August Brookie Fix

I have not been able to get out much due to my masters and all the new house projects going on, so I decided to take a day off of work and hit a brookie stream.  It's been a very odd summer this year.  Usually I have to hang up brook trout fishing by mid July because of low water and temps, but can probably find brookie streams to fish this year all through summer if conditions continue.  SNP on the other hand is about done for the summer.  I give it about another 1 to 2 weeks and most of the brookie streams will be unable to fish without killing the trout.  Looks like either the south end of the park is missing a lot of the rain or the ground is soaking it up quick.  The stream I fished was very fishable, but still on the low side, and the trout are in summer mode.  They are just sitting on the bottom of deep pools sulking.  Lots of fish were caught, but mostly dinks and even then had to be worked for. 

I did run into something that I have never experienced in wild brook trout.  I ran into three pools that had a large number of pod of brookies just sitting in the bottom.  They were easily over 200 in one big pool with at least ten over 12 inches.  One was modestly 14 to 15 inches, was an absolute pig.  But they wouldn't hit a fly when I approached the pool and was out of sight and even when they saw me they just sat at the bottom and didn't care.  I threw everything and the kitchen sink at them and only managed a couple dinks.  I literally walked through the pod of trout and they scurried around me and then back into their positions. I have never seen wild trout act like this and don't know how that many trout can find food to survive summer in one pool.  Sure they do this to survive low waters and they lower their metabolism to stay alive during the summer.

On to da pics.

As soon as I hit Skyline Drive, there was rain and fog, luckily it didn't last and turned out to be a nice day.

Funny local sticker.

My first fish was a dace.

Some Caddis remains from a time I wish I could of been here on the water.

A nicer fish (still a dink) from the trip.  This guy was hiding in a 1 inch deep undercut on a rock in a glass still side pool.  Surprised he was hiding in there.

It was not just just get out on the water on a nice day and catch a couple dozen trout.  Now back to a routine of work and a 24 page paper on Australian economy......

DIY fly tying desk

I've been working on building a fly tying desk the past three days.  I've used my wife's desk the past year and she has complained about losing her writing desk to my fly tying stuff.  So I decided I would make a desk.  Went to Lowe's and bought some 2x4's, plywood, stain, and screws.  About $60 to $70 worth of materials which isn't too bad.

Cut 2x4s

Start cutting and aligning frame for table top and shelves.

Aligned lower shelve

Staining table top

More staining

Screw table top and upper shelve into frame.

Add legs.

Attach lower shelve.

Add legs to top shelve.

Finished product.

It was that hard to do and I'm happy with the final product.  Just have to add a peg board to the back to hand material from and then it's all done.  Thanks for reading.

Hilton Head Island

A week at Hilton Head Island got turned into a weekend trip.  Couldn't get the time off so I just went for the weekend.  It blew the time I had to explore the marshes and sounds so I just chunked flies into the surf for a little bit during low tide.  Hooked something that peeled some line but came unbuttoned after a short fight.  Have no idea what it was.  Got into some speckled trout though so I was happy.  Here are the pictures.

Had a great time down there with what little time I had and will hopefully be back there soon to explore some more fly fishing opportunities.

Some VA exploring.

Shot a buddy of mine a text to see if he wanted to get back into VA and fish this past Saturday.  We changed our plans a couple times to avoid rain and streams that were iffy.  Finally decided to hit a local stream in the AM and then hit a stream we were questioning had brookies.  A source who I won't name had told us he was told had brook trout , but in all honesty, wasn't his fault and it was good to finally mark that stream off the list for good.  Luckily I had a back up stream close by.  Was a good time, and between the two of us I'd say we caught a hundred fish.  Enough talk, here are the pictures.

Turned out to be a great day.

Friend working a pool.

Biggest fish caught.  Only 8 inches, but he took a dry. My friend had a 11 incher come up and look at his dry but never hit it.  It was a good fish.

A dead decomposing snake.

On the second trout stream that was void of brookies, we ran into this timber rattler.  Shortly after this, we are bush whacking out of the stream and my friend steps on a snake and it takes a swipe at him.  Luckily the snake missed.  I asked if he saw what kind it was but he didn't, nor did we want to go back and look for the snake.  Just a reminder to be safe out there.

Here's the third stream.

Thanks for reading!

Shaking off the Rust.

President of the company I work for has been wanting me to take him out fly fishing for a while.  He is from Colorado and always fly fishes out there, but has never even really thought about fly fishing out here in VA until I started working for him.  After work yesterday, we went out for a couple hours and I was able to get him on some fish.  Pulled a couple in myself in between helping him and showing him the ropes.  Had a good time with him and thing he is hooked. Excuse the blurry photos, the Pentax hates taking pictures during low light.

Quality fish, Awful picture.

Waters still a little high.

Another blurry picture.

His first VA trout.

Thanks for reading.

Lack of Fishing

It's been a long time for me since I've been fishing.  Going on a month I believe.  Moving into a new home will do it to ya.  On top of moving I have had 3 MBA classes, work, and other little projects going on.  I haven't missed much though considering VA has been hammered with rain and I don't think anything is fishing real well right now.  Hopefully with 2 of the 3 classes over and getting settled in the house, I'll have some spare time to sneak off to fish. 

This is the first fish I've caught in what feels like forever.  Quite fitting too that this dink is about the size of a brook trout too.  Oh well, it's a start.

Thanks for reading.

Jackson River Float

Floated the very controversial Jackson River Saturday with a friend of mine and his son.  Couldn't of asked for a better day weather wise, 78 degrees and partly cloudy.  With all the rain Virginia has received, the Jackson River was about the only river in Virginia that was worth fishing.  They were generating so we chucked streamers the whole time.  White was the only color we had action on.  Nothing to write home about, but it was fun day and catching trout on streamers sure beats catching them on nymphs.

Olive streamers got no lovin from the trout.

Ignore the stupid look on my face. haha

Fired up the grill for some steaks.

Cliff Bugger Beast boxes make for good backup plates.

My friend's sons first trout ever.

Dave's big trout of the trip.

Fall fish got some love too.

It was a nice float with some good trout caught.  Thanks for reading.