Fishing Report 30-May-2016

Happy Memorial Day everyone, and hello to the sun!  Finally, after what seemed like a month of rain, a stretch of good weather said hello to our area, and the fish responded.  In honor of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, I did what I felt best respected their legacy, and fished as hard as I could.  This resulted in what may have been my first 100 fish day, with an unbelievable four hours spent on Chris Green Lake.  While what I caught may not have been overly large, I brought more than enough to the boat to satisfy the ever growing void caused by all of the recent rain.

The weekend started with my first mate keeping watch over the lake Friday; on the lookout for the tell tale ripples left behind by fish enjoying the evening hatch.  While very adorable, she does pose a noise hazard, and makes it impossible to sneak up on any Grass Carp.  Luckily, the lake water looks to be clearing faster than anticipated.  Hopefully, this good stretch of weather will hold, and the clarity will continue to increase, allowing for better sight fishing opportunities.

Holding down the front of the boat, while waiting for the next fish

After playing host on Saturday to some friends from out of town, I was ready to get out and stretch the lines on Sunday.  What followed is some of the most active fishing I've ever experienced...anywhere.  Over the course of four hours, I boated some 100 fish, with 60-70 being crappie, and the rest a mix between bluegill and largemouth bass.  The crappie were found holding by two beaver dams, and reminded me of small tuna in the way they were aggressively pursing flies.  While I did snag a few on topwater, I quickly realized getting the fly down a foot or two resulted in a flurry of furious attacking...which prompted the small Clousers and damsel fly streamer patterns to come out.  Even though the crappie were in the 5-9 inch class, catching these on a two weight rod was more than satisfying...especially with the occasional largemouth bass to crash the party.  The trick was to keep the fly moving, even if only with subtle twitches.

This morning I decided to head up into the mountain blue lines, to cap my weekend off with breathtaking scenery, and a few brookies.  The fishing was a bit slower than expected, with less activity being found on the surface, although I was able to witness the occasional back flip as a trout lunged after my dry.  Overall, the better action was found below the surface, with the dropper being the hot item.  Personally, my favorite dropper to use is a lightning bug nymph, tied in most any color.  I believe as long as it has a bit of flash, the actual color of tinsel is not overly significant.  In addition to a few adult sized trout and creek chubs, I was able to have some fun with a few juveniles, and the good news is the future continues to look bright, as the fingerlings were happy and fat.

The juvenile brook trout were out in force, and appear to be very healthy

Hopefully, you were able to get out and enjoy this beautiful weekend as well...if not, well it is never to late to pick up a rod, and cast a line.

Fishing Report 7-MAY-2016

It's been a while since my last fishing report update, and there is good reason, other than laziness.  My goal was to have a clever update to include a photo of a flounder caught on the fly...sadly such a photo was not meant to be...nor any real report to speak of.

This past week, my Uncle and I went to Wachapreague, VA to target flounder.  The trip started off well enough, with three keepers pulled in off of conventional spinning tackle.  The goal was to help put enough fish in the ice box before pulling out the 8 weight to catch a seldom targeted fish on the fly.  Unfortunately, those three flounder were the only caught of the trip.  The already poor weather turned worse, and our trip was basically a wash out.  The goal is to return to the VA Eastern Shore in the summer, and take another crack at the flatties.

The three flounder of the trip...but they were all over 18"

To make up for the busted trip, I took advantage of being near my family's farm in Maryland, and took an hour to fish for stocked trout in the Patapsco.  Believe it or not, this trip saw my first rainbow on the fly (caught off of a PMX hopper imitation).  In retrospect, it's difficult to catch a rainbow when you only fish native brook trout waters :).  While not large or spectacular in any measurement, it is still another milestone in my fly fishing scrapbook.

Always love catching trout off of a dry.  This particular trout did a backflip out of the water to take the PMX,

I was hoping to end the week with a trip up to a blue line stream in the Shenandoah, now that the Rocky Mount fire is out, but a day wasted waiting on a FedEx package, and a surprise project to replace my mailbox post postponed my brookie adventure to next week.

Oh well, sometimes just getting out is reward enough in itself...and sometimes just being able to get out can be a daunting challenge.  The good news is the weather is clearing, and the warmer temperatures are returning...next week should be better :)

Fishing Report: 4-APR-2016

The icy grip of winter has finally slipped away from the smaller ponds, rivers, and streams in the greater Charlottesville area, and the fish are responding accordingly.  Over the past month I've been fishing the upper Rapidan River and Chris Greene lake, and if you have not picked up a rod you should rectify immediately.

The Rapidan is in full dry fly action, with strong bites on the usual assortment of go to spring flies.  Personally, my greatest luck has come from sulpher parachutes in the 14 to 16 size range, although I know plenty of others who have already switched to stimulators.

Got to love the mountain brookies

Over the past month, I've been watching the local lakes and rivers slowly clear from the abundant winter rains, and the big snowmelt from earlier this year.  The coffee colored water was really affecting the bite, although there were some bass already working the shallows enjoying the warmer water.

Although small, this was my first bass of the year (note the coffee colored water)

With the clearer water, the fish are really getting active, and the larger fish are moving into the shallows to begin the staging for this spring's spawn.  Always early for this event are the crappie, and Chris Greene is no exception.  Recently, I've been slamming decent sized crappie along the rock lines, and near beaver homes, with the greatest luck coming from casting small white clousers with a red head.

With the clearer water, the crappie bite has really turned on

All in all, it looks to be a good spring.  Tight lines.

Rain-X for Dry Flies?

Ah, the Rapidan River.  So majestic, so peaceful, so full of brookies....and nice swift flowing water.  When I visited my first fly shop in the Charlottesville area, Albamarle Angler (they're great), I was told in order to fish the mountain streams I needed a dry fly floatant.  This, I thought, was a silly notion, but after one attempt to fish still water, I realized quickly how important this stuff really is.  For the mountain streams and rivers, it is almost a requirement.

As anyone who has fished heavy water knows, keeping your fly on the water's surface can make all the difference in getting that selective trout to rise and strike.  Regardless of what fly floatant you use (Gink, Aquel, Mucilin, etc), it is likely the same thought has occurred to you while fishing:  is there something better?

Recently, I was at a fly fishing show, and someone suggested what they thought was that something better:  Rain-X.  This, at first, seemed silly, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered about the feasibility.  On paper, it sounded as if it would work, and browsing through the internet (a scary notion I know) did not seem to object, so I decided to give it a try...scientifically...or at least as scientifically as my kitchen counter would allow.

For this test, I pitted a non-treated Rusty Parachute against two other, treated flies.  One was treated with my current floatant, Loon Aquel, the other with Rain-X.  For the Rain-X fly, the fly was suspended for 5+ minutes in a container of Rain-X, before removing, and hung overnight to dry.  I was very careful not to matte down any of the dubbing, or hackle fibers.  The Loon Aquel treated fly was prepared just as if I was on the Rapidan:  coated with a pencil eraser sized dollop of gel, which was rubbed into the fibers of the fly.

The three Rusty Parachute dry flies:  (1) untreated, control fly on Left, (2) Loon Aquel treated fly in middle, (3) Rain-X treated fly on right

These three flies were then placed into a container of water, and the clock started.  After an hour, it was clear that the surface tension of the water was keeping the flies afloat, and no fly was showing any indication of being water logged.

The three flies initially placed in water

It was at this point I decided to push each fly underwater, to see if the fly could recover to float again.  The result of this was surprising.

After an hour, surface tension held all three flies afloat

The control, untreated fly struggled to stay afloat, and sank after every attempt to get it to cling to the surface.  This was no surprise as the fly was fully waterlogged, with little air still trapped to increase buoyancy enough to allow surface tension to do it's magic.

What was surprising is what occurred with the Rain-X treated fly.  While the untreated fly at least stuttered at the surface, before sinking (seen during multiple attempts to refloat the fly), the Rain-X fly sank like a stone.  Clearly, any water shedding properties were gone, and the fly was completely water logged.

I was worried none of the flies would float, until the Loon Aquel treated fly saved the day.  Albeit not the highest floating fly at this point, the Loon Aquel fly was able to cling to the water's surface, and thus remain afloat.  This was repeated several times with the same result.

Only the Aquel treated fly (far right) could float after being fully submerged

In retrospect, the results of this test were not surprising.  Even though I made every attempt to prevent the Rain-X from affecting the dubbing of the fly, after drying it was clear that the dubbing had hardened and compacted, reducing the amount of trapped air, and overall fluff.  These are things that are needed to help the fly remain afloat.  Once the fly was introduced to water, whatever air pockets remained were filled with water, and the fly had no chance to win the contest.  The Aquel, on the other hand, was able to fill the crevasses of the dubbing, post, and hackle, reducing the amount of water the fly could absorb, while keeping enough of the buoyancy of the fly intact, so as not to overcome the strength of the water's surface tension.

After this test, I stopped introducing my dry flies to Rain-X.  Just goes to show that not everything you hear at fishing shows is correct.