Monday, October 22, 2012

Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Elk River, WV report

It's all about thread control: one wrap matters.  =)




From: Danny Barrett <dannytbarrett@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, October 22, 2012 1:50 PM
To: <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Elk River, WV report

Dave is a great guy. I met him a few years back.  How he ties some of those flies, ill never know.  20 and 22 is as small as i can manage.

On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 1:27 PM, TurbineBlade <doublebclan@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi - wife and I hit Elk River over the weekend -- first time fly fishing for rainbow trout.  The river is beautiful, and the place is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  We liked it a lot.  

We fished on Saturday for the entire day with Dave, a guide down there.  Temps ranged 34F-46F, which is the coldest we've fished as well.  It was also pretty breezy at times, so it was not the easiest fishing we've done....but still easier than our recent experience on Mossy Creek -- we just need a lot more practice -- hopefully we'll get there.  The fish there are not at all easily spooked by angler movement, but they are extremely selective about what they feed upon -- Dave stressed this and it seemed to be true.  You could walk up to a good spot that someone literally just trampled through and have no trouble catching fish if you had the right flies.   

We each caught about 8-9 fish...most between 10-16 inches.  Both rainbows and browns were extremely pretty fish -- browns were more calm in the net than rainbows for some reason.  The biggest fish was the 2nd one I caught that day hitting right at 20" and probably around 4 lb.  I used to think trout were "sissy" in terms of their sport, but in this colder water they actually are quite scrappy.  I think I had just previously caught stocked rainbow trout in Missouri when the weather is extremely warm and the fish just seemed to almost die after a 20 second fight.  Not so much with these trout -- took me a full 10 minutes to land the 20" guy.  He kept going in the current and didn't work with me very well ;).  

We used cheap 3 weight rods -- 5X tippet for nymphs, 7 and 8x tippet for dry flies.  There was a hatch of BWO for about 3 hours, so dry fly fishing was fun....never done that before.  I broke the 8x on one hook set, but did manage to catch and release one rainbow on a dry.  Dry flies were #22 BWO and  #22 emerger behind it.  The rest came on a nymph rig with a #22 pheasant tail.  Tiny stuff.  Dave was saying he ties down to #40 flies believe it or not....I guess you have to give them what they eat, whatever works!

Anyway, we're the last people in the world with cell phones that have no camera....and I destroyed our digital camera wading earlier this year.  Got a few pics though -- not very good, but that's okay.  

I highly recommend the river and we'll return in the spring to fish the mega-hatch they apparently have in May-June.  Dave was great too -- I'd also highly recommend him if you want a guided trip.  

Gene


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--
Dan Barrett
 
32 Highland Ave.
Morgantown, WV 26505
 
(540)-222-8064
 

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