Tinker Creek

Went home with my girlfriend Kayla for Easter weekend.  She lives in Roanoke so it was a nice get away from the college campus.  Ate some delicious food all day Sunday and didn't think I was going to be able to move on Monday.  Ended up being able to move and hit a stocked stream in Roanoke called Tinker Creek.  It's a nice stream but gets slammed with bait fisherman.  Probably 20 people fishing on a Monday, so I can only imagine how many people are there on the weekends.  It hadn't been stocked in over a week and half but there was a few trout that held on and didn't end up on someone's dinner plate.  Only managed one stocked bow but had two other trout that came off.  Not bad for an overfished desolate trout stream.

Trash Fish

Diamond in the rough

So I heard from a friend about a small pond in the woods that never gets fished and is 5 minutes off campus (He's a big time marathon runner and not a fisher).  Not having much expectations for the pond, I decided I'd check it out after classes.  Boy was I wrong, this pond is a gold mine for large bass.  It is shielded from the road by a small row of trees and it looks like it doesn't get fished very often.  The pond is small, but has crappie, bass, and a ton of bream.  Needless to say, I've been back three times this week.  Yesterday I caught the biggest bass on a fly rod to date. 

On this day we decided to take out the canoe and anchor it in the middle of the pond and fly fish.  From the middle of the pond you can cast to just about every shoreline.  It was getting towards the end of the fishing for that day and I already had caught 20+ fish of all kinds (Bass, Crappie, and the majority being bream).  I caught all the fish that day on a size 12 cajun tickler.  I made a long cast towards a fallen tree and saw my line barely twitch as it had been on any other bite that day.  I set the hook and could see from a distance a bass open his mouth and start shaking.  I was thinking it was a 1 to 2 pound average bass, but about half way to the canoe my line started taking off and I knew it was a bit bigger. It was by far the biggest fish I've had on my fly rod and fought hard.  Fought him for close to 4 minutes (which seems like a life time) and had him under the canoe and all over the place.  Ended up landing him and now have a new PB for my fly rod.  I was using a 7 weight and was sure glad I was.  Still makes me laugh though that I caught it on a size 12 fly I tied.  Who says small flies don't catch big bass? haha

 

My friend who is new to fly fishing managed his first slab crappie on a fly rod and brought in a decent bass as well.  I got him hooked on fly fishing now and off that spin rod.  

 

So overall it is an amazing pond with lots of big fish and wildlife.  I have never seen so many frogs and salamanders in one pond, which explains the big fish.  Will be making several more trips here and hopefully will get a bass over 5 pounds on my fly rod soon.  Here are some more pictures from this week.

Bass I caught

Crappie I caught

Another pic of the PB bass.

Exploring New Waters and Getting Skunked

Today the college canceled all classes due to a school wide assessment day.  Assessment day to me equals day fishing for wild brookies!  Only downfall was it poured all day long the day before (And when I say all day, I mean from Midnight Monday to Midnight on Tuesday).  I knew the water levels would be high, but I have had this small creek marked on my topo map that I've wanted to fish for a while now.  So a friend of mine and me decide to go still and just hope for the best.  It was about a 2.5 mile hike to get to the creek and the creek went straight up in between to mountains.  The creek was gorgeous, but very difficult to fish, with the bow n' arrow cast being a necessity with all the over hanging trees.  My friend had a little more difficult of a time with his fly cast since he's still a little new to fly fishing, but he hung in there good.  I ended up catching two small minnows that were two inches long maybe and my friend ended up catching one minnow the same size.  Saw one brookie and that was all.  The water levels were a little high, but I blame the lack of insect life for the lack of fish.....  I turned over so many rocks and saw zero insect life. I know there is some insects in there due to the fact that a big adult Mayfly landed on my rod, but overall it was quite disappointing.  So overall the creek was scenic, with deep pools and does contain brookies, but the presence of brook trout doesn't seem very strong.  Don't think I'll be heading back there, but glad to get off campus for a day and explore some new waters.

Here are some pics from today:

Trail heading towards creek.

The Creek

A decent pool

The biggest thing I caught all day.

The Skink getting payback

Another Stream picture

Picture of my Brookie Slayer rod and a Royal Wulff Variation

Mayfly that came to visit.

Spring Break Warmwater Fishing

For spring break this I went back home to Georgia for lots of relaxing and farm pond fishing.  Really enjoyed fishing the ponds that over two years ago I was learning how to cast at.  I got to fish four days during my spring break and largemouth bass and big bream were on the agenda.  I only used two fly rods, my 9' 7 weight and my 6'6'' 4 weight.  I mainly used my 7 weight since it was longer and I can control and cast further in the wind, but did break out my shorter 4 weight for one day (which I found out is very fun to catch bass and bluegill on).  The weather was perfect all break with temps hanging around 70's and 80's so the bass were in prespawn phase and saw a couple already on their beds.  Got to say though, the big bluegill were definitely the highlight of spring break. I caught one massive bluegill that put a bigger bend in my fly rod than any other fish I caught

all break.  I was using a #10 cajun tickler and I cast it parrellel to the bank, and as soon as it hit the water there was a "v" wake and my line twitched.  I must of cast right on top of him and quickly set the hook and knew I had a good fish on.  He put a big bend in my 7 weight and made me think I had a good size bass on my line!  Got the bluegill pictured to the left 5 feet to shore and was shocked it was a fiesty bluegill.  He had me fooled.  The bluegill I caught over break has reconfirmed the fact that pound for pound, bluegill are some of the hardest fighting fish.  I totaled about 4 small bass and about a dozen bluegill over spring break.  Can't wait for spring and summer warmwater fishing when the big bass get a little more active.  Down below I've included a few more pictures and fish from break.

Another view of the bluegill above.

Small farm pond bass

Bass modeling my cajun tickler with orange legs.

 

 

 

Another decent sized bluegill.

Big Bluegill I caught on my 4 weight.

Murky underwater shot.

Last Shot of fishing before leaving Georgia for School in Va.

Dry Fly Action in February

Haven't had a single day to get to the mountains in February till today, the last Sunday of the month.  It was a gorgeous day with the temp getting close to 70 and a partly cloudy sky, so after church I headed up to the Jefferson National Forest to hit a stream for an hour.  I also got a new 6'6'' custom 3/4 weight fly rod last week and was due for trying it out!  Now my goal this year is to catch at least one fish (Preferably a trout) every single month this year, and with zero trips fishing in February, I needed to catch a fish on this trip today.  It rained pretty good on Friday so the creeks here are back to it's normal levels after this abnormally dry month.  Started out fishing a Beadhead nymph, after about 4 cast into this nice pool I noticed a couple fish rising, but could not figure out what they were rising at.   A couple cast later I noticed a whitish/gray hatch start fluttering on the water and then get slammed by a brookie.  I quickly matched it with a White adams and made a cast I got the fish to rise but it was a miss.  Moved on to the next pool and slowly drifted the dry by a rock and a brookie quickly jumped at it.  It felt good to put a little bend in my new fly rod and nothing like a wild brookie as the first fish on a new rod that is inscripted "Brookie Slayer." 

I had a lot of action with the dry but only two other hook ups, but both came off quickly.  The hatch stopped after about another 45 minutes and the trout were shutting down so decided to head back after an hour of fishing and call it a day.  One fish is what I wanted in February, and one fish is what I got.  Can't beat dry fly fishing in February!
 

Nice Get Away Trip!

Fifty degree weather in January? There is no way I could pass up on a trip to a wild trout stream!  The stream conditions were nice.  There was no ice on the stream except for a few icicles clinging on to logs and overhanging rocks on the stream.  The further up the mountain I went the more snow that was on the ground, but in was only an inch or two at most.  So all in all, it was a very nice day in the GWNF. The fishing was

very slow.  I tied everything I had on to my line but nothing really seemed to work.  I tried two different kinds of midges, three different nymphs, and even a couple dries; nothing was working for me.  I eventually put on a scud and managed one brookie in one of the bigger pools.  He put up a little fight and it was nice to not get skunked for the day.  And to tell you the truth, this is one of the prettiest streams I have fished and not many people know about it (hence why I won't be posting any pictures of the stream), so just being outside enjoying  some of God's amazing work is all I need to enjoy the day.  SPRING CANNOT GET HERE FAST ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some pictures from the day:

Only Fish of the Day

A close up picture and my favorite pic of the day.

Trout Food (Been told its a yellow stonefly)

Not a Bad Hump Day

So here goes the first post of what I hope will be many more.  Since I had no classes on Wednesday 1/19/2011 me and my friend Taylor decided it would be nice to hit up a wild creek up in the George Washington National Forest.  This is the first time I had personally went to this creek and was pleasantly happy with how wide and how deep it was. Some of the pools were over ten feet wide and five feet deep

which is a fairly big creek for most GWNF creeks I've been to.  The main reasons we decided to go is 1) I got a new pair of Simms wading boots I was wanting to break in and 2) Virginia randomly decided to warm up to the mid fifties (which I had to take advantage of!).  This was the first time I had been able to get out in 2011 and was happy just to get out on a blue line and cast a line.  The ice was none existent which I was not expecting.  I've been hearing lots of reports of small creeks being iced up but this creek did not have a single bit of ice on it.

Now on to the fishing.......IT WAS SLOW!  It had rained the day before I went out so I was kind of figuring it was going to be a slow with the pressure change.  I was fishing a #22 midge and my friend was fishing a beadhead nymph.  Well I wasn't getting a single nibble with my midge so I switch to a size #12 buggy looking nymph and first cast I landed a decently sized wild

brookie.  I casted to the top of a deep pool and and before I could even get my rod situated in my hands, my line jerked and fish was on.  He put a nice bend to my fly rod and I snapped a few pictures and sent him on his way.  Now since I landed this brookie on my first cast on my #12 nymph I thought I had this hott fly that I was going to tear the stream up with the rest of the day......I was wrong.  I had one other hit all day and that was it.   Taylor ended up not catching anything that day either, so I did not feel so bad with only one brookie for the day.  So all in all, I got to go fishing when most college kids are in classes, I got to explore and fish a new stream, and I managed my first fish of the year.  Not a bad hump day.

Here are some more pictures:

 

Trout not  cooperating with me

 

Pool I caught the fish in.

Another picture of the creek.