Packed up the Orvis and headed to the mountains

[Phishphinder]

1/8/08 and 75 Deg in Richmond... Left the house today at 6:00AM and headed west. Stopped south of Wayneboro on the South river and fished some small water. Drifting a sulfer Dun # 22 ( small ) caught 2 fingerlings ( rainbow). Back in the truck and headed south to the deep pocket near Buena vista. Believe it or not found a hatch of small midges. Tied on the smallest dri fly I had ( # 24 Midge) and little 7 to 10 inchers pounded it for 30 min's. The headed west up rt39 to the Muary river. Fish the big water using a olive woolie. Worked it hard only saw one fish roll. Then moved up and swithed to a Bead head Nymph #18, black and Bang, just bellow the rapid in a large pool, landed a 12 inch brown. Dinners on long ride home. got a little sun burn on the face and a great January day on the river

[chesapeakeblend]

You got that right! We couldn't ask for a nicer break!

I took my 21 month old daughter out yesterday for her first fishing trip. We hit a local delayed harvest stream and had a blast ourselves. Didn't catch a fish but we had a great January Day. Here is the report on her blog - A Bugs Life (http://www.mylittlebug.blogspot.com) Even got a little video on there.

Glad to hear others getting out too!

Mike

[Phishphinder]

Your girl is cute... I have 3 girls, but there all grown up. 15, 17 and 23... My oldest just gave me a grandson. what do you think he got for his first gift?? Fishing pole !!!! All my girls fished. Only my youngest stuck with it. She went off shore 2 times this year with me and on the bay 6 or 7 times.. She has 46 inch striper and 61 lb yellow fin to brag about this year. Keep em fishing!!! keeps them close to ya.

[buggerfly]

Got out on tuesday afternoon on Big Hunting Creek. What a zoo. Must have been 14 cars in the pull offs and lots. Fished the lower strech above the campground, everyone else was upstream. Got one stocked brookie about 13" that was as skinny as a snake. Didn't see any wild browns. I think last years low, low water was hard on them. Broke the tip of my T3 on a snag. Will have to send it back to be replaced for the third time. They now charge $30. Overall, a great day to be out. 70 degrees in Jan. I love global warming.

Dan

[chesapeakeblend]

Wow, if you caught a 13" brookie you did pretty well! MD waters have not been stocked with Brook Trout in quite a long time. :thumbup:

[Jeffrey Rasband]

chesapeakeblend,

They stock the hell out of big hunting creek below the res. with big brookies, but as far as I know this is the only stream in the state where they do this. It doesn't make any since to me, the exception that is.

[spilunkr]

Jeff is correct about BHC. A local group has a cooperative agreement with DNR by which they stock BHC with up to 1,000 larger rainbows and brookies each spring. Supposedly, so as not to compete with the native brookies in the stream the stocked fish are all supposed to be over 12". Since BHC does not have the food base to support all those large fish most of them very quickly either die or wind up down in Frank Bentz Pond where they are caught and kept. The few that do manage to hang on through the summer and winter tend to become very thin bodied.

Meanwhile the underlying population of native browns and brookies also suffers - the brookies more so than the browns. The browns seem to do reasonably well under this arrangement as they appear to be well fed and will occasionally get up to 12". But the native brookie population has struggled for years. There are a couple of stretches where they are a bit more common but they rarely get to be much more than 6" to 7" in length.

Guy

[buggerfly]

My understanding is, and I could be wrong, that the state allows a club or clubs to stock brookies and rainbows in BHC, but no browns. The offical state policy is not to stock over wild fish, but BHC has been an exception for years with much controvarsy over it.

Dan

[chesapeakeblend]

No kidding. Well I stand corrected then. None-the-less nice 13" brookie!

Mike