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.