Rose River Recon Dec 18th 2012

Scott and I were looking to get in a pre-holiday fish as we hadn't been out in awhile so we headed for the Rose River.  It was cloudy and foggy in NOVA, but the fog broke in Culpepper and as we broke west from Rt 29 it was sunny and clear.  We parked at the end of the road in the cul-de-sac beyond Graves Mill, rigged up and set off. We were fishing at 0830.  Instead of walking upstream and then heading to the river where the fire road towers over the river 3/4 of a mile up, we headed down to the river almost immediately.   The water was clear cold, seemingly fine, it was running about 6-8 inches lower (it seemed) than we remembered it and the fishing was slow.   I was using a new-to-me TFO 8' 2-wt and after getting the hang of the action, load and tempo it worked great.  We fished all the way up to the iron bridge ending at where the river splits at 1445 and returned to the truck.  We didn't have much luck and are unsure just where the fish were/are. We frequently will spook pools and see fish that we can't catch, not today, the river seemed barren. Scott ended up bringing 8 2-4-inchers to hand and I BTH 3 to include one respectable 6-7 inch brookie.  We had a great time being out on the river, but it was a tough, slow day for catching.