Spring has sprung in SNP

There's this stream I've grown to love. I've fished the top mile and the lower mile and was determined to fish the middle section last week.   My knees and heart ached for the 60-minute walk -up and I was tempted to slide into the water as I made my way past the great lower stretch to the highest point I'd finished up to before. The water was a trouty 46.2 and the air was a refreshing 51. The run shrugged the marine layer off the gorgeous pool tucked into the hollow before me.  I downed the last sweet drops of my coffee and eager brook trout sipped small black stone flies from the top of the pool in front of me.  See below ~

Disguised by drops from trees, trout rose and took the stone fly hatch from the surface 

The early morning spring hatch was a size 20 black stone fly -- the hatch blossomed through the day

Intent on covering a good section of the river, I didn't fish all the water like I would on the Rapidan but concentrated on the bigger holding pools looking for bigger fish -- I was not disapointed.

When my 1-wt nearly doubled over I knew I had a great fish -- he turned out to be a hair shy of 11 inches!

As I made my way further and further into the beautiful unspoiled darkness of this long SNP Run I was near heaven.   I found that the water flattened out the in the middle three fifths, still gorgeous water but more shallow runs and less pooling.    One of the easy secrets to this stream is to fish it from the top when the water is high and from the bottom when the water is low so you can enjoy the magnicent pools and if you don't get to the very middle -- no worries.

I didn't catch many small brookies today. I caught many in the 8 inch range and 4 more than 10 inches!   Great fishing, they seemed to hit equally on the dry and dropper.   I'm trying my best to wet my hands before touching these jewels and if I take them out of the water at all its only for the shortest period of time.

You can see the more gradual nature of this run with yet another near perfect pool.

One of the lessons I re-learned is to slow down and fish the bottom of the pool before I spook it, because spook them I did on several occasions as I greedily sought a casting angle to the top of the pool.   Yes: the biggest trout in the pool are in the top of the pool feeding station, but the tail channels funnel food too and almost always hold eager trout. 

Yes -- no kidding the specks were big today

This photo reminded me of the classic gaping mouth Jaws photo --dorsal fin and all

 I've had a double before with smallies, but I'm not sure ever with trout -- until today.   When I caught the first trout on the dry school of his friends kept following him, this played out right in front of me, and one of them decided to hit the dropper and go along for the ride.    Both released unharmed.

I stopped my ascent after my 50th trout and knees barking I  headed back down the path.   I'd covered another mile of the stream, so there's still 2 remote miles unexplored, perhaps I'll do an over nighter  to check those off the list.   As I headed back I decided to see how far downstream trout remain dense.   I slipped back in the water at the boulder-pools where I'd first started my fishing on this run.  The deep pools and glides here are amazing, hard to access as they're squeezed between two moss-slick gorge walls.  With diminishing returns, I caught another 8 in this section as I hung on to roots braking trail, almost an arm, and made my way downstream.  I made it all the way down till I could see the first residence then hand over hand climbed a feeder stream to make it out of the gorge back to the trail.   This was exhasting but verified to me that the best fishing on this run starts with the boulder pools about 25-min into the hike. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing this adventure