Big Brookies in High Water

Yesterday I fished a stream that tends to handle rain well due to the recent storms we got Friday.  Central VA did not get much rain so I figured I would be fine.  I tied on a dry/dropper rig at the Jeep because of the 65 degree weather and in hopes of some big brookies hitting dries.  Hiked to the stream and was greeted with this.

Laughed at my dry/dropper rig, cut it off, and tied on a heavy weighted tungsten bead fly.  Plan for the day was to find some still slow pockets and fish it hard.  The big fish seemed to be stacked up in these few and far in between pockets.

Black Locust

And then I took a spill.  No real danger in this smallish stream, but was still some slow and careful wading in this fast moving water.  My foot stepped on a slick rock and I fell forward getting some water in my waders and soaked my shirt.  Had to start a fire to dry out my shirt as would of been a long day in the wind soaking wet.  Also had to empty out my waders of the little bit of water that went in.  Luckily I carry a flint fire starter.

After warming and drying up, it was back to the brookies.  Next came a big brookie that put up one heck of a fight.  

The most colored up brookie of the day.

Wake Robin.

Overall it was an awesome day, especially with the conditions.  Lots of 6 to 8 inch brookies caught and a lot over 10 inches caught.  Really unreal.  Thanks for reading.

Slow Spring For Bass

It has been a slow spring for the bass in ponds warming up.  For the past two weeks, all I have been catching are dinky 6 inch bass.  Average size of the brookies I catch is around that size.  Here is a montage (dinky montage) from pond fishing the past two weeks.

I tied up some Deceiver variants to mess around on the ponds and they seem to have yeilded better results.



Bigger then what it looks. Was a solid pound bass no thanks to the goofy camera angle.



Hopefully more and bigger bass to come soon.  Thanks for reading.

Posted Property

Fished some well known tribs that had some stock waters below.  The stogger hunters were out in full force.

Every pool had multiple people fishing it.  One pool ten foot wide pool had over twenty people fishing it.  It's a shame the state stocks these waters because they stock over wild fish sections.  It should be a great brook trout water shed, but wild rainbows have taken over pretty much every trib except one.  The state of Va just baffles me sometimes.  Here is a link to a good article with good comments on the problems with the VDIGF stocking program.

http://blogs.roanoke.com/wildlife/2013/04/share-your-thoughts-on-trout-truck-followers/

Fished the first stream lots over the past couple years and noticed a new no hunting or fishing sign next to the spot I park.  Didn't think much about it since I saw the national forest spray painted trees going up the stream still.  Caught this rainbow.

And then 30 yards upstream I saw this sign.

Realized that is a new sign and someone must of bought property at the top of this trib and posted it even though there are national forest marks all over the place.  Started to hike out of the woods and I see a car pull up and two guys get out.  It was pretty obvious that they were looking for me.  They didn't see me in the woods and as soon as they were making there way up the stream and walk to my Jeep, open the door quietly, throw my fly rod and pack in the passenger seat, and take off.  I look in the rear view mirror and see them both running out of the woods.  Shame that more access to wild waters is lost. 

Stream two is more remote and no worries of running into people.  Even though I did run into a british couple going up the mountain on a dead end road asking me if they were close to a highway.

Lunch/hike into stream 2.

This stream has some of the prettiest bows I've seen.

Creepy abandoned house.

Some stones were coming off.

Got tired of catching bows and wanted to catch a brookie so off to stream 3.

A little brookie to break the rainbow streak.

Caught this bow in the same pool as the brookie above.  Thanks Va.

Also a shame to see this kind of erosion on a brookie stream.

Going to give the VDIGF a call sometime soon and find out the story on the posted stream.  Hopefully it shouldn't be posted and the department will take care of that soon. 

Thanks for reading.