Getting Access to Private Water

Just got back from a three day fishing/camping trip with a group of guys.  I'll eventually get around to putting up pictures and commentary from the whole trip, but thought I'd share this neat story first.

Saturday I fished solo.  Had a few small small streams I wanted to check out in the area.  One of the streams was posted all the way up and veered through someone's property up a mountain.  I saw an older gentlemen out splitting wood and thought I'd get out and chat with him to see what he knew about the area.  Come to find out he owned the property that was posted along the stream next to the road and the property blocking access to the stream when it goes up the mountain.  I could tell right away he didn't want me to fish it and we began talking about the area and other brookie streams near by.  After about 20 minutes of talking, the guy's son came up the road and he waved him over telling me that his son works for VDGIF and he's the one I need to talk too.  So we all talk for another 20 minutes on the area streams and out of no where the old timer asked "do you keep the fish you catch?"  I told him no and about how the guys I was camping with bust my chops about me never eating a wild brookie.  He than thought a second and said "I reckon you can fish the stream than."  He told me it's been over 13 years since it's been fished and there he's seen some good sized rainbows and brookies in there.  He was having a few trees cut behind his property and he didn't want me up the mountain, but gave me a 150 yard stretch to fish.  It was by far the most fun stream I have fished to date.  Mainly for the cool factor of catching a trout that probably has never seen a fly in their whole life.  It was a tiny little trickle of a stream and I have never caught the average size fish I was catching in a stream so small.  The owner came down in his gator a couple times to check how I was doing.  The last time he came down he told me I was welcome back anytime and I could fish the whole thing if I desired.  Here are the pictures from the stream.

My First Double.  Brookie took the dry, Rainbow took the dropper.

After I fished the stream, I left a note on the owner's vehicle and called it a day.  It is a stream that will not be forgotten and that I hope to visit again in the future.

Quick break from Yard work

I had a couple hours to kill this past Saturday when my wife went to a wedding shower.  I had been working on some yard work/landscaping all morning and decided I needed to take a break and hit a local trout stream.  I've been more and more impressed with this stream each time I fish it.  I lost one brookie that was in the 10 to 11 inch range.  It was one of those days where the trout couldn't be kept off the hook and the fish were very forgiving.  I had a few trout rise 5 times or more to the same fly before being caught. 

Had to turn this neglected flower bed.

Into this.  Plus about 5 other areas like this.

One of my favorite drives.

Neat dark brookie.

Flowers pooping up.

 

Took about 10 brook trout from this one pool. They weren't spooked at all.

Then it was back to planting, mulching, and school work, but my mind was still on the fishing.

Spring Trout Stream Exploring

Got a call from a friend saying he was going to Harrisonburg for business and wanted to know if I wanted to meet him along the way and fish.  Figuring I would need a much needed break today due to end of the month accounting work I'd be doing on the 31st and needed a break from MBA work, I gladly agreed to take off work.  Goal was to fish stream 1 which was new to me, but on my stream hit list for a while now.  Had a back up stream I knew had trout in it, but never fished, just incase stream 1 was a bust. 
Stream 1 we had to bushwhack around a big property at the end of the road in order to get to the stream.  Stream ended up having brookies, but far and few in-between.  Aaron caught one that was about 6 inches, and I caught one that was about 2 inches.  We saw hardly any bug life at all in the stream as well.

Old logging bridge.

Property we had to bushwhack around.

Fun hiking conditions to the stream.

Anyone shave a deer lately?  No skin or bones, just a lot of deer hair.

Example of the size brookies in Stream 1.

After staying with stream 1 for a couple hours, we saw no sign of conditions of the stream improving.  We decided to bail and hit the back up stream.  Stream two was much better to us.  Always good to have a back up plan while exploring.  Most of the trout caught were caught on dries.  Spring is upon us guys.

Remnants of a controlled forest burn.

Water conditions were perfect.

 

Not a bad way to spend an April Fools day.