Tying Weather

Crappy fishing weather = Awesome tying weather

January LMB

I got bored Saturday so I figured I'd try my luck down at the pond for some crappie and bluegill.  Found out that a lot of small bass are hugging the shore line. It  was a nice surprise considering I've never caught a lmb in January.

Rare Winter Day

Bill bailed on the musky float so I ventured up north.  Probably was a good idea to fish for trout considering it was 70 degrees today.  Fished a weird brookie stream that is pretty much all riffles.  Didn't have very high expectations for the day seeing how different it was from my usual plunge pool streams, but I was sure wrong.

Came to a set of riffles that were about 4 inches deep and thought "this isn't even worth pulling my fly off my hook holder." I started to walk towards the riffles and figured what would it hurt to drift my fly a few times through it.  As soon as my fly hit the water, my line twitch and I set the hook.  Was rewarded with this big girl.

Don't really know how big it was considering I'm awful with guesstimations but it is the biggest wild brookie to date.

The day continued pretty much the same way all day.  Come up to riffles, try to figure out if/where I should cast in them, and then get lucky with fly placement.

About the average size for the day.

Lots of log jams making wading and casting fun.

Hike out was fun through this mess.

I love knocking down some cairns.

Musky Prep

Getting ready for a possible musky float on Saturday.





Got the box all loaded up.

Hopefully I'll have a picture of a musky with one of these flies hooked in it's jaws by this weekend...probably not though......

Ending 2012 with Trout

Thought I'd end 2012 with some trout so on December 31st I hit a brookie stream.  Va has had lots of rain and even some snow in the mountains.  I wasn't expecting the snow to still be there though. The first stream I fished for two hours and didn't even have a single hit.  The snow had also melted and froze back over in the night and it was about two inches of ice all on the ground.  Made hiking into the stream and out interesting.  I busted my tail several times.  I knew I had to be on a stream that was farther down the mountain.  Stream number two proved my thinking was right with a nice brookie in the first pool.  Glad my back up stream saved the trip.

Stream 1

Snow covered rocks made for fun wading.

Tiny black stoneflies were hatching.

Stream 2

Nothing huge but a very nice way to close out 2012.  Hope you all have a great 2013.

Recent Flies

Been tying to restocking my fly box for next year along with some new flies I've been wanting to use.

North Fork Special

Size 22 CDC dry

Size 22 midges and ants.

 

Low Water Surprises

Central VA is hurting for some rain.  Everything from the south part of the SNP all the way down to the northern part of Southwest VA is having low water issues.  I made a few phone calls, talked to a few friends about what has water right now, and talked buddy out of fishing the Smith.  Seems I had to head up to Northern Va for brookies, so Saturday that is what we did.  The first stream was a bust, but the second was money.  Nothing big till the last run I fished, but we did caught a bunch.

Waking up early isn't fun.

And neither is driving in fog.

But this makes it all worth it.

Lunch.

About the average size for this trip.

Some BWO's were hatching, but no top water action.

Now I came up to this undercut along the bank and just had a feeling that something big had to be lurking under it.  I made about twenty cast working from the back of the undercut up to the front with a nymph with no luck.  Thought I'd make one more cast to the very top corner of the undercut and sure enough, was rewarded with a big brook trout. 

It really shocked me that this guy was in this stream.  I didn't catch or see a single trout over 5 inches, so hooking into this big male really made my jaw drop.  After catching him I reeled in my line and went to go find my friend downstream...I was content for the rest of the day.