2 dads, 2 11 year olds. Friday night after waiting out the rain and thunder storms, headed out to Violette's Lock loade d for 2 nights of camping on the Potomac. Friday night was georgous after the rains passed and we got on the river it was nice and cool. It was a late so we go to paddling quickly and set up camp after about 30 mins. We found this nice beach that was a conflux of multiple streams in the middle of the river. Unfortunately, the urge to wet a line caused me to catch my first fish on a rebel crawfish pattern. After that it was mostly fly only. New to me Sage FLI 5wt with a Ross reel. It was a great set up. Hit a bunch of panfish in the areas behind boulders and still water next to riffles. Tied up a bunch of clousers and decided to put together a handful of stonefly nymphs as well.
Saturday more of the same, a little canoeing and a lot of fishing. My stonefly nymph was decimated by the end of the day. I caught smallies, bluegill, crappie and sunnies in it. It exposed that my fly tying skills need dramatic improvement for sheer durability. Hackle on my wholly bugger came unraveled and it looked more like a tail. Either way it was great to throw my own flies and catch a ton of fish.
I did get a few on chartruese and white streamer.
The odd thing was that almost all fish where caught after the run. I would cast into the current and let the fly drift, then upon the strip retrieve I would get hit. It seemed it was always the same.
Casting skills improved dramatically, tight loops with long cast into tight areas. I was very confident throwing in between limbs of logs that where laying in the river. I was standing at a distance behind my buddy using a tenkara rod. He was learning on it and it before I got a chance to try it he had the unfortunate event where his tip broke. Fortunately I had a backup (western style - as the boys pointed out) rod.
By evening I tied on a big ugly popper bug and was casting under the trees. It was so much fun. It would land nice and heavy and make a ton of noise. Wait a few seconds and BOOM something would attack it with vigor. Per prior posts, I have not tied them very well and did not land many but I was cracking up because it seemed like every cast was the same.
The best part of the trip was after lunch on Saturday with my son wading out in the Potomac. He decided finally that he really wanted to learn how to fly fish. Its tough being a newbie trying to teach him. He casts with vigor and I was working hard with him on the timing. He was getting some 20-30 foot casts out and then he got hot. He landed 4 fish on his own casts. He is already eyeing my back up rod as his own. Hopefully this will stick for him. He mostly threw the rebel crayfish and crushed well over 30+ fish on the trip.
We will be at the beach later this week so hopefully I can put him on some saltwater fish.
All in all we had a great time, skirted the rain and thunderstorms and generally had a blast.
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