it gets me higher. If I didn't have it I would look like a St. Bernard with the stripping basket under my double chin. And don't forget to bust out your stripping basket without holes, otherwise it just fills up with water and adds water tension and friction to your line when casting.
I stayed for the flip and got chased back to shallower waters when the S ind kicked up. I can feel the sun and wind burn on my face. In the end it was three fish to hand 30-33 inches and a few on and off and again those visual swing and misses. The 3-11 shift was arriving as I ended my session and they quickly were into fish with minnow lures, not big plugs like I had seen the other night. I was easily outfitted by the 10 anglers there, there's something about that movement, vibrations and rattles they have when the water is off color and you have that wind in your face, along with the cabbage in the water. This might be it for me as the Delaware is clearing up and dropping, and not soon enough. My
hoop-dee car has something wrong so I am running my diesel around, and at $5.25 a gallon that adds up. The Delaware is down under 50,000 cfs, with normal this time around 20,000, snd now dropping
like a stone. There's some more new things coming from me, teaching will me my gig, and I'll be closing down the practice and getting back to guiding. It's something I miss and I look forward to taking people fishing and sharing this passion of ours, fly fishing that is, and of course, striped bass.