Filed under: Angling | Tags: brook trout, fly fishing, Moormans river, virginia
While most anglers in the area still have their attention turned to wide rivers and smallmouth action, this weekend I had brook trout on the mind, and so I headed to a small stream in the mountains to stalk them. However this time of year catching brook trout can prove difficult. With water levels at their lowest, mountain streams are reduced to trickles, and brook trout become easily spooked and pretty skeptical of the fly no matter how well presented to them.
With water this low at times these fish find themselves stuck in small pools of water waiting for the next heavy rain to fill the steam beds and allow them to be freed. Approaching these pools as quietly as possible, slightly hunched over, one barely casts their line rather you gently place your fly in the current hoping you are lucky enough to convince one or two of them to get out of their cool holes for a meal.
Yeah, the fish might be small, but its always a good excuse to get out into the mountains for a bit.
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Very cool… are they edible? Seems like it would take a lot of them to make a meal… Mazel on catching this little guy.
Comment by ripizzo September 13, 2011 @ 8:55 pmWild mt. brookies are like precious jewels that you find only after a long hunt. Well done.
Funny, this weekend I was on the Gauley (rafting) and New River in WVA nailing smallies. As I drove through the Shenandoah Valley I thought to myself “looks like brookie heaven up there.”
Comment by deadbait September 14, 2011 @ 9:24 pmnice post, i like ! just recently was on a small river for fly fishing and wrote a similar post on my blog: <a href="http://be-cause-blog.com/2011/08/31/fly-fishing-obere-argen/" fly fishing obere argen
Comment by Alex September 15, 2011 @ 4:30 amcorrect link is:
Comment by Alex September 15, 2011 @ 4:31 amhttp://be-cause-blog.com/2011/08/31/fly-fishing-obere-argen/
Ripizzo – yes you can eat brook trout, just not these ones, in this area i was fishing its catch an release. With that said I can ever bring myself to keep brook trout, they are just to pretty.
Deadbait- yes you were in an area of some great fly fishing, but it sounds like you had a good time rafting.
Comment by The WildWood September 15, 2011 @ 5:51 pm