Saturday SNP Venture

Got an invite from a buddy I know up in Harrisonburg to fish the SNP, which he did not have to twist my arm to say yes.  I drove up Friday and spent the night with him and his friend.  All day Friday VA got pounded with rain, which had us worried about the streams being blown out.  Luckily my friend knows the SNP like the back of his hand and he picked out a high elevation steep feeder stream.

Ended up being a good call on his part because the water was perfect levels for big brookies.  All the fish were holding close to the bottom so tungsten played a major role.  Ended up being over 50 brookies between the three of us caught with one being over 12 inches.  I did not catch this brookie, but the size of him proves how healthy the SNP streams are.

I've never seen a brookie fight like this one did.  He was a true beast!

Here are some other pictures from the trip.

The SNP will definitely be visited more this summer!  Thanks for reading.

Escaping the Wind

Wasn't really planning on fishing Saturday due to the 30 mph winds, but my fiancee wanted to do something today and I managed to talk her into going fishing with me.  I went to a black tie formal for her last night so she owed me one!  She just sat by the stream in one spot and played angry birds and read her kindle, works for me. Fished an eastern facing stream and the mountain blocked all the wind which was amazing.  Actually started sweating in my jacket and was in a t shirt the second half of the day.  

Fished for about two hours and managed to bring 8 to hand.  The fishing was good and hard to leave, but I didn't want to push my luck with my fiancee.  Missed about 6 and had one that was over ten inches that wiggled off as I lifted him out of the water.  

Only down part is right after I caught the brookie pictured above, this happened......

It's a bummer that it broke, but I've put some good abuse into it. Still have my little 6'6" brookie rod, but I've been liking using a longer rod for the small streams.  Oh well, that's life. 

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.

Brookies and Steak

Yesterday was one of those "I'd be stupid not to get out" kind of day with 60 degrees and clear skies.  I had a great couple hours on the water and managed to catch a dozen with a couple that were good sized.  The GWNF has been surprising me lately and this is a very healthy stream!

The water was a little high from the rain, but still fishable.  I wore a jacket for the first 30 minutes on the water, but started to break a sweat.  Fishing at the end of January in a t shirt in 60 degree weather is ridiculously bizarre but I'm not complaining.  The fish were sitting deep in the pools since the water was high and fast, but that's were the tungsten pink weenie comes in.  Don't care what anyone says, it catches fish when nothing else will work.

Previous 3 brookies were caught from this one pool.

Lemonade Tea Break

Close second to being the Big Brookie of the day.

But I think this one trumps the Big Brookie of the day.

Same trout as above, different angle.

Both of these two big brookies were caught from the same pool.

Loved the colors on this guy.

And while I was out I cooked a steak in the fire after fishing and heres how I did it.  Have been wanting to do this for a while.

Bought a Steak.

Marinated over night with olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper.

In the morning I wrapped the steak with about 5 layers of tin foil and put it in my backpack and hit the road.

Then after I was done fishing, I started a fire and let it burn down a little to get a nice bed of coals.

Then when I got a nice bed of coals, I put the steak in it.  I let it cooked for 5 minutes on each side.

The steak was about perfect.  I usually like mine medium rare, and this was cooked to medium, but it was still tasty.  When you cook it in the tin foil, the juices have no where to go but get cooked back into the meat.  I was very pleased for my first fire cooked steak.

Nothing like an abnormally perfect Winter day with wild brookies and steak!

Saturday Evening after Rain

Its been about a month since my last post.  I was down in Georgia for Christmas break and wasn't able to do any fishing, but it only took a week of being in Virginia to satisfy the itch. 


Rain that rolled through VA wasn't as bad as what they were predicting so me and buddy decided to get out for the afternoon.  We fished from 3 to 5 and the waters weren't too high or stained so it was a good call.  The fish were a little sluggish from the cold rain I'm guessing, but we both had several hook ups and I managed to bring one to hand. 

Felt good to get back out on the water!  Thanks for reading.

Sure beats a day of classes!

So me and a guy in the fly tying group I know hit a spring stream which produced the chunkiest average brookie day I have ever had.  Most of the streams I've fished around here in central VA have produced anorexic trout, but this stream was the opposite.  It was very cold first thing this morning, but turned out to be a gorgeous day.  The water was still a bit high from all the rain we've had, but a little high water sure beats low water when it comes to brookie streams.  Here is a picture of my big brookie of the day.

He shocked me when I pulled him out of the tiny pool.

The guy I was fishing with was throwing a Stimi with a zebra midge trailing and wasn't getting a single hit.  After seeing me pull two trout from a run he just fished, he caved and took my pink weenie I offered him earlier.  Next cast caught him this.

Sure beat my brookie as far as length goes.

Here is some more of the troot from da trip.

Overall it was a great  morning as far as fishing was concerned and an even greater day! 

Char Morning Trip

Decided to hit two new to me streams and then I had a back up stream that I knew was good just incase the first two were a bust.  Here is my quick rant, VIRGINIA RESIDENTS, YOU SUCK! QUIT POSTING EVERY SINGLE STREAM!

Don't know why or how people are allowed to buy so much property in national forests.  Somebody bought a whole top half of a stream and the road so no one can get to the stream.

Well enough talking, here's the pics from today.

It was a pretty rocky stream

Lunch for the afternoon

Big trout of the day.  I missed a hook up with this trout on a dry, and couldn't get him to rise again.  I tied on a pink weenie and he nailed it on the first cast.

Same brookie, different angle.  He was a skinny little guy, but had a lot of color on him.

Caught this brook trout, and decided to call it a day.  Wasn't even planning on fishing today, and didn't want to get too run down considering I did just have the flu.

The trout from above swimming away.

Thanks for reading and more to come soon!

Engagement, Golf Course Streams, and Red Wigglers

The last week has been loaded full of changes and weirdness.  Leaves are changing, I got engaged (which is a big change), I fished a stocked stream that runs through a redneck golf course, and I met a guy who tried to get me to put a red wiggler on my fly I was fishing.

I'll skip me getting engaged on Saturday and go on to the golf course stream.  Long story short, I had someone tell me about a golf course ten minutes from me that stocks their stream with trout.  Well I got there and the guy was nice, and told me they haven't stocked it yet this season but there are some holdover trout from last season in there.  Here was my big catch of the day.

Well that was Tuesday, and today I decided to do some real trout fishing.  Shortly after I get to my stream, a spray painted camo Jeep Cherokee comes up the rough trail and starts making camp.  I had to fish right past him, so I figured I'd be friendly and chat a bit.  The guy ended up being very friendly (never know what you'll run into on a blueline during the week).  He asked me what I was fishing with and proceeded to say that I should be using a red wiggler..... He saw my confusion and went to his cooler and pulled out a can of night crawlers.  Told me to put it on my fly and it'll drive the brookies wild.  I took it out of courtesy (and he had a gun).  He said he was up there for 2 months for some hunting and fishing.  Was worried when he pulled out the "red wiggler" that he was a poacher, but he's not.  He showed me a picture of a 15 inch brookie he caught last year from the stream and said he's strictly catch and release.  Said he calls the warden all the time on poachers, so that made me relieved.   Enough rambling and on to the pictures! 

Big trout of the day.  He was a beast and put a nice bend in the fly rod!

Most brookies were this size.

Small Brookie of the day.

Thanks for reading!