Rose River SNP 3/5/2011

Kyle and I had been talking about hitting up some new brook trout water for a week, so by Saturday morning I was itching to get up to the park. He knew that I had to round with my team that morning, so it would be touch-and-go about what time we'd head out. After presenting my newly admitted patients from call the night before, my chief resident told me to take off around 1100. Luckily I got the nod when I did, because if I hadn't called Kyle and Cameron then they might not have turned around to come pick me up. Thanks guys, you're the best.

The plan was to briefly check out the Rose as a test run before tackling the road over the mountain to the upper Rapidan. After 20 minutes on the Rose the word "Rapidan" was wiped from our vocabulary for the day. We spooked about 25 brookies that day wading the absolutely gorgeous pools and surprisingly deep runs. Still being early in the season with temps teetering in the upper 50s/low 60s the bite really only turned on for about 45 minutes in the late afternoon and only in the deep pools on heavy nymphs. I'm sure that this place will be on fire in another month or so given the number of fish we saw on a lukewarm day.

A few things make the Rose really stand out in my mind. First, I like that the river is far from the trail. No Toykyo Drift style neon green Honda Civics with huge spoilers bumping along the streamside road a la the Rapidan. You need to do a fair amount of bushwhacking to get to the stream which keeps the mood much more serene. Also, the section we fished is fairly wide with great structure provided by larger rocks in the middle of the stream bed. Couple that with the deeper than average runs, and dry fly season should be huge with fish likely ambushing your fly from many angles. I can't wait to come back to this place.