{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Saturday SNP report

Ah -- that explains the unusual number of "stickers" we saw when we left (we were the first vehicle in Sat, and first out).  We went WAY down and came back up, which is similar to what you were doing in the sense that you're losing the beaten path (and the main road) and the going is harder.  

Glad you had a good day fishing -- I sympathize because I busted my knee on a different stream yesterday.  

Oh, and for the tenkara -- Sha brah!  Using a reel on a fly rod is like ridin' a bike with a seat man.  It's artificial -- totally takes you away from what catching a fish means, man.  

Gene

On Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 8:44:00 PM UTC-5, Andrew Sarcinello wrote:

Hi guys,

Took advantage of the amazing weather this weekend and made a trip to Shenandoah National Park on Saturday.  Met up with two guys from the Richmond area and we headed up a tributary to the Conway River.  After hiking to the upper limit of where we wanted to fish, we split up in order to cover as much water as possible.  The other guys had not been to this creek before so I wanted them to have the best fishing. I chose to go up a very tiny tributary while they fished the main creek, and caught 10 nice brookies before the population ended at the base of a waterfall.  I think those fish swam up to spawn and hadn't left - water level has been very high down there this fall. While up there I took a nasty fall, tossed the rod in the process and bent my reel, so suddenly I was Tenkara fishing. Slammed my knee pretty hard but think I only bruised it. That's exactly why I hate going there alone...could have been much worse!

I fished my way back down the main stream hitting pockets that I knew the other guys hadn't bothered fishing and caught 15 give or take a few. Caught up with the other guys back near the lower section and they had caught close to 3 dozen, so between the three of us it was a 50+ brookie day. No fish over 8" were caught, the big ones don't seem to be in this particular stream but there are a ton in the 6-8" range.

Most fish were caught on dries, though they were just a bit tentative. Slow motion takes, had to really get the fly to sit in place out of the current to get them to rise. There was a very heavy midge hatch and a few brookies were so focused on them that they ignored the big elk hair caddis I was throwing.  90% of the fish I encountered went for the caddis though. I also caught a couple swinging a small prince nymph, those were the hardest hits I had all day.

A month ago I never thought that in December I'd be fishing dries to rising brookies while wearing a t-shirt!

I filmed a good portion of my excursion up the tiny tributary.  Here's a link to the video (set to HD): https://youtu.be/JZOZFliUe6k

-Andrew

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