WV Trippin

Today I decided to make a day trip to explore some other waters on the "LIST".  I started in Elkins and headed south on 219 and started stopping to explore water south of Beverly.  The game plan was to explore tributaries of the Tygart River watershed then closer to evening I would make my way over in the Elk River watershed. 

Tygart Stream 1.  Fished for about 30 minutes, landed 3, lost a couple more.

Tygart Stream 2. Fished a 100 Yard stretch never moved a trout only chubs.
Tygart Stream 3. Fished for 300 yards and only saw more chubs.
Tygart Stream 4. Fished for about 250 yards and saw chubs, dace, and a large water snake.

After many chubs, and a little dissapointment, I headed over the mountain into Pocahontas County and into the Elk River Drainage.  I looked for a way to access a couple of streams, but due to not much water and some private property, I decided to wait for another day.  The rest of the day went pretty much as follows.

Elk Stream 1. Fished about a 1/2 mile and landed 5 fish both Rainbows and Brookies.

Elk Stream 2. Fished upstream about 300 yards and landed 2 fish, Rainbow and a chunk Brown

All total today I fished 9 different streams today including the mainstems of the 2 afforementioned watersheds and tributaries. Not all of them were productive, but I did manage to cross more off the "LIST"

Bluelines and Thunderstorms

A few days ago,  I drove to Williams River area to meet my Dad, Uncle Ron, and Cousin Jacob for our annual camping extravaganza that always happens somewhere in the Mon National Forest.  This year we had settled on Williams River drainage as I think it has a lot to offer in the way of scenery and a variety of fishing for both wild and stocked trout.  Some of our party isnt as gungho about fly fishing as I am, and I have no hard feelings about it, its just the way it is.  I arrived late on a Monday evening and no fishing took place.  The next morning found the sun starting to filter through the tree tops and I talked my Dad, and Jacob into hiking up a remote bolder strewn canyon of a stream that most people only hike through and thankfull not as many people fish.  My Dad has always asked me about this stream, but he has never fished it.  After a solid 30 minute hike upstream, we jumped in and started leap frogging one another while picking up brookie after brookie, hole after hole.  I also managed to hook up with 2 really nice resident wild Browns that are the descendents of fingerling stocked browns from the 60's.  The 3 of us fished until about 4pm and hiked back to camp for alittle dinner.  After waiting out a thunderstorm that evening, Jacob and I went downstream to the Catch and Release section on the main Williams and caught a nice Sulphur Spinner fall (nice for the Williams).  All total on this day of fishing, I caught over 25 fish and lost more than I can count. 

The next day I woke up and noticed that an overnight storm had brought some cloudiness to the water so Dad and I headed upstream on the mainstem of the Williams. We found ourselves fishing pockets of water in and around submerged logs, logjams, undercut banks, and other trouty water. Not many brookies were caught today, but the browns were out and about and had feedbags strapped on with the higher flows. We fished until a major thunderstorm rolled over Black Mountain and firmly put an end to the days fishing. I decided I would head back to Kingwood as I had lots of things to do before going back to work.