I got this memory on Facebook the other day. It was Friday morning April 23, 2014 and I stopped by Pullman Avenue before heading up to Hancock for the FUDr One Bug. I was guiding in it and had my bags and boat packed for the trip. This weekend they held the One Bug yet again, and it has grown bigger every year since. I'm glad they had good weather, hopefully the blowing south wind we had didn't affect them up there much.
It's been such a weird year. Big water. Cold. Blowing winds. And they seem to have hit at all the wrong times. I wonder how that will affect the spawn. It's near the end of April and usually the spawn is coming to an end but we are just hitting 58 degrees. That's about the number when love really starts
being in the air, well water. And just when we were having a river in the 30, 40, 50 an 60,000 cfs we're not bottomed out around 10,000 cfs. Again, too low too soon. Now a few days of 80 degree bluebird sky days like today and the river will be 70 degrees. I hope for some rain soon, even if it blows it out a bit.
Fishing has been slow, like real slow. It has been a challenge to keep motivated, but since things change on a tide I just keep the grind on. I donated a dozen really nice flies this weekend to the river but that's part of the game. I did manage to snag two Mag Darters on one cast during the week, not that
that helps me at all. On Saturday the UPS man dropped off an Orvis return. TRhe funny thing with Orvis is you never know when you're opening the box if you'll get your old rod back or would they give you a new one. If you remember I blew up the butt section on my Access 12 wt during a fall on the rocks.
This time I thought they may go big and give me a new one. The note with the repair says, "Your fly rod is back better than ever", well that's open for discussion. They did glue on a new fighting butt to the
old rod which I am happy for, and paid for. I did mention in my notes on the repair that when they repaired it in 2017 they sent a tip section that just didn't match up with the original. It's either from a
different rod or it was finished differently in the shop. They just sent it back. No note. Nothing.
I did manage to catch one little guy out on boat way up river on Friday. It's a spot I haven't been to and my buddy let me come along for the ride. So much river in the Delaware. 330 miles of it.
