Recent Flies

Been tying to restocking my fly box for next year along with some new flies I've been wanting to use.

North Fork Special

Size 22 CDC dry

Size 22 midges and ants.

 

Low Water Surprises

Central VA is hurting for some rain.  Everything from the south part of the SNP all the way down to the northern part of Southwest VA is having low water issues.  I made a few phone calls, talked to a few friends about what has water right now, and talked buddy out of fishing the Smith.  Seems I had to head up to Northern Va for brookies, so Saturday that is what we did.  The first stream was a bust, but the second was money.  Nothing big till the last run I fished, but we did caught a bunch.

Waking up early isn't fun.

And neither is driving in fog.

But this makes it all worth it.

Lunch.

About the average size for this trip.

Some BWO's were hatching, but no top water action.

Now I came up to this undercut along the bank and just had a feeling that something big had to be lurking under it.  I made about twenty cast working from the back of the undercut up to the front with a nymph with no luck.  Thought I'd make one more cast to the very top corner of the undercut and sure enough, was rewarded with a big brook trout. 

It really shocked me that this guy was in this stream.  I didn't catch or see a single trout over 5 inches, so hooking into this big male really made my jaw drop.  After catching him I reeled in my line and went to go find my friend downstream...I was content for the rest of the day.

EP Streamer Brush

I've been messing around with some EP Streamer Brush material on my musky flies and I've got to say, I really like this stuff. Now to just see if the musky agree.

More Musky

A bored night equals messing around with different musky patterns.  

November Dry Fly Action

Had a friend who came up from North Carolina for a weekend of camping and brookie fishing.  Managed to sneak off for a couple hours on Sunday to join him and show him around my local streams.  I saw a few odd ball October Caddis hatching, but besides that nothing really coming off the water.  Saw a couple rises from some brook trout and they seemed to still be looking up on this rather warm November day.  I picked the perfect day to sneak off and it was probably my last trip of the year I could wet wade and fish dries. I stuck with a size 14 stimi all day and my friend stuck with a tungsten pink weenie. 

Highlight of the trip was catching the brookie above in a glass calm pool on a dry fly.  My friend spotted a big brookie holding behind a log 15 ft in front of us.  It was a little out of his reach with his tight lining technique and the tungsten hitting the water in the still pool would of probably spooked him.  I didn't see the fish, but my friend directed my cast.  On the second drift (which was luckily perfect) he came up and sipped my stimi in slow motion.  It is a clip that I replay in my head here at work and puts a smile on my face.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

What to do with my wife's left over steak from the night before........

Make the breakfast of champions (bagel, egg, cheese, and steak)

Friend working a pool.

About the average size.

My friends big fish of the day.

Wish I could of been here for this caddis hatch.

Came home and the wife had went all out on the Christmas decorations! WAY TOO EARLY!

Perfect way to spend a Sunday evening.

Musky and Polls

What goes perfectly with watching the poll results come in on the tv....tying musky flies.

South Holston Doghouse Trip

Went to the South Holston with the Lynchburg Fly Tying group Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  It was three days of fishing, good eating, and good times.  The lodge we stayed at was right on the river and was fairly nice.  It had 7 beds and we brought 11 people so it was a little cramped but not bad at all.  Fishing was by no means good but that was due to a crappy generation schedule and it being the first time I fish the SoHo.  Bill and Doug came as well and I'm very glad Bill brought his raft.  They were forecasting no generation for Saturday or Sunday and they ended up generating from 9 am to 5 pm on Sat due to a project healing water event going on there.  I guess they were teaching people how to use drift boats or something and got special permission to have TVA generate all day.  Sunday there was generation from 9 am to noon so besides some early morning fishing, we just packed up and left on Sunday.  I caught fish every day I was there so I can't complain, but it was still sub par fishing at best.  Friday was decent day fishing in the afternoon.  Sulphurs were hatching and managed to pull in a couple once I got zeroed in. Bill got to take his raft out for the first time on Saturday and it was a fish lacking float, but we learned a lot about the section we floated and we had a blast with Doug in the raft with us.  Managed to still pull in a few fish on Saturday with them generating so all was good.  Woke up Sunday morning and caught one pretty brown and decided to pack up to head back to the burg.  Wasn't feeling very good to fish due to the whole dog house thing that I will explain at the end.  Sorry it was so long winded but I am setting the story up and here are a few crappy pictures from the trip.

Cabin we stayed at.

Leaves sure feel like trout when first snagged.

First SoHo trout is an ugly stogger bow.

Finally a pretty colored up brown.

Nice way to cap off the evening.

Bill with his raft.

Last brown trout before leaving. Did catch one that was a bit bigger, but didn't have my camera on me at the time.

Now time for the reason why I titled this the doghouse trip.

Saturday we got done with the first float we were planning on doing around 1 and we were planning on doing the same float again since they were generating till 5.  We were loading the boat onto the trailer and the handle slipped my wedding ring off my hand when we dropped the boat to take a break.  I immediately felt this happen and the three of us began the search.  This happened on a slight slope in a field next to our lodge.  We searched, other guys searched as they rolled in from fishing, I researched several times throughout the day and even at night with a flashlight with no luck.  I have no idea why we couldn't find that ring.  A couple guys that were with us came up and asked what the ring looks like.  I told them "its a white gold, custom made ring with my wife's finger print going around the band."  Their eyes bugged out because they realized the serious trouble that I was in.  I felt bad I ruined Doug and Bill's fishing for the evening on Saturday but they are stand up guys and would fish with these two any day.  Doug even ran up with me to a house down the road to get a rake so we could comb the area.  Managed to come to an old local guy's house who was an interesting character.  He was the kind of guy you would want around the camp fire just to hear his stories.  He realized the soon to be wrath that I would surely face and lent out a rake.  When we returned the rake to no avail, he told us his son in law lived next door and had a metal detector, but was out of town.  On Sunday before we left we swung by his house to let him know we never found the ring and he said he'd get his son in law to try to find it with his metal detector whenever he gets back in town.  As we were pulling out of his drive way he flagged us down and went and got a rose from his garden.  He said "I have a feeling you’re going to need this when you get back home".

He was sure right.  My wife was upset, but it could be worst.  I did have a good time aside from losing the ring and had a good time with everyone who went.  The fishing wasn't great, but I've realized you don't need to catch fish to have a good time.  I probably won't be fishing for a while due to losing my wedding ring within four months of being married.....but you live and you learn.

P.S. also found out I have leaky waders during the trip.  Icying on the cake.

More sulphurs

Tied a few more sulphurs for the trip this weekend. The anticipation is building......

SoHo Fly Preparation

In about a week I will be on the SoHo casting to colored up browns.  Being a finicky tailwater that it is, I have been doing a lot of tying.  Size 16 Parachute Sulphurs.  Not the prettiest things in the world, but should get the job done. 

Weekend Camping

My wife has been wanting to go out camping for a while now and with the fall colors starting to come in and the temperatures being pretty nice, we decided to camp Friday through Sunday afternoon.  My wife's requirements were clean bathrooms with a shower and running water at the camp site for cooking.  My requirements was a wild trout stream close by.  We managed to find a place that had vacancies and met all our requirements nicely.  This would be her first time camping in a tent and she surprisingly did well and she enjoyed it.  A couple things we learned is 1) setting up a campsite in the dark sucks. 2) Packing up in the rain sucks more. 3) Bring your own wood because the campground tries to rip you off.   Here are the pictures from this weekend.

As soon as the tent was up I had a fire going.

Wife's knee high socks.

Wife's definition of bike riding.

We ate good.

Snuck in a couple wild bows.

Biggest of the trip.

Big log = long fire

Wife's footie pajamas....for her defense it was cold, but still hilarious that she wore this in public.

Did I say we ate good?

Our campsite.

Local campground dog.

Fire was hot that night.  Thank goodness because it was in the low 40's.

Nothing better then sitting out by the fire until you run out of wood to burn.  It was a nice way to cap out the night.  If you noticed the big log is about gone in this picture.  Took 8 hours to burn down to this size.

Woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rain and came to the conclusion that packing up a tent in the rain is no fun.  I consider the camping trip a huge success and was pleased that my wife enjoyed her first tent camping experience.  I foresee that there will be plenty of more trips like this in the future.  Thanks for reading.