Wild Trout in Virginia's Blue Ridge

[waskeyc]

I went fishing Sunday afternoon, briefly. The wife had to leave for church at 5pm, so only had an hour on the stream after lunch, considering driving time. Also took three oldest sons (age 7, 5, and 3), so had to move slow. Maybe only had a dozen casts to half as many pools, but one of them counted. I fooled a beautiful wild brookie with the olive and chartruese size 12 comparadun I tied with the boys right before leaving. Quite a welcome change from going fishless in warm water since November 2. Also, my 7 year old had a great time balancing on logs and climbing on rocks. I let him release the trout. Maybe his fly fishing fire just got lit, we'll see.

No picture of the fish, but a snapshot of the stream available tomorrow. Forgive my choppy writing as this was done painfully from my Kindle Fire.

[51BC]

A bit of time on the stream, some time with your sons, and a nice brookie to go with all that? Sounds like Heaven to me!

[waskeyc]

A little more about yesterday, now that I have a keyboard in front of me.

The flows were really good, certainly due to the 50% above normal rainfall we've had here since the beginning of the year, combined with some heavy rains during late Fall. The rain had scoured the bottom free of dirt and leaves so the rocks and gravel were clearly visible, making for a very visually appealing stream. The temperature was in the low 40s I'd guess, based on the forecast high, the fact that the forecast was optimistic, and the fact that I was about 1000' higher than the local forecast station. The sky was overcast, with occasional very light snow/sleet/rain. Never enough to even get my hair damp. But just the kind of weather I'd read about for great fishing in the winter.

One of the reasons I got back into fishing in a big way 4 or so years ago was trying to answer the question of how to catch fish in the winter. I still am fishless in warm water in the winter months (although I had a smallmouth break me off on a woolly bugger once in December because my tippet was in poor shape), despite reading many optimistic reports about how to catch fish in cold water. I'm sure those reports are correct, I just haven't gotten the technique (or maybe location?) down yet. But I wondered if maybe, just maybe, trout might be a different story? Being fully optimistic, I went ahead and used the largest dry fly I've ever tied, in gaudy colors, on a winter stream, and met with success on my first attempt!

Here is a picture of the lower reaches of the stream. I was a bit further up the mountain, where the gradient was a lot higher, but still plenty of water. My younger sons made me circle back several times to help them over logs or through brush, and they didn't like the cold, but their only other option was to stay home and take a nap.
lower creek resized.jpg

[Grubb]

waskeyc, thanks for the report, you got my interest up big time, of course right now we have all this snow on the ground.. but Johnscott taught me to say .. so? big deal! lol go fishing.. I learned alot from that guy about weather conditions.. Thank you for the dry fly part too , thats my way to fish... This snow should be melting starting today and will add more water to the table, and that will be good for the streams.. Glad you had a good day out..