The Waiting Game

Spawning time for the brookies can be a tough time for a mountain trout guy. We want to give our native trout the best chance we can for a successful procreation and as much as we want to get up in the hills - we don't. Stomping around in the streams and disturbing the fish could cost us countless fish in upcoming years, so we're forced to play the waiting game. Even the spring creeks down in the valleys aren't fishing very well right now, so the die hard wild trout angler is forced into action in less desirable locations. It's either that or not fish at all and that's not a very hard choice.

So Marty and I hit up the delayed harvest water in Waynesboro this morning in the hopes of at least tangling with a few stockers. Two pitiful washed out rainbows and a few fall fish later, we decided to high tail it over to one of the spring creeks thinking that at least it wouldn't be any worse. Things weren't much better and we both took a skunking on our favorite summer haunt. We had a couple flashes and follows on streamers and I briefly hooked up with a nice brown but it wasn't to be. I would call it a wasted day but for a juicy piece of intel we received from one of the owners of the local fly shop...more on that later.

I really hope the brookies are almost done gettin' busy because I'm tired of the waiting game.