Graduation Pre Celebration

Have graduation events both tomorrow and the next so a buddy and me hit the James for a float.  Unfortunately neither of us checked the flow and it was high and muddy.  It was a bust but nice getting out on the river and getting good rowing experience.  On the way back over the mountains I stopped by a stream that I haven't quite figured out. Fished for an hour and brought two wild bows to hand.  It was a nice day and even got to throw in some wild trout into today

Muddy James

Tend to be scaring the crap out of a lot of fish lately.

Dinner!

Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be able to find some time to fish in these next few busy weeks.......

James River Float

Floated a section of the James River today with a couple guys I know and it was a blast.  Had the Clackacraft and kayak.  Brought about twenty smallies to hand.  A guy in the group hooked into a decent sized musky which tore his tippet too shreds.  Such a beast fish.  

Caught lots of these as well

Big sucker

There out! Shouldn't be long till trout and smallies are keying in on them.

Thanks for reading.  Planning on floating again this Thursday.

Half Day Trip

Went out this morning to fish a new stream I've been eying on the topos, unfortunately its all on private land.  Ended up knocking on a guys door and he was kind enough to let me fish his half mile section.  Ended up being a non brookie section.   I think they are just higher up.  The guy said he hasn't seen brookies down this low in a while.  Oh well.

On to creek number two.  Brookies on this stream were being little pricks today.  There were bugs hatching all over the place but not a single one was rising.  Tried dries for a long time, but only had a couple dinks rise.  After about an hour of messing around with dries I said forget it and tied on the tungsten.

Like I said, the brookies were being stubborn today, and most were smaller then the pictures above that I caught.  But I did finally end up catching one that was a little bit bigger.

Now time for some bug pictures.

No lie, found this guy on the bottom of a run.  Guess this is what a green weenie was invented for....

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.

Brookies, Flowers, and Fluorescent Red Crawfish

Today I was a free man, so I hit two brookie streams.  Plan was to fish two new streams, but after the first new stream kicked my butt, I said forget the second stream and fished a much easier to fish stream.  I'll try to paint a picture to why the stream kicked my butt.  On the first stream I took a trail down the mountian for about a mile to where it meets a creek, and then the creek goes back up the mountain but on the opposite side of the mountain from the trail.  I fished up the stream till it was just a trickle and no brooks anymore.  Instead of hiking down the creek back to the trail and then out, I knew that the stream would go all the way up and meet the road I was parked on.  Hike to the trail and then back out would of taken 45 min to an hour and I figured the hike up the stream to the road would take 30 min so up the creek I went......bad idea.  Took about 2 hours and was to date the worst hiking conditions I've been on.  It got very vertical and hundreds of down trees making it about impossible. I did eventually make it out, but was in no condition to fish another remote stream so I just went to a good road side stream that never really has produced numbers for me, but has some big trout in it.  

Here are the pictures from the first stream.

The hike in.

Biggest brookie from stream one (was a very small stream)

Believe this is a crane fly. 

Finally made it out of the creek in one piece.

Pictures from the second creek.

Finally had one of the bigger guys come out.

Now I know when I post this picture that it'll give this stream away, but I figure if you know the stream by seeing these crawfish you have already fished it before.  I just think these guys are too cool not to post up.  There are only two stream known that produce crawfish this color.  This stream, and then another on the VA/NC

border.  Has something to do with a certain mixture of minerals found in this stream.

Thanks for reading!

Afternoon Brookie Fishing.

After classes today I was able to sneak away to do a little brookie fishing.  Caught my first brookie on a dry today so I was happy.

Also saw this big bug.  It was at least a size 6 or size 4.

Thanks for reading.

Bass fishing warming up.

Between studying for exams and homework in this busy last semester, I've been sneaking away to a pond close by.  I'll keep it short and sweet since I'm in some need for some sleep.  Throwing top water Tuesday caught me this.

And throwing streamers today caught me this.

Plan on making more trips soon. Thanks for reading.