Rapidan, Camp hoover section, 4.15.12

I was fortunate enough to steal some more time for trout fishing in celebration of the unofficial end of my third year of medical school! After a relaxing morning in Charlottesville my wife and I made the drive up to the rapidan WMA for a night of car camping. Much to her chagrin I had to break out the rod mere moments after we'd set up camp to try out the water near our campsite below the second bridge.

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.

Beaver Creek - 3/31

After a long time away from Charlottesville I finally had the chance to get back out on

the water during my free weekend on surgery. My roommate, David, and I were determined to finally hook into a good sized trout after chasing brookies all last fall. We took to the road at 0500 with some high octane gas station coffee to make absolutely sure we got the much coveted Beaver Creek passes. We made it to the store just as it opened and were

at the water as the sun was coming up.

We crossed the bridge and took a right to the first calm, deep pool. We split our strategies initially with me trying a dry dropper rig and David working a small streamer. We weren't having much luck, but as the sun came up we started seeing more fish rising. David made the wise choice to switch to a #14 Adams and immediately hooked into one of the fat rainbows that beaver is known for. Right after releasing the first he caught another beauty on the next cast. I'd seen enough of David catching fish and quickly tied on the same pattern and after a few casts close to the cut bank I caught the biggest fish of the day. It was my third trip to beaver and my first time landing one of these beauties who seem to have a knack for throwing hooks.

After a successful morning we grabbed some sandwiches at the Ottobine Country store and quickly got back on the water. David and I roped in one more each, but the winds picked up in the afternoon and we were hooking more shrubs than fish. I switched to a wooly bugger and false-hooked one more good sized rainbow. He really didn't enjoy the hook in his side which made for a great fight on 6x tippet. We tried a few more spots before

the wind drove us out.

All in all it was an incredible day to start back into spring fishing. We didn't see anything hatching, but this was my first day of real dry fly fishing. Who cares if they're stocked fish if you can have this much fun for this cheap.