Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Brookies, Buggers, and Boulders

I finally got a Saturday off and was able to lend a hand at the annual stream cleanup put on by PPKTU at Seneca Rocks.  With several TU chapters , Boy Scouts from Morgantown, and some WVAnglers we were able to clean up a pile of trash!  By the time we were done and a few pepperoni rolls were consumed it was time to find some trout.  With recent rains the water was moving and there was a lot of it, pure whitewater in spots.  It was conditions that some don't look for but personally I was excited.  Conditions like these meant that it was a god time to breat out some streamers and wooly buggers, today was destined to be a day of Brookies, Buggers, and Boulders.  I knew if I could find a few seams and some slack water created by those big mountain boulders there would be some good sized fish willing to take a bugger!  Things started off slow but I was soon rewarded by a nicely colored Brookie.  With the skunk off it was time to get serious and go after some big fish.  The sun put a little bit of heat in the air made it perfect for wet wading and also perfect for a nice little blanket Caddis hatch.  The fish were on with the conditions and with the Caddis hatching they started getting aggressive and slamming the bugger or pheasant tail.  They stayed pretty aggressive to the bugger all day and fish were picked up in every good holding spot.  Some people get different joys out of fishing, some go nuts over a fish rising to a dry fly for me there is nothing better than a fish slamming a streamer especially if your fishing a light weight rod.  This day my old Orvis Silver Lable 3 wt was the rod of choice it's one of my first rods and still holds a special place in the collection especially when you take it out onto stream for an epic day.  Most people see heavy rains and streams flowing full and fast shy away me I just grab a fly box full of streamers and hold on sometimes you strike out but other times your rewarded with huge fish!  This was one of those days where the average Brookie was around the 9-10 inch range a day you can call a blessing and a success!