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| Blonde or Brunette |
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| First Brookie on the Blonde Bamboo |
I start this blog post with one question Blonde or Brunette?? Schedules are a hard thing to line up at times with work, family, and other activities so when my good friend Jonathan Paine's and my schedule lines up and I have the chance to fish with him I jump at it. Phil Smith owner of Vandalia Rodworks had built both of us a mystery taper 6' 6" 2wt bamboo rod that we were both dying to try out on some brook trout. I started off and lined up the new rod with some Rio Perception fly line and let me say its slick and throws a great line I was impressed with the first time having it out a truly great line they have developed. The fly boxes were all packed up and the new and really awesome Vedavoo tightlines sling pack was loaded and the plans were ready first thing in the morning I was headed to Elkins to meet up for a Good Friday brookie mission. We weren't completely sure on what stream to hit but figured we would trout bum it and bounce from stream to stream and see what we could find and hopefully get into some good fish on dry flies. The water for this time of year was low and clear, a lot lower than it normally is for this time of year and with the colder temps the water was still pretty cool. Starting off with the new cane rod we had to start off with a first fish a brookie on a dry so what better fly to pick out of the box then a good trusty stimulator. I missed a good fish right off the back and action seemed like it was going to be slower than it normally was for this area but the dry fly was going to make it happen.
Moments later in a nice slick I skated the stimulator across the water and my best fish of the day inhaled it. Nothing like a beautiful mountain stream a can rod in had a dry fly on and sharing a good first fish with a great friend the day was already a success. We continued our way upstream and landed several more beautiful mountain trout WV's native brookie! We jumped over to a new stream and flies were coming off in good numbers especially some blue quills and brookies were rising already and a lot more active than they were to start the day, the sun gave some good warmth to the water.
They were still taking the stimulator with reckless abandonment. We both got into scuds of fish and Paine got into on really nice wild rainbow trout our first of those of the day. Its hard to beat a day when the brookies are rising especially when you get to break in such an amazingly built rod. Some people may prefer brunettes but I must say my blonde is one beautiful piece of art and they always do say blondes are better
