It was overcast, without any clear hatch, and pretty crowded that afternoon. Without much to go on I tied on a #16 Mr. Rapidan and almost immediately hooked into a small brook trout. I hooked into another one in the next pool, but he threw the hook right as I was bringing him ashore (I really need that net). Moving upstream I ran into another fisherman and a big group camping at the second bridge who had pretty well spooked everything in the area. Not being able to leave well enough alone I came back right before sunset and caught another fish in the same pool on the same set-up. It was great to be able to dash back and forth from our campsite, but I was pretty fortunate to find fish in this heavily pressured section.
The next morning we packed up our campsite and wandered to the less pressured section above the second bridge. We ran into a great pool just 20 yards above the bridge where I had gotten some good bites the night before. I settled in again with my trusty Mr. Rapidan with my wife on camera duty and enjoying the great spring weather with a good book. She didn't have long to wait before I had another great dry fly take. It was another small fish, but she took the best picture of any of my trips to make up for it. We landed the last of the day in the next pool up, but unfortunately in the process of releasing it my tippet broke and it took my best fly away. We didn't have any more luck on different dry-dropper rigs and packed it in early.
This was by far my best trip to the rapidan and even though the fish don't pull like the rainbows at beaver creek the scenery and camping make it one of my favorite places.
I will be doing a post on local blogs, and you will be featured, the post will be published tomorrow, on my blog...www.devinsfishingreports.com.
ReplyDeleteNice fish, going there in June to hopefully get some action on terrestrials.