December Post Christmas Brookies

Been a while since I've been out fishing.  Decembers are normally busy for me with Christmas festivities and other obligations, but throw in a new job, housing being up for sale, and a 6 month old and you get even busier.  But I managed to sneak away the day after Christmas.  With all this rain VA has been receiving I decided to hit something high elevation.  It rained most of the day Saturday and put my new Stetson to the test.  I was impressed with how the hat made it seem like it wasn't even raining out.

Managed to catch a few on a Stimi.  Guess a 70 degree December day will get the trout looking up.

New hat, what I was packing, and lunch. 

Managed to drudge up this pretty fish with a heavy tungsten fly.  Worked the pool first with and dry/dropper and pulled a few smaller fish.  Switched to the heavy stuff to see what was lurking on the bottom.

This little guy took a size 12 fly.....

Stream was up quite a bit.

Crazy to see anything green sprouting this time of year.

Coffee break.

Most colored up brookie of the trip.

Cheers until next time.

SNP Forced Brookie Trip

The ending to this year has been both exciting and hectic.  I recently started a new job which involves an hour and a half commute until my wife and I sell our house.  So between the baby, new job, and the house selling process I have been going full throttle.  This past weekend I decided to relax a little from the house work and do a day trip. 

The day started out slow and cold, but after the sun hit the hit the water for a little bit the fishing picked up.  Even caught a couple on the dry. 

Cold morning.

Small falls.

Big falls.

View from top of falls.  Big elevation change.

One of the few eating dries.

Widow maker.

 

 

Standard stream side lunch

Big brookie of the day.  Odd ball sitting in tail out and took the dry.  Most fish were at the heads of pools deep.

 

Old sawmill

It felt good to get out and enjoy a little bit of the outdoors. 

Musky Skunkage

I have been out a couple times chasing the musky in the rivers of Virginia.  Only had some action one day.  Hooked one that came unbuttoned before I could get him in the net and had another follow and an eat but he completely missed the fly.  Still great to get out on the river and enjoy a couple nice fall days.

Outboard runs a 100 times better with the set back bracket.

Foggy start one morning.

Can't beat fall, even if it does come with the smell of a skunk.

Quick Mid Day Trout Fix

I hit a stream on Tuesday that has a mix of rainbows and brooks.  More rainbows then brook trout but enough to keep it interesting.  Steady action on both the dry and dropper. I'm not a fish counter, but if I was it would of been a day where I lost count.  Nice fall evening to get out on the stream.

Friend working a run.

Lots of big crawfish in this stream.

Never seen this before.  This brookie was sporting a heck of a head wound.  Surprised he was alive let alone looking up to take my dry. Have to watch those non native Rainbows, apparently they like scalping little brookies.

Second Part of Weekend Trip

My friend that camped out with me on the brookie stream had to be back by Sunday Morning, so we hiked out Saturday evening and I headed to a friends cabin that was close by to watch some college football and dry out a little.  Plan was to fish with my friend who has the cabin on Sunday on a trout stream he has private access too, but a family issue arose Saturday night that would cause him to have bail on fishing Sunday.  So I hit a wild rainbow and brookie stream close by Sunday since I would no longer be able to access the private water.  Still managed to catch some decent trout on the public water and the private access water will give me an excuse in the future to visit my friend's cabin again.

Breakfast at the cabin

Trout behaved completely different on this stream compared to other stream the day before.  Lots of dry fly action.  Day before all fish came off the dropper.

This wild bow crushed my dry fly.  Not bad for some small stream action.

Colored up rainbow

Brookies were not big, but they were plentiful.

Dark colored brookies are my favorite.  Have some unusual markings.

Car lunch after a morning of fishing.

Good weekend to be out and the gloomy forecast proved to not be as bad as what they were calling for in the area.  For once I am happy the weatherman was wrong.