Little Stony (5.1.10)

Spring is in full force, and the brookies are hungry and active.

This morning I ventured over to Little Stony (a short 20 minute drive), next to the Cascades trail, with my classmate and friend Will. March Browns are hatching, but I didn't see too many flies. As it tends to be with Brookies, they will take any reasonable fly presented decently well, and I had some success with tan X-Caddis. I later changed to a size 16 March Brown to see if I could entice any of the local rainbows that the stream also harbors. For such a beautiful day, the action was surprisingly slow, and during the 3 or so hours we were on the river, I managed only to catch about a dozen. Many of the really 'fishy' spots and pools went without an acknowledgement of life, while the smaller pockets in between the larger pools seemed to produce more fish. In this way it felt like someone had already fished the section we chose. That's my excuse anyway... Luckily on my way back to the car to grab a bite to eat, I stopped in one of the good looking pools close to the trail and caught a beautiful fat 9 inch brookie that had possibly the reddest side stripe I have ever seen. I have a good bit to learn about this stream, and I think it will take some exploring both below and above the cascades to find out the best sections and what works well. Being a nice Saturday morning, the hikers were out in full, and I noticed that many areas of the trail get really close to the stream, so much so that I think that all the kids running around may actually put down a lot of fish in some of those better pools. Even Will pointed that out as we walked back to the car. It makes me wonder how the river fishes during the week, when less hikers are barraging the stream.

Little Stony is a great mountain freestone stream. True, it costs $3 to park at the head of the trail, but the river is very reminiscent of the Rapidan and Rose rivers (of better known reputation), and the trail is as well maintained as any I know of in the state. That said, it was another welcome day away from studying and a fun day on the river.