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Showing posts from April, 2015

Winter's lasting grip

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If you look closely at this photo, you can see a handful of snowflakes that were leftover on the deck from the few flurries we had last night. Many higher elevation places had more significant snow showers yesterday.  Here in the middle Appalachians, we can get spoiled by 70 degree days like we had last week, so when we get cold rains (or even snow) and 30 degree temperatures folks get taken aback.  The average last frost date for Morgantown is still almost 2 weeks away, and for the high mountains is more like a month away. You can see from the greenery in the photo that spring is certainly here, but spring for Mountaineers doesn't guarantee 60- or even 50-degree weather. Soon enough though, winter will finally lose it's grip...

Small Stream Trouting 4/4/15

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For our first outing of the year, Roger and I headed to the Savage River in western Maryland. We started on the trophy section below the reservoir, but after fishing methodically for several hours, we decided to jump up above the reservoir to fish a tributary for native brook trout. The water temps above the lake were slightly warmer, and this, combined with some clear skies and strong spring sun warmed the water enough that the trout were hungry and feeding. We caught 18 trout in about 3.5 hours, each of us landing 9. All were smaller brook trout (< 8") with the exception of one 11" stocked rainbow that ran up from the river into this small tributary. We both were using double beadhead nymph rigs, and as long as you got a good drift the fish didn't seem to care which exact pattern you were floating past them. Here are some pictures of the day... Serene Small but pretty First brookie of the year Hemlocks Rhododendrons Cannibal - th

Fishing Journal

I've tried several different approaches to keeping journals and logs of my fishing over the years. I enjoy looking back at these logs and they are certainly informative for planning future trips. So far, I have been unable to really stick with a single logging format for very long. I guess this is my own fault for simply not being devoted to keeping track of things. The best free, online option I've found is http://www.mydailyfishinglog.com/  . This website is oriented slightly toward flyfishing, but the framework is flexible enough to use for any type of fishing logs. There is even the option to attach pictures to each individual log entry. The best part is that it is 100% free, all you have to do is create a username to login. In the past I've also tried creating my own log forms in Excel. The advantage to doing this is that I can customize my log entry fields to precisely what I what, but the interface and ease of use is not quite the same as the online entry optio

Early Spring Trout Fishing

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As spring quickly approaches, many folks begin to long to break the winter blues by hitting their favorite trout streams. Trout are coldwater fish and are definitely more active and catchable in cold water than other Mountain State fish, which is why they are pursued in the colder months. While trout are easier than warmwater fish to catch in cold water, they are definitely not immune to inactivity during especially cold water. Here are a few tips I've found to help me make the most of my late winter or early spring fishing trips. Early spring ice formation on a wild trout stream in western MD. Fish spring fed creeks and rivers. Streams with large spring influences stay much warmer in winter than freestone creeks. Springs in West Virginia usually discharge at around 50 degrees year-round, so fishing creeks and rivers with spring influence will have much more active fish than streams that may be hovering around freezing. In WV, the Elk River is the most well known and access