Virginia Fly Fishing Festival 4/18

[Donat]

Today was a chamber of commerce day full sun high 70's. Lots of vendors,activities and some very good raffles for equipment. Few fished the South River but didn't see to much activity. Fished nymphs and emergers and got skunked. I did meet one other FAOL'er "Grubb". Spelled it like it sounds. Had a nice chat, nice to put a face on an online FAOL'er.

[Grubb]

Hey Donat, it was a pleasure meeting you and your wife! I really enjoyed talking with you guys. yeah it was a great day, "LOTS" of people....lol mike I talked to Brian and Colby from mossy they had been down to the bay and had a reel big day with catching a HUGE drum on the fly rod. I also talked to Bruce the water color artist, he said he didn't have your picture there,(dang I wanted to see it b-4 you) said you'd be getting a e-mail soon... Mike I sure did miss you and Dotman being there, that corner of the tent seemed so empty... I was gonna fish, had my gear out of the Jeep and was eating my lunch when I heard them say that they was gonna put in some stockies, so I headed out to Mossy creek, I had one on, if that don't count then I got skunked...lol
If ya'll get a chance to meet Donat and his Mrs. take'em up on it, great folks...

[ohiotuber]

Hey Donat, it was a pleasure meeting you and your wife! I really enjoyed talking with you guys. yeah it was a great day, "LOTS" of people....lol mike I talked to Brian and Colby from mossy they had been down to the bay and had a reel big day with catching a HUGE drum on the fly rod. I also talked to Bruce the water color artist, he said he didn't have your picture there,(dang I wanted to see it b-4 you) said you'd be getting a e-mail soon... Mike I sure did miss you and Dotman being there, that corner of the tent seemed so empty... I was gonna fish, had my gear out of the Jeep and was eating my lunch when I heard them say that they was gonna put in some stockies, so I headed out to Mossy creek, I had one on, if that don't count then I got skunked...lol
If ya'll get a chance to meet Donat and his Mrs. take'em up on it, great folks...

As expected, I missed a wonderful time, & as good as the Festival is, I missed sharing a stream with you far more Tim. I plan on being there next year for sure & I'm bettin' we can get Dotman down again too. We'll sell lots of stuff & then go out & eat too much...Hey, maybe next year I can bring either the turkey fryer or the smoker (bbq beef brisket) & we can have a Saturday night or Sunday dinner for the FAOL crowd & maybe some of the "showfolks".
I was actually hoping Bruce had the painting, knowing you wanted that 1st glimpse....Folks, I won a "trophy series" watercolor from Artist Bruce Bunch painted actual size of MY trophy up to 20" long..in this case, my "2 handed" 11 1/4" bluegill. Bruce is also enclosing the fly I tied & caught the gill with in a small "shadow box" on the frame. I'm looking forward to his next email.
Glad you got to meet new folks & sounds like the weather was perfect!
Mike

[MrFishingToughGuy]

On the other side of the slope, there were plenty of perfectly ripe char to keep things interesting...



Marty

[Grubb]

We gotta talk lol ... That looks like a skyline side brookie to me, I don't know why but the ones on the skyline side as apposed to the ones from mountains on the WV side have a far more richer color to them. and Sir that is a nice one... I know you hang out in them hills and one day I hope to run into ya, you gotta have secrets that I want to know...lol

Mike that sounds like a great plan for next year, and you and Dotman would have gotten along very well with Donat and his Mrs. there as nice as they come...

[MrFishingToughGuy]

Not intending to hijack as I did forget to mention that I wish I could have joined y'all on Saturday. But this month has been heck with my wife working nights, so Saturday is our only "free day" for wedded bliss...

Tim, that's an east-slope SNP fish - good eye! Let's meet up sometime and swap fish stories while leaving a few sore-lipped fish in the crick. Here's another from a drainage close to the one pictured above - I promise I won't derail this topic any further!!!

12.5" of native char:

[ohiotuber]

Gorgeous brookies! I can't wait to get back there, but it will be awhile.
Mike