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.