I tried Goose Creek this morning. This is a tributary of the Upper Potomac that has one of the more accessible smallmouth bass fisheries in the area; smallmouth have an almost mythical status with Virginia fly fishermen. I accessed the river at Keep Loudon Beautiful Park just above the VA 7 bridge near Leesburg. This was a gamble as I have good largemouth water in my neighborhood, and this place is about thirty miles away. The distance, later sunrise, and assorted family responsibilities translated into just a couple of hours on the water. I would say I broke even. I did not get any smallmouth, but got on a school of chunky crappie -- great fun on a fly rod. I also hooked one descent largemouth that jumped off. This limited success was found with my standard wooly bugger and popper patterns.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
West Virginia
We had some good clean family fun in West Virginia this weekend. We did a lot of fun stuff of which we will elaborate on the family blog. Our fishing expectations were high because we had reservations Friday night in a cabin on a private trout stream. While the stream was worth several large fallfish, the trout fishing was a bit slow. We checked out of our cabin yesterday morning having failed to land a trout. We headed south for train rides and other family fun.
Enter the Bighorn Trout Ponds. Jennie presented the idea this morning based on a brochure. David and I said we were game. We ate breakfast and checked out of our motel and headed for trophy rainbow trout scrimmage. This place charges by the inch, and harvesting your catch is mandatory. It took us a couple of hours to land three trout which measured a collective 52 inches. This is not real trout fishing. But landing a 20” rainbow on a 4 wt fly rod is good training, and we are having trout for dinner. Where else can you get six pounds of fresh rainbow trout for ten bucks?
Enter the Bighorn Trout Ponds. Jennie presented the idea this morning based on a brochure. David and I said we were game. We ate breakfast and checked out of our motel and headed for trophy rainbow trout scrimmage. This place charges by the inch, and harvesting your catch is mandatory. It took us a couple of hours to land three trout which measured a collective 52 inches. This is not real trout fishing. But landing a 20” rainbow on a 4 wt fly rod is good training, and we are having trout for dinner. Where else can you get six pounds of fresh rainbow trout for ten bucks?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Dad's Smallie
Having struggled alongside Dad on Lake James before, I know how sweet it is to pull a descent smallie out of that lake. Dad got this one on a Carolina rigged green plastic worm. We have an unspoken rule for selecting plastic worm colors. It must be a color that was fashionable in the 1970s (green, brown, pumpkin, etc).
Way to go!
Way to go!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Pesky Bass on the Fly
This one might not look like much but he smashed my popper and fought as hard as a smallmouth. My float tube has gotten me onto some sweet spots on Lake Royal. I got this one at the precise location I scored the 15” bass yesterday. The pattern seems to be bushes overhanging the bank near a main lake drop off. The presentation was a yellow popper stripped from the bank over the drop off. The hardest thing about fly-fishing this way is casting large flies sitting low in the water, but it is still a blast.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Float Tube Bassin'
Now that I have gotten the peace with nature sentiment out of my system in my previously post, I will now focus on what is really important: landing keeper bass. I had a 15" largemouth inhale my popper just about the time I was completely lost in my inflatable serenity. I later got another standard 10” Lake Royal bass. I was happy landing two bass having put in a little over an hour on the water. This was really fun -- must do this again soon.
Bobbing in Lake Royal
This is was the view of Lake Royal this morning from my float tube. I have broken out the tube to get after bass more efficiently with my fly rod. The great thing about fishing this way is that short of parking your recliner on the bank, it is the most comfortable way to fish. What is really nice is getting lost in your surroundings which is much harder to do when gas engines are involved.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Many Thanks to Mr. Duane
Mr. Duane, as David calls him, is solely responsible for getting me into fly fishing. I got talking to him by chance one day on the bus; he told me about a recent trout stocking in our local stream, Accotink Creek. We met up many more times and exchanged fish stories. Duane’s stories and in depth knowledge of fly fishing for trout and salmon prompted me to buy my first fly rod.
Duane is active in the local chapter of Trout Unlimited. He also founded accotink.org, which is committed to the defense of our local watershed. He spends far less time fishing than he does on volunteer work such as stream restoration, and watershed issue advocacy.
This picture shows one of Duane’s better days on the Conewago Creek in Adams County, PA. Thanks Duane, for all the great help over the last couple years. Now go catch some more trout!
Duane is active in the local chapter of Trout Unlimited. He also founded accotink.org, which is committed to the defense of our local watershed. He spends far less time fishing than he does on volunteer work such as stream restoration, and watershed issue advocacy.
This picture shows one of Duane’s better days on the Conewago Creek in Adams County, PA. Thanks Duane, for all the great help over the last couple years. Now go catch some more trout!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Lake Royal Update
This is an example of the undersized bass we have been catching at Lake Royal recently. David and I have fished our neighborhood lake three or four times since we got home from our vacation. We have managed a handful of small bass, and a dozen or so bream per visit. We have been doing a lot of fly fishing with poppers rigged with a wet fly dropper. While we are still due a descent bass, this simple presentation is a lot of fun and produces consistent results.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Ely's Ford II
I took another shot at Ely's Ford this morning. I wanted to take advantage of the low water conditions to wade into spots that were too dangerous when the river was high. Unfortunately, the slow current did not support the bass activity I witnessed in June. I tried to locate fishable structure above the bridge. While I did get on top of some rock bass holding in vegetation in the main channel, I saw no evidence of the smallmouth bass I was targeting. I landed a couple rock bass and headed downstream to the river bend in search of current more suitable for a summer smallmouth pattern. I located large boulders and steady current just beyond the river bend. I changed flies from a slider with a hellgrammite dropper in favor of a wooly bugger. This immediately drew strikes from redbreast sunfish, but failed to lure any smallmouth. I had run out of time when I encountered a trophy smallmouth holding just above an eddy on the river bend. I made a few erratic casts before the fish disappeared into the shadows.
In a couple of hours of wading the Rapidan I only landed four fish (two rock bass, and two sunfish); but the experience was well worth it. The river is incredibly peaceful and beautiful in the morning. The river's width requires long casts that justify the 9' 8 wt rod I was using. I will have to wait another day to score a monster bronzeback on a fly rod, but I still had a great morning. Casting a tight loop into the morning mist on the Rapidan takes you to a place you can’t get to inside the beltway.
In a couple of hours of wading the Rapidan I only landed four fish (two rock bass, and two sunfish); but the experience was well worth it. The river is incredibly peaceful and beautiful in the morning. The river's width requires long casts that justify the 9' 8 wt rod I was using. I will have to wait another day to score a monster bronzeback on a fly rod, but I still had a great morning. Casting a tight loop into the morning mist on the Rapidan takes you to a place you can’t get to inside the beltway.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Thoughts On Fly Fishing
It has been a little over a year since I took up fly fishing. I feel that my background has helped me make the transition. At about age nine I was introduced to bass and walleye fishing while visiting my uncle’s farm in NW Pennsylvania. We moved to North Carolina when I was ten and I have since had many good times with my Dad chasing largemouth bass with a spinning rod. I also gained some insights into trout tromping through streams in Colorado with an ultra light and handful of spinners. When I bought my first fly rod last summer I didn’t feel I was learning a new sport, just a new technique.
One of the problems with fly fishing is that it is too often treated as an elitist pursuit elevated above other, supposedly less dignified, ways to catch fish. I believe that successful fly fishermen understand that fly fishing is an effective technique, but is merely a subset of the broader art of angling.
This sport is about fish, not expensive equipment, status, or anything else. Successful fishermen respond to the patterns of fish, not the latest fad, or marketing campaign. I have learned that fish eat aquatic insects so frequently that mastering fly fishing allows you to consistently catch large numbers of fish. I also remain committed to my spinning and casting rods to deliver big fish, particularly largemouth bass. While even billfish are caught on fly, the most effective techniques for getting bites from big fish usually require a spinning or casting rod. I often fish with a fly rod, a spinning rod, and a casting rod to take advantage of whatever I discover about how the fish are feeding at a given time.
I also believe that knowledge of a given technique will compliment other techniques. For example, bass fishing teaches an angler to vary presentation depth to locate fish and their feeding zone. This lesson is important to fly fishermen who are often obsessed with matching a surface hatch while ignoring the predominance of subsurface feeding. Nymphing, on the other hand, is a solid general angling skill attained from fly fishing. The skill needed to float a pheasant tail, or BH prince in front of a trout in a creek channel can be applied to deadly techniques such as floating a curly tailed grub in a river current to a smallmouth. These are a couple examples of what I hope to gain from learning differing techniques and applying the lessons broadly.
I was in a fly shop a few months ago and watched an aspiring fly fishermen drop about $600 on what he was convinced was needed to get started. I learned with a $30 combo and about $15 worth of flies from Wal-mart.
One of the problems with fly fishing is that it is too often treated as an elitist pursuit elevated above other, supposedly less dignified, ways to catch fish. I believe that successful fly fishermen understand that fly fishing is an effective technique, but is merely a subset of the broader art of angling.
This sport is about fish, not expensive equipment, status, or anything else. Successful fishermen respond to the patterns of fish, not the latest fad, or marketing campaign. I have learned that fish eat aquatic insects so frequently that mastering fly fishing allows you to consistently catch large numbers of fish. I also remain committed to my spinning and casting rods to deliver big fish, particularly largemouth bass. While even billfish are caught on fly, the most effective techniques for getting bites from big fish usually require a spinning or casting rod. I often fish with a fly rod, a spinning rod, and a casting rod to take advantage of whatever I discover about how the fish are feeding at a given time.
I also believe that knowledge of a given technique will compliment other techniques. For example, bass fishing teaches an angler to vary presentation depth to locate fish and their feeding zone. This lesson is important to fly fishermen who are often obsessed with matching a surface hatch while ignoring the predominance of subsurface feeding. Nymphing, on the other hand, is a solid general angling skill attained from fly fishing. The skill needed to float a pheasant tail, or BH prince in front of a trout in a creek channel can be applied to deadly techniques such as floating a curly tailed grub in a river current to a smallmouth. These are a couple examples of what I hope to gain from learning differing techniques and applying the lessons broadly.
I was in a fly shop a few months ago and watched an aspiring fly fishermen drop about $600 on what he was convinced was needed to get started. I learned with a $30 combo and about $15 worth of flies from Wal-mart.
Monday, August 4, 2008
West Texas Panfishin'
David and I went a little redneck while fishing in Amarillo last Thursday. We found a creek arm loaded with green sunfish at Thompson Park. The dry, mid-day heat was only partially mitigated by the panhandle breeze, so we took our shirts off and wore our fly vests like a couple of good ole boys. We had a blast! We lost count after a couple dozen greens. I only got David to leave by asking him if he wanted to go to Wonderland (Amarillo's amusement park).
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