Furloughed....but on the Rapidan

Trout were holding just below the oxygenated water atop the pool

With all my fishing partners working I headed to the Rapidan by myself to make the most of my furlough fishing opportunity.  I headed into SNP and didn't see another car all day!  I parked just upstream of the second bridge and fished upstream. The water was cooler than I expected, gin clear and low. 

Colorful brookie

I decided to fish this section as the flow was so low I knew it would have been even lower another mile upstream.  I began fishing w my 2-wt with a 14 adams and an 18 prince dropper.  I switched to several other dry/dropper

Attractor pattern was best fly of the day

combinations and all I could stir for the first 45-minutes were the fingerlings. I decided to study the water in a pool where I knew there were fish.  As I was studying the water the trout appeared beneath me after a few minutes.  

Camoflaged in the falling leaves

While I was waiting I tied on a longer 6X tippet and cut off some butt section of my leader that had developed memory curls that harmed my presentation.  I decided to try a drift dry presentation with a #14 attractor pattern and that along with a much more stealthy approach allowed me to start picking up bigger brookies (all relative) almost exclusively at top of the pool-riffles or within a foot of the riffles bubbles.  I fished for 4.5 hours and in addition to a half dozen 2-inchers, ended the day with 12 smallish colorful brookies.  I left the stream just upstream of campsite 10 and walked back to the truck.  This section filled with endless small punges and pools is, I think, my favorite stretch of the river.