Fishing Weather???

Spent 3 days fishing the mountain streams in the Shenandoah National Park with Tim Brookens. We did our research by attending the Lancaster Fly Fishing show and by visiting Murrays Fly Shop (www.murraysflyshop.com). Harry Murray, owner has written books on fishing the forest and was extremely helpful.

We stayed at a cabin (Skyland) on Skyline Drive. Fishing the streams (locals call them rivers) requires hiking for a minimum of one hour and sometimes closer to two. Our 1st day was highly successful fishing the Rose River – landed 30 wild brookies. Day 2 was more challenging as it rained all night and then most of the day while fishing. We did tough it out on White Oak Run.

Because it snowed during the night before day 3 and the temperature dropped to 17 degrees, we decided against a 2 hour hike to the Hughes River. We opted to drive to the east side of Skyline Drive and fish the Rapidan River and a feeder stream called Staunton Run. The heavy rain and temperature drop caused the rivers to be swift and cold – only one fish!

The pictures show the beauty of fishing these mountain streams….an adventure worth taking.

Tim Brookens on the Rose River

After checking the stream report on the Yellow Breeches Outfitters (www.yellowbreechesoutfitters.com), learned that both Grannom Caddis and Hendricksons were hatching. Between Tim Brookens, my son Craig and I, we fished several section of the Breeches and found the hatch to be most prevalent at the Barnitz Mill section. Unfortunately, we had to contend with too many fishermen mostly fishing bait. Between the 3 of us over a couple days of fishing, we caught over 30 fish, mostly on Caddis.

I was fortunate enough to retire the end of March, and received a Sony video camera which can be used underwater. I am in the “work in progress” stage, so the video included is my first shot using my new toy. It shows Craig Coder casting on the section above Stuart Road and a wild Brown after he released it. Hopefully, I will improve on the quality in the future. Stay tuned!