Established January 2009

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Halloween Brookie Walk






Since I have the free time to fish now that I am not hunting, I decided to check on some Brook Trout in the southern part of Preston County. When I woke up at 7:30am it was a chilly 30degrees and I elected to wait for a little more sunshine. I made it to the stream at around 11am. After gathering all my garb, I decided I would walk for atleast a half hour before begining to fish. I wound up walking a little farther before stringing up the bamboo and starting to fish. I started the day with a #14 Rubber Legged Royal Stimulator and I fished that fly all day. It wasn't long before I picked up a nice brookie in his fall colors near the tailout of a nice pool. After a quick photo I launched the stimulator towards the head of the pool. I noticed a bigger sized fish heading towards the fly and thought, "If this is a brookie, it would be the Brook Trout of my life". I quickly learned it was a hold over Rainbow Trout from the spring stockings. Again, I quickly took a picture and released the Rainbow. This suprising turnout of Rainbows continued on for the rest of the day, in fact, I ended the day with 5 Rainbows and only 3 Brook Trout. I did see a few more Brook Trout, but not as many as I had hoped. Around 3pm, I decided I had finshed what I had started, and called it a day.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tagged Out - October 2010










Bow season this year started off for me having accuracy issues and needless to say after a few shirtails cut off, I learned a whole lot this year. After 2 blow chances the first day, persistence paid off on Tuesday the 20th with a button buck that I mistook for a yearling doe. This past Sunday was a day of scouting and preparation for an extended vacation that I was going to spend hunting. Monday evening, I headed for a spot that had shown evident signs of deer travel and also some signs of buck usage as well. About 6 pm that evening, I heard some Turkeys fly up to roost and had already made the decision that regardless of the outcome of the evening deer hunt, I would be back at dawn to try and meet up with the Turkeys. While listening to the turkeys roosting, I noticed a mature doe and 2 fawns headed for my stand. After the doe stepped in front of me at 16 yards, I couldn't take it. I let the arrow fly and the shot was a little farther back than I had hoped. As she calmly exited the woods, I quickly and quietly climbed down the tree to find my arrow and indeed confirmed the shot. I had followed the doe for about a hundred yards when she bedded down, no doubt to die, but with the warm weather, I need to make a ethical finishing shot. That's exactly what I did. At this point, I was tagged out on bowhuntin deer due to me only buying 1 additional archery tag. I should've bought them both. The next morning, I had come back to those same stand of Oaks where the doe expired and I was quietly waiting for the Turkeys I had mentiond earlier to fly from their perch. About 7:20am, I made a series of soft tree yelps on my glass friction call and the treetops lit up with yelping, cutting, turkeys. As the turkeys flew down one by one, the began to separate, and I just happend to be in the middle. The turkeys were being very vocal trying to regroup before starting their day, and I noticed a hen coming from behind my right shoulder. I needed to turn to make the shot, so everytime she went behind a tree, I moved to get my gun into shooting position. When she finally crossed my sight plain, I put the bead on her neck, and squeezed the trigger. In just a matter of a week, God blessed me with 2 deer with my bow, and a coveted fall turkey. So now, I am tagged out until firearms seasons.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Campin' and Fishin' part 3









Today, as the rest of my family broke camp and went home, I headed over to a stream I had fished previously but had intentions on fishing a new section. I was meeting my good friend, Nathan Rees. Nathan showed up at the trailhead with his friend Dave and the 3 of us headed to the top of the mountain to drop off my truck. We headed back down the mountain where we first met and geared up. After begining our hike we headed strait up to the top of Allegheny Mountain and dropped into a different watershed than the one we just left. After getting creekside, we stopped for a much needed break and ate lunch. We began fishing around noon and the 3 of us worked our way upstream. This stream is teaming with Wild Rainbows and Native Brook Trout, but as I later found out, I turned out to the the only one who would not catch any Brook Trout. Despite the low water, the Rainbows were eager to take a well presented fly and a #16 Usual was the ticket for me. Plunge pool after plunge pool we made our way to an old meadow campground that is a popular hiker destination and the creek got smaller and smaller and turned from higher gradient to lower as we made our way upstream. As the day progressed, several fish were brought to hand between the 3 of us and around 5pm, we decided to finish our hike out. Around 6pm, we reached my truck and we had just completed a 9 mile hike through some of the most beautiful woods and water in WV.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Campin' and Fishin' part 2






Today my cousin Nate and I decided to go check out some streams I had heard about and I wanted to try and mark a couple off of my "To Do List". Skipping breakfast, we left camp around 8am and drove over the mountain and headed South to a drainage I hadn't explored much. After arriving at the first stream, we both strung up the rods, tied on a parachute adams and headed upstream. Again low water was the case here, but we took our time and tried not to spook many fish. This particular stream was a Brook Trout stream but there were also rumors that a few Brown Trout called it home as well. It wasn't long before I hooked up on a nice Brookie, and I wanted to put Nate on some fish, so he was up next. We spotted a better sized fish in the tailout of a pool and Nate put the sneak on him and shortly he hooked and landed a Brown Trout. We continued to take turns on each pool and several more Brookies were landed, but Nate hooked a fish of really good size maybe in the 12 to 14'' range that we couldn't positively ID. I'll try that fish some other time.
Later in the day, Nate and I drove as far as the forest service roads would take us upstream in the watershed and fished another new stream. It wasn't a large stream by any means, but it held some nice Brook Trout. We didn't fish this stream for much longer than just to catch a few. Mark another one off the list.
Back at the truck, we decided to venture North for another tributary of the same river in an attempt to do two things; Fish another new stream, and catch the final third of a Randolph County Wild Trout Trifecta. On the way we drove through a major thunderstorm, but we pressed on and found ourselfs on a new stream. The passing storm put the fish down, and our catch rate was not that good, but I did manage to catch a small Wild Rainbow Trout and complete our goal. With better weather, I will fish this stream again.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Campin' and Fishin' part 1




Every year for the past 4 summers, my dad, Uncle Ron, his two sons Ronny and Michael, all of their kids, and myself have been camping at Laurel Fork Campground in Randolph County. We use that campground because its a good base for lots of different streams both stocked and native and there is plenty of other things to do for those of us that dont fish or dont want to fish. This is a pretty large blog entry so its going to be broke up inton 3 posts for each of the days fished.

The first day started early in the campground with a hearty breakfast, but got to a slow start fishing. My dad, Ronny, and his two boys Nate and Jacob, and I finally made it to the stream of choice at around 1pm. After stringing up the rods, we headed up the trailhead and slowly broke apart so we could give one another room. Nate and I started working our way upstream and we began working each pool. Nate was fishing a parachute adams and picked up his first Brook trout of the day. I started with a stimulator and picked up a few Brookies here and there. The water was a tad on the low side and gin clear so finding fish that didn't see you first was the main challenge of today. A few really nice Brook Trout were spotted, but most of the time they spooked shortly after being spotted. Nate and I fshed upstream for over a mile and a half, and then we decided to make our way back to the others so we could head to the truck. The other half of our party brought some fish to hand as well, but no big numbers were put up today.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Final Day



Today unfortunately marked the last of Spring Gobbler Season. It was open for 4 weeks and It started in the last week of April. This year, I really got a fire lit under me by being at the right spot at the right time with the right bird. I was fortunate enough to bag a nice 2 year old Gobbler on the first time I went out this season. I learned alot this season with every time I went afield. I hunted 2 days the first week, 2 days the second week, 3 days the third, and 1 day the last week. I set up on a total of 3 birds, saw a total of 7 turkeys with 6 of them being hens. The first light of each day in the Spring Turkey woods is a magical time filled with beautiful sights, sounds, and memorable experiences. I hate to see it go, but maybe it will give me something to look forward to during the winter. Enjoy a few pictures from this Spring.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

On The Hunt: Continued












Today I headed south once again to investigate some more of my suspicions on the "To Do List". I decided I would hit a stream that I once hit last Spring, only I would fish a new section of it. Upon arival, I strung up the boo, and decided due to the low water conditions, I should tie on some light tippet, so I ended up going with 7x. The water is painfully low for April. WV is in dire need for some rain. I started with a #14 Lime Trude, and after catching a couple, I switched to a #16 Elk Hair Caddis. I began picking up a few more strikes and landing a few. I hooked and landed a really nice Rainbow for this stream. It was without a doubt the most beautiful Rainbow Trout I have ever caught. On several occasions while fishing I noticed the wild flowers are in full swing. After catching a few more brookies and 1 more Rainbow, I continued on south to a new stream for me. When I arrived the Quill Gordons were coming off with gusto so I switched flies to a #14 Usual in Dun color and it was on. The brookies were hammering it. This stream has a small tributary that flows into it and I suspected it had fish in it as well and I was not dissapointed. So after 2 new streams fished today, over a dozen of fish caught, several more lost or seen, I can scratch 2 more streams off "The List".

Friday, April 16, 2010

Scratchin' em' Off





Today I continued with my quest to check out the streams on my "To Do List". I had done a drive by on this stream last summer and at that point the water was super low. I decided I would hit it in the spring. Today I finally got around to marking it off the list. I strung up the trusty bamboo brookie rod and tied on a #16 Natural Usual before heading upstream. The water situation here is pretty sparce for this time of year. I wound up spooking a couple of fish before I caught 1 tiny dink, then I lucked up and caught one a little bigger near the 8'' mark. Having other streams on the dockett to checkout out today, I headed back to the truck to head out for other destinations. So I found myself heading south and when I got there, more low water was to be found. I fished 2 tributaries of tributaries and I didn't move any Brook Trout. I still can cross those off my list, but I wont be making a return trip either.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

The "To Do" List











During the winter I had made a list of streams around the State of WV that I wanted to fish. This will be known as the "TO DO". On that list are several Brook Trout streams that I have not fished, but feel pretty sure of how they might fish. Today with the sun still shining (It was supposed to be raining), I packed up all my stuff, and headed south for the Monongahela National Forest. I arrived to a perfect looking stream that I hoped would be loaded to the hilt with Brook Trout. I strung up my bamboo brookie rod and tied on a #14 Royal Stimulator. Plunge pools, riffles, runs, and plenty of clear water held numerous Brook Trout and shortly I had well over a bakers dozen to my credit. I decided I wanted to try and fish another stream on the "list", and headed a little farther south. Almost as soon as I got there, the rain started and began to hammer the valley I was in. At that point I decided I didn't feel like getting soaked and would have to try it some other day. Oh well, I crossed 1 off the list.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Finally



Today made my 7th straight day at work, working 10 hour shifts. It should go without saying that I really needed to get out and do some fishing. After getting home and grabbing my stuff, I headed out to an old favorite brookie stream here in Preston County. I decided I would fish a new section, new to me anyways. I dropped down into the steep canyon choked with Rhodadendren and Hemlock. As I reached the stream, it was in perfect condition, clear, and with excellent flows. I tied on a #14 Chartruese Humpy that was just freshly tied this week, and began picking apart the water. It wasn't long before I had picked up a few brookies, though none of them much bigger than 7'' or so. I worked my way back to the road crossing and headed for the truck.