I left after work Friday afternoon around 6pm and was pleased to find all the Friday traffic had passed making for smooth sailing all the way to camp. I didn't end up having a co-pilot so I opted for a seasoned companion... my dog, Sandi!
We arrived at camp around 10:30pm to join my buddies Chris and Meghan. After a few beers and alot of fishy talk we called it a night.
Saturday morning we woke up and posted up on the edge of George Washington National forest for the first hour to see if we could find a lucky turkey since it was opening day. We did not.... so switching gears we headed back to camp, cooked a little breakfast and hit the road for a couple of new spots that I had researched and wanted to try fishing.
First spot did not produce anything but a couple lost lures and almost stepping on a water snake... Back on the road again for us!
Something amazing about driving through winding mountain roads to find a stream in the middle of nowhere that you have never seen just hoping to find fish..... and we did.
Upon arriving at our second destination, we were pleased to find a stream unoccupied by oodles of fisherman, none to be exact. We offically had a beautiful section of mountain stream all to ourselves. From that point for about the next 3 hours I managed to hook into a pile of fish and had misses on just as many. On days like that it is hard to pull yourself away but it was getting to be afternoon and the gang was hungry so we called it a day. I had my 6 fish limit and caught a total of 15 trout and one river chub ALL on my own DucknBuck Lures.
That night we gutted our fish, seasoned the ouside of them with curry powder, cayenne, black pepper, garlic, and salt. While I was doing this Chris was cutting us a few sticks to hang the fish over the fire. Being our first attempt at cooking trout directly over the fire, we weren't sure how they would turn out. We were pleasantly surprised! The seasoning soaked through the skin but kept all the ash from getting on the meat. Probably the best trout I have ever prepared hands down!
After copious amounts of alcohol along with dinner and smores for dessert, we devised a plan to an early morning but after calling it a night at around 3am no one was stirring until at least 8am. I packed camp and made my way towards home scouting a few new spots on the way home.A Great trip everyone should try at least once!
Some tips to making your experience the most enjoyable:
Make sure there isn't heavy rain a few days before or during your trip. This will lead to HIGH water that resembles super fast flowing chocolate milk that is completely unfishable. Plus camping in the rain is no fun anyways.
Always carry a spare reel, plenty of lures, and a spool of replacement line. When casting into fast moving water all day line twist will happen and eventually you will need to respool your pole. SMALL INLINE SWIVELS ARE A MUST and will greatly reduce if not eliminate twisting.
Look the at the DGIF website prior to going. They have some great resources to make your trip a success. There is a whole guide to trout fishing VA on there as well as when and where they have stocked trout. While you are there buy your Trout stamp. That money is what goes into making the program work so do your part if you want to partake.
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