{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Brookies (or the lack thereof) at the Rapidan River

Hey! -- if there's one thing that works well on the internet, it's arrogance with no explanation!  

Andrew:  So long as you have a valid fishing license, you are well within your right to fish the SNP streams (or lower Rapidan) whenever you feel like it.  Virginia DGIF proudly advertises a "year-round" trout fishery, so there's absolutely no legal requirement to avoid fishing the streams when they're low.  Hell, I fish 75F water, and straight through the spawn and also stomach pump each and every brook trout to see what they're eating (which is critical to catching SNP brook trout) and because it's fun to make fish barf!   

Note that fishing locally really sucks though -- you should pay your left arm to do a bonefish trip once, and then tell everyone at beer tie about ("them big bones I caught like, 8 years ago") and your various reasons for not fishing the rest of the year.  "High temperature" is a good start, but don't forget "dry hands".  The more arrogant you are about it, the better!  You'll fill your dance card!  

Gene

On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 10:59:13 PM UTC-4, Yambag Nelson wrote:

How about just leaving them alone?  

On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 8:36:50 PM UTC-4, Andrew Chaney wrote:

After getting skunked at the mid-section of the Rapidan several weeks ago, I decided to hit up the lower portion this afternoon (just north of Graves Mill). The fallfish bite was aggressive. In about an hour of fishing, I caught about a dozen ranging from 6" - 12". However, I saw something concerning that I thought I'd run by here.

In one pool, I saw dozens of fish, about half fallfish, 1/3 brook trout, and the rest miscellaneous. The brook trout were decently sized and they were very sluggish. They just stuck to the bottom of the pool and didn't react to anything. I dropped woolly buggers, prince nymphs, and hare's ear nymphs right in front of their noses and got nothing. At one point, a hare's ear brushed over the back of one of them and it hardly reacted. At another point, I hooked into a 12" fallfish and it darted all over the pool. Again, the brookies barely moved. 

So, is this normal behavior for brook trout? Other than their extreme stoicism, there didn't seem to be anything wrong. Is it a late summer temperature thing or something else?

--
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