After Funeral Brookie Trip

I'm a little late posting this report, but came down with a stomach bug shortly after this trip that delayed me posting this.  Had a fishing friend whose dad passed away, so another fishing friend and I attended the service up in the mountains.  Always sad to see someone pass away, especially in a small mountain community where everyone knows everybody there. 

After the service my friend and I took advantage of the perfect fall weather and hit a brookie stream real quick on the way out.  From the looks of the females we caught, the fish have been done spawning and did not see a single fish holding on a redd. Fishing was also surprisingly different from what I was expecting.  It was an 80 degree fall day and figured I'd whack them with a dry/dropper combo.  It was so slow of fishing that my friend and I swore we were fishing behind someone.  I cut off my rig and tied some tungsten on and immediately started picking up fish.  They wanted the fly glued to the bottom and moving slow.  Takes were very light too.

Fish above came from this little feeder stream culvert pool.  Isolated pool with no way to get upstream or downstream without some flood condition water.

Big ugly stocker rainbow that made its way far from where it was put.

Enjoyed a cup of stream brewed joe as I watched my friend work a pool.

Some chestnut making an appearance.  Will not have long until it succumbs to blight.

Quick Stream Water Level Scouting

Had a few hours to kill this past Sunday afternoon and decided to check out what the stream levels in the small streams were like.  It had been really dry up until a few weeks ago and we have received well over 6 inches of rain in some areas in that span.  I have a trip planned in a few weeks to come, and wanted to get an idea of how much water the mountains have been receiving and what the water levels were at.  VA is doing well on the water department right now.  Stream I fished was the highest I have fished it, and I managed to also dredge up one of the better brookies I have ever caught from this drainage.  Good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Garter Snake making an appearance.

Signs of fall.

Lots of water pumping.

Fattie from the stream.

All the rain that we have received was not from Hurricane Matthew, but a different front that was moving from the northwest.  We did though receive a lot of wind from Hurricane Matthew following the front that moved through and as a result there is a lot of new downed trees on roads, in stream, and on trails.