Virginia Brookie Fishing

Spent the afternoon tossing dry flies to eager little brookies in Virginia while visiting the family.  I saw Blue Quills and a few Quill Gordons.  Happiness is spring time mayflies and a hike with my good loyal dog, Cooper. 

Tricos on Mossy Creek, Virginia

Mossy Creek is a very special stream.  Picture a pristine gin clear stream in a lush meadow of wild flowers and the smell of fresh mint.  With the rolling hills and the Blue Ridge mountains hanging in the backdrop, I feel like I'm fishing in the Shire.  It's probably good I didn't discover fly fishing until my last year at JMU because with streams like this in the area, I may not have graduated.

 

Mossy is by far one of the toughest limestone streams I've ever fished.  Right up there with the Letort, Big Spring, and DePuys.  Tough back cast, thick underwater vegetation, gin clear water, hundreds of micro currents and not to mention highly pressured public water and very discriminating trout.  If you actually hook a trout on a dry and keep him out of the stream bed moss on 6X, that's a good day in my book. 

I ventured to this stream early for arguably the most famous hatch - the morning tricos.  After a long sleepless night with the twins and a two hour drive, I arrived later than I wanted.  When I got onto the stream around 9:30 am - the tricos were pretty much done.  I was a little bummed, but I made my way up the stream head hunting for the last few rising fish.  Without any rise forms, you'll never see a fish on this stream.  They just seem to materialize out of the moss and go right back.  But I did eventually find one really good fish working the surface intermittently and he was my guy.  I watched him at the tail out of this pool for about 10 minutes before thinking about making a cast.


I wasn't sure what he was taking, but I figured after eating trico spinners all morning, he wouldn't pass up my CDC spent wing.  After getting my game plan together, I slowly crawled into a downstream position and prepared my upstream cast.  The key was making the cast right into the exact micro current the trout was lying in, but not too far upstream as to line the trout with my fly line.  With a 12' leader, that meant putting it 4-6' above the fish.  I made a couple casts to the side of the trout and on the third cast put the fly only a foot above the fish.  As it passed over his head, he slowly tipped up on his tail and inhaled the fly!  Wow!  My heart was about to beat through my chest.  So cool.  After keeping him out of the grasses, I was able to do the limbo under the electric cow fence and land this 17" wild spring creek brown. 



I continued fishing, but never saw another fish rise.  It was a little early for hoppers, beetles, etc and I just didn't feel like nymphing.  I ended up hiking more and exploring with my day already being made on that first and only fish. 

Awesome wild brown with red dipped tail and adipose fin...wearing a size 24 Trico spinner



I took this underwater pic of that trout resting under the mossy bank with my iPhone

 

Easter Weekend Virginia Blue Ridge Mountain Brookies

 

 

Johnny, Bobby, myself and Cooper made a trip up to a Piney River tributary in the Blue Ridge mountains while everyone was in town for the twins baptism in Lynchburg, VA over Easter weekend.  This was John's first crack at fly fishing and we went chasing some brookies on a sunny March day.  The morning started out a little slow but as the sun came up over the mountains, the brookies started eating dries and made for an awesome afternoon.  John had never cast a fly rod, so this was trial by fire...similar to the bird hunt we had in October. 

A typical 5-6" brookie that ate a dry



Cooper trying to get in on the action

Bobby fishing a gin clear run







Awesome pocket water

 

Johnny's first brookie - nailed everything but the photo shoot!

Bobby working a pool with an attractor dry

 









Cooper spotting fish for me

There isn't much more I enjoy now than watching someone catch their first trout and the fever that follows. The whole process is great from the first few 'misses' to actual hook set and mild panic to get that first one landed. The highlight of the trip was Johnny's hooking into the big fish of the day that pushed 9-10"! A spotted orange-bellied mountain monster!  I watched him hook it from the top of a steep hill and after I watched it go airborne, I had to slide down the hill to snap a picture.

Everyone caught trout, along with a stream side lunch and a few good beers. Hopefully the next time Johnny ventures up to Vermont or the Poconos, he'll have a 3 wt and some attractor dries!

Doesn't get any better than this!