Sure beats a day of classes!

So me and a guy in the fly tying group I know hit a spring stream which produced the chunkiest average brookie day I have ever had.  Most of the streams I've fished around here in central VA have produced anorexic trout, but this stream was the opposite.  It was very cold first thing this morning, but turned out to be a gorgeous day.  The water was still a bit high from all the rain we've had, but a little high water sure beats low water when it comes to brookie streams.  Here is a picture of my big brookie of the day.

He shocked me when I pulled him out of the tiny pool.

The guy I was fishing with was throwing a Stimi with a zebra midge trailing and wasn't getting a single hit.  After seeing me pull two trout from a run he just fished, he caved and took my pink weenie I offered him earlier.  Next cast caught him this.

Sure beat my brookie as far as length goes.

Here is some more of the troot from da trip.

Overall it was a great  morning as far as fishing was concerned and an even greater day! 

Char Morning Trip

Decided to hit two new to me streams and then I had a back up stream that I knew was good just incase the first two were a bust.  Here is my quick rant, VIRGINIA RESIDENTS, YOU SUCK! QUIT POSTING EVERY SINGLE STREAM!

Don't know why or how people are allowed to buy so much property in national forests.  Somebody bought a whole top half of a stream and the road so no one can get to the stream.

Well enough talking, here's the pics from today.

It was a pretty rocky stream

Lunch for the afternoon

Big trout of the day.  I missed a hook up with this trout on a dry, and couldn't get him to rise again.  I tied on a pink weenie and he nailed it on the first cast.

Same brookie, different angle.  He was a skinny little guy, but had a lot of color on him.

Caught this brook trout, and decided to call it a day.  Wasn't even planning on fishing today, and didn't want to get too run down considering I did just have the flu.

The trout from above swimming away.

Thanks for reading and more to come soon!

Engagement, Golf Course Streams, and Red Wigglers

The last week has been loaded full of changes and weirdness.  Leaves are changing, I got engaged (which is a big change), I fished a stocked stream that runs through a redneck golf course, and I met a guy who tried to get me to put a red wiggler on my fly I was fishing.

I'll skip me getting engaged on Saturday and go on to the golf course stream.  Long story short, I had someone tell me about a golf course ten minutes from me that stocks their stream with trout.  Well I got there and the guy was nice, and told me they haven't stocked it yet this season but there are some holdover trout from last season in there.  Here was my big catch of the day.

Well that was Tuesday, and today I decided to do some real trout fishing.  Shortly after I get to my stream, a spray painted camo Jeep Cherokee comes up the rough trail and starts making camp.  I had to fish right past him, so I figured I'd be friendly and chat a bit.  The guy ended up being very friendly (never know what you'll run into on a blueline during the week).  He asked me what I was fishing with and proceeded to say that I should be using a red wiggler..... He saw my confusion and went to his cooler and pulled out a can of night crawlers.  Told me to put it on my fly and it'll drive the brookies wild.  I took it out of courtesy (and he had a gun).  He said he was up there for 2 months for some hunting and fishing.  Was worried when he pulled out the "red wiggler" that he was a poacher, but he's not.  He showed me a picture of a 15 inch brookie he caught last year from the stream and said he's strictly catch and release.  Said he calls the warden all the time on poachers, so that made me relieved.   Enough rambling and on to the pictures! 

Big trout of the day.  He was a beast and put a nice bend in the fly rod!

Most brookies were this size.

Small Brookie of the day.

Thanks for reading!

Brookie TR

Finally able to post up a TR.  Managed to get out this morning for about 3 hours and hit a nearby brookie stream.  This stream gets hammered by people on the weekends, but since it was a Friday I thought I'd try my luck.

Stream temperature were chilly when I first started wet wading, but got better as it got closer to noon.  Water levels were still looking good from all that rain last week and the brookies were aggressive today.  I managed to catch a good amount, but most had no size to them.

I came to this pool above and it looks like TU or something came through and built this dam to create this really nice pool.  I was throwing a stimi and it got crushed by a 9 inch brook trout.  It wasn't so much the length, but the girth on this trout that amazed me.  Unfortunately as I was fumbling for the camera, he slipped out of my hands and shook out the hook.  Kinda disappointing that the big fish of the day came off without a picture, but oh well.  Here are some pictures from today.

My Brookie Stream

I call it my brookie stream since it is the stream that means the most to me here in Virginia.  It gets very little fishing pressure due to the difficulty to reach the stream and it is the stream where I caught my first wild brook trout and ultimately feel in love with bluelining.  I went out this morning with a guy I met and had a much needed day of wild brookies.  The water levels were just perfect from all the rain that hurricane Irene gave us and the good water levels also made the trout really active.  I brought 6 to hand and had countless hits and LDR's.  The guy I fished with caught 8.  We were only on the water for a couple hours, so we had good  numbers for the time spent. 

This brookie was the biggest I caught today and is a really good trout for this creek.  He was around 8 inches and really smashed my stimulater.  The brookies in this stream are really strong and meaty trout.  It's refreshing to see a stream do so well and the brook trout really thrive.  So enough of the talking, here are some pictures of the trout I caught, the stream, and some underwater shots.

Hope you all enjoyed and more bluelines to come soon!

Rain+Dry Flies=Good morning

Don't have class till 3 so I decided to hit a pond before the rainy week begins.  Was able to fish from 10 to almost 1.  Rained pretty hard towards the end of my outing but the bass and panfish started slamming topwater flies so I toughed it out for another hour.

Notice the still water in this picture

And the not so still water in this picture

I haven't posted up a report here in a while, so here are some pics from a couple local Lynchburg ponds I've hit up.

Nothing spectacular, but they are fish and enough to hold me over until syllabus shock is over and I get back in the routine of classes.

This is a picture of a back of a car that made my night!

And today I went down to the James river with my brother to fish a little and cook a few brats.   Made my first fire using a flint so that was a first for me.  Nothing big today at the James, but just wanted to get out and pester a few bass and gills with the fly rod.

The dreaded hike back to the jeep........Boy am I getting out of shape.  My freshman year in college when I still wrestled and was in shape this hike was nothing, but now that I'm in my senior year and have been out of wrestling for two years, I hate the hikes back.